Former West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Neely is returning to politics, running again for the West Virginia Supreme Court.
He left the State Supreme Court after serving on it for 22 years to go back into private practice, but he says he wants to run again because he believes it is in disarray.
For him, it was a combination of the court’s backlog and the recent scandal where all five were impeached for corruption, overspending, and oversight which he says is only a symptom of the underlying issues with the court.Â
“The court needs to get things done quickly. It needs to get appeals done fairly, but quickly. The lower courts need to be organized in such a way that work gets done,” Neely said.Â
Neely said that he wants to see more attention focused on the magistrate courts and what he sees as the “hardest working court in the state” and that’s family court.Â
He will be running in Division 1 against Tim Armstead and David Hummel, Jr.