small truck parked near trees
WV Human Rights Act, WV Human Rights Commission, WV Legislation

The West Virginia Human Rights Act has moved!

Leave a comment

This is real­ly just a heads up to oth­er attor­neys. I am still see­ing a lot of lawyers incor­rect­ly cite the West Vir­ginia Human Rights Act to its pri­or location.

The West Vir­ginia had been orig­i­nal­ly cod­i­fied at § 5–11‑1.

Because of the West Vir­ginia leg­is­la­ture reor­ga­niz­ing last year var­i­ous part of the West Vir­ginia Code, the Human Rights Ac t has been relo­cat­ed to W. Va. Code § 16B-17–1.

A bit of detail (prob­a­bly more than you want):

The Leg­is­la­ture relo­cat­ed the Human Rights Act from Chap­ter 5, Arti­cle 11, to Chap­ter 16B, Arti­cle 17, as part of Sen­ate Bill 300, enact­ed in 2024. This move aimed at stream­lin­ing state bureau­cra­cy and align­ing over­sight of agen­cies like the Human Rights Com­mis­sion with new admin­is­tra­tive struc­tures. For exam­ple, the bill placed the Human Rights Com­mis­sion under the Depart­ment of Health’s Office of Inspec­tor Gen­er­al for admin­is­tra­tive sup­port, along­side oth­er enti­ties like the Fos­ter Care Ombuds­man and the Board of Review. This was intend­ed to improve effi­cien­cy, pro­mote com­pli­ance, and cen­tral­ize inves­tiga­tive and reg­u­la­to­ry func­tions, as out­lined in the bill’s text.

The reor­ga­ni­za­tion reflects a broad­er leg­isla­tive effort to enhance admin­is­tra­tive effi­cien­cy and ensure con­sis­tent enforce­ment of anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion laws across the state. By plac­ing the Human Rights Act with­in Chap­ter 16B, the Leg­is­la­ture intend­ed to cen­tral­ize func­tions relat­ed to civ­il rights, poten­tial­ly improv­ing respon­sive­ness and accountability.

As far as I can tell, there were no sub­stan­tive changes to the Human Rights Act at that time.

Drew M. Capuder
Fol­low me:
Lat­est posts by Drew M. Capud­er (see all)

Leave a Reply