Today I'll be posting summaries of the 66 opinions issued by the West Virginia Supreme Court in the January 2008 term of court. Of those opinions, 26 were signed opinions setting forth new points of law in syllabus points, and 40 opinions were per curiam opinions. I know it's been a long time since there was an update to this site, due to other duties in the past six months.

STATE v. DANIEL B. BINGMAN, No. 33299 (Per Curiam)(Starcher, J., dissenting)(Albright, J., dissenting)(October 26, 2007). Affirming a conviction and sentence imposed by the Circuit Court of Gilmer County upon conviction for one count of petit larceny in violation of W. Va. Code 61-3-13(b). The indictment for grand larceny occurred more than one year after the offense. Holding that defense counsel failed to object to jury instructions on the lesser-included offense, thereby waiving any statute of limitations defense that could be asserted, in accord with rule announced in syllabus point 3 of STATE v. BOYD, 209 W. Va. 90, 543 S.E.2d 647 (2000).

Throughout the day, I'll be posting the summaries of all 58 opinions issued in the September 2007 term of court. All told, there were 42 per curiam opinions and 16 signed opinions.

The first six opinions of the September 2007 term of court were released today, and are available at this link.

Summaries of all 62 opinions issued in the January 2007 term of court are now posted. The summaries are in three groups. Issue 91, posted on March 2, 2007, contains summaries of the first ten opinions of the term. Issue #92, posted August 22, contains summaries of 45 opinions. Finally, Issue #93, posted August 28, contains seven opinion summaries that were inadvertently omitted from Issue #92.

The opinion summaries are also available on three general category pages: Civil, Criminal, and Family.

The first court day of the September term will take place on September 11th, with a Motion Docket and Argument Docket. Most of the dockets and briefs are now posted on the September calendar page.

Today I'll be posting the contents of Issue #92 of the opinion summary service. The most recent issue covers the last 45 opinions issued in the January 2007 term of court.

The Court today refused to issue a rule to show cause in State ex rel. WV Family Foundation v. Musgrave. The vote was 3-2, Justice Starcher and Benjamin would grant.

The initial response to the petition for writ of mandamus was filed today.

The Court today refused the motion to expedite filed by the petitioners in State ex rel. West Virginia Family Foundation v. Musgrave. The vote was 3-2, Justices Starcher and Albright would grant the motion. In accordance with Rule 14(b) of the Rules of Appellate Procedure, the respondent now has an opportunity to respond to the petition on or before May 16th, 2007. Thereafter, as is usual in these types of cases, the Court will take up the petition at a regularly scheduled Miscellaneous Motion conference on May 23rd, 2007. At that time, the Court will decide whether to issue a Rule to Show Cause, meaning that the Court would hear oral argument, or whether to refuse the petition.

The respondent in State ex rel. West Virginia Family Foundation v. Musgrave has filed a response in opposition to the motion to expedite. The Court is expected to rule on the motion to expedite later this week.