West Virginia Code 25-1A-3 – Payment of filing fees and court costs
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code, an inmate may not file with any court of this state a civil action without the payment of filing fees as set forth in this section: Provided, That the collection of the full filing fee is not required before the inmate's claim may be filed and served.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 25-1A-3
- Civil action: means any action or appeal from an action filed by any current or former inmate or his or her personal representative with respect to conditions of confinement, including, but not limited to, petitions for extraordinary writs, civil actions under 42 U. See West Virginia Code 25-1A-1
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Correctional facility: means any county jail, regional jail or any facility operated by the Division of Corrections, the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority or Division of Juvenile Services for the confinement of inmates. See West Virginia Code 25-1A-1
- Inmate: means any person confined in a correctional facility who is accused of, convicted of, sentenced for or adjudicated delinquent for violations of criminal law or the terms and conditions of parole, probation, pretrial release or a diversionary program. See West Virginia Code 25-1A-1
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. Source: OCC
(b) When an inmate seeks to file a civil action as an indigent and requests that customary filing fees and court costs be waived, the clerk of the court in which the inmate has filed his or her complaint shall notify the warden or designated representative of the facility in which the inmate resides of the inmate's request and the amount of filing costs. Once the facility receives notification, the custodian of the inmate's trust account shall immediately compute the average monthly balance of the inmate's trust account over the preceding three-month period and deduct from the inmate's trust account thirty percent of the average balance as a partial filing fee. The custodian shall deduct that same amount or up to thirty percent of the balance of the inmate's trust account, whichever is greater, on a monthly basis until the filing fee is paid in full.
(c) The custodian of the inmate's trust account shall place all funds deducted from the inmate's trust into a special account designated as the "filing fees account," to be established for each correctional facility and to be administered by the custodian and warden or chief administrator of each facility. Biannually the custodian and warden or chief administrator of the filing fees account shall distribute the balance of the account, minus any expense in maintaining that account, to the circuit clerk of the county in which the state correctional facility resides as a filing fee for all suits filed by indigent inmates of that facility.