Time legislators do Monongalia justice: Bill to add a fifth magistrate to court long overdue in light of ballooning caseload

What’s politics got to do with justice?
Good question, but the answers, as you would expect, are not nearly as good.
For now, there are 158 magistrates serving the state — at least two in each of its counties. The rest are strewn among larger and some smaller counties.
The only constitutional mandate the Legislature is under is to ensure there is a magistrate court in each of the state’s 55 counties
Every county is entitled to two magistrates and current code requires the state Supreme Court to set the numbers (make recommendations?) based mostly on population with some provision for caseload.
However, it is ultimately the Legislature’s call to change how magistrates are allotted. How many magistrates it assigns to those counties is where things get … political.
So, no need to sweat population and caseloads if your House or Senate district is represented by a powerful committee chair or legislative leader.
Last month, SB 261 was introduced in the Legislature to set the number of magistrates in each county in code, replacing the tangled language letting the high court to do so.
The bill would also reduce the number of magistrates to 148, saving the states more than $550,000 yearly.
Monongalia County’s four magistrates have the second highest caseload — more than 2,300 each in 2018 — in the state. Only Putnam County’ caseload is higher — more than 3,000 among its three magistrates.
When the bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday it made room for six counties to pick up an additional magistrate while others stand to lose one, including Preston, going from three to two and Marion from four to three.
Though we do not endorse the loss of magistrates in Marion and Preston counties, the impact this bill will have on Monongalia County is cannot be overstated.
This is no simple matter of just relieving overworked magistrates or providing for fairer work loads.
When dockets are clogged with hundreds of cases, their disposition — that should take six weeks — can take six months. Monongalia’s magistrate courts have been mired in this situation for way too long and a change is long overdue.
Though politics has a way of skewing any and all facts, it should not ever be mistaken for justice.
We urge the Legislature allot an additional magistrate to Monongalia’s magistrate courts.
The kinds of cases being heard, the population and even demographic data should factor into these allotments.
But the number of cases being heard should carry extra weight in how magistrates are allotted.
The fact justice is delayed because of this caseload, results in the perception it’s denied.
That should weigh on everyone’s conscience.