How West Virginia handles a case

What happens after an arrest anywhere in West Virginia: who decides release first, how fast a person sees a judge, which courts hear the case, and who runs the offices around them. Every county in the state works under these rules.

From arrest to court

Who decides release first: A county magistrate sets bail first, with an on-call magistrate for arrests after hours. Magistrates need not be lawyers. Only the circuit court can release a person charged with an offense punishable by life in prison.
W. Va. Code 62-1C-1 W. Va. Code 62-1-5
Time to see a judge: An officer must take an arrested person "without unnecessary delay" before a magistrate of the county where the arrest happened. The law sets no number of hours.
W. Va. Code 62-1-5(a)(1)
Money bail: Magistrates and judges may set money bail.
W. Va. Code 62-1C-1
Pretrial risk assessment: Within three days of a person's arrest and jailing, the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation must score the person with a risk assessment instrument the state Supreme Court approved. It sends the result to the magistrate or judge.
W. Va. Code 15A-5-7 W. Va. Code 62-11F-4
Courts: Circuit courts try all felonies and some misdemeanors and hear appeals from the lower courts. Magistrate courts in every county hear most misdemeanors and hold preliminary hearings in felony cases. Municipal courts hear city ordinance violations.
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Circuit Courts Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Magistrate Courts
Judges and magistrates: Voters elect circuit judges in nonpartisan elections for eight-year terms, and circuit judges must have practiced law for five years. Voters elect magistrates in nonpartisan elections for four-year terms. The state constitution bars requiring magistrates to be lawyers, and the law asks only for a high school education.
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Circuit Courts Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Magistrate Courts W. Va. Code 50-1-4
Prosecutors: Voters in each county elect a prosecuting attorney, who handles the state's criminal cases in that county.
W. Va. Code 7-4-1
Public defense: Nineteen public defender corporations, nonprofits created by statute, serve 20 of the state's 30 judicial circuits. In the other circuits, courts appoint private panel attorneys for every case.
West Virginia Public Defender Services, About Public Defender Corporations
Jails: The state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation runs regional jails that hold each county's prisoners. Counties pay the division a daily rate for each person they send.
West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Jails Billing Information W. Va. Code 15A-5-7

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Some of this is medium confidence and still being checked. The name of the Supreme Court-approved risk instrument was not found. Whether jailers release on a bail schedule without a magistrate was not found.