---
type: "Bill"
title: "Relating to judicial vacancies"
description: "Relating to judicial vacancies"
jurisdiction: "us/states/wv"
legislature: "West Virginia Legislature"
session: "2022"
identifier: "HB 4785"
citation: "West Virginia HB 4785 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Courts"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Steele"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 41
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2022-02-15"
last_action: "2022-04-19"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7899068b-9a50-43e4-9024-2e707ab1f6f5"
source_url: "http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/Bills_history.cfm?input=4785&year=2022&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill"
source_hash: "939a8a7063b5b46df5f57aa7fe4127be10997600c124aaa76fdc1d976bd11b42"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-wv"]
---

# West Virginia HB 4785 (2022) — Relating to judicial vacancies

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Committee Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB4785%20SUB.htm&yr=2022&sesstype=RS&i=4785)
2. **Enrolled Committee Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB4785%20SUB%20ENR.htm&yr=2022&sesstype=RS&i=4785)
3. **HB4785 S JUD AMT _1 3-2 adopted.htm** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/legisdocs/chamber/2022/RS/com_amends/HB4785 S JUD AMT _1 3-2 adopted.htm)
4. **Introduced Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB4785%20INTR.htm&yr=2022&sesstype=RS&i=4785)

## Votes

- Passage — **30–3** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Steele — primary (person)
- Burkhammer — cosponsor (person)
- Criss — cosponsor (person)
- Foster — cosponsor (person)
- Householder — cosponsor (person)
- Keaton — cosponsor (person)
- Pinson — cosponsor (person)
- Queen — cosponsor (person)
- Riley — cosponsor (person)
- Westfall — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-02-15** Filed for introduction `filing`
- **2022-02-15** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-15** Introduced in House `introduction`
- **2022-02-15** To House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-18** By substitute, do pass
- **2022-02-21** On 1st reading, Special Calendar
- **2022-02-21** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2022-02-22** On 2nd reading, Special Calendar
- **2022-02-22** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2022-02-23** On 3rd reading, Special Calendar
- **2022-02-23** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2022-02-23** Passed House (Roll No. 231) `passage`
- **2022-02-23** Effective from passage (Roll No. 232)
- **2022-02-23** Communicated to Senate
- **2022-02-24** Introduced in Senate `introduction`
- **2022-02-24** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-24** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2022-03-03** Reported do pass, with title amendment `committee-passage`
- **2022-03-04** On 1st reading
- **2022-03-04** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2022-03-07** On 2nd reading
- **2022-03-07** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2022-03-08** On 3rd reading
- **2022-03-08** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2022-03-08** Passed Senate with amended title (Roll No. 388) `passage`
- **2022-03-08** Effective from passage (Roll No. 388)
- **2022-03-08** Senate requests House to concur
- **2022-03-09** House received Senate message
- **2022-03-09** House concurred in Senate title amendment
- **2022-03-09** Passed House (Roll No. 450) `passage`
- **2022-03-09** Effective from passage (Roll No. 451)
- **2022-03-09** Communicated to Senate
- **2022-03-09** Completed legislative action
- **2022-03-10** House Message received
- **2022-03-12** To Governor 3/17/2022 - Senate Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2022-03-12** To Governor 3/17/22 - House Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2022-03-17** To Governor 3/17/22 `executive-receipt`
- **2022-03-12** Approved by Governor 3/28/22 - House Journal
- **2022-03-28** Approved by Governor 3/28/22 `executive-signature`
- **2022-03-12** Approved by Governor 3/28/22 - Senate Journal
- **2022-04-19** Chapter 120, Acts, Regular Session, 2022

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7899068b-9a50-43e4-9024-2e707ab1f6f5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official West Virginia legislature records).