Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
Docketing Statement
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. A docketing statement must be filed for every civil and criminal case appealed to the Supreme Court
of Appeals. A docketing statement is not required for petitions for appeal from administrative
tribunals, petitions for certified question review, petitions for post-conviction bail, or petitions for
original jurisdiction relief.
2. The docketing statement must be attached to the original and each copy of the petition for appeal,
including those served upon opposing counsel or parties unrepresented by counsel. The docketing
statement must be in the form approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals or in a substantially similar
form. Abbreviations may be used in the case style portion of the docketing statement.
3. The attorney filing the petition for appeal is responsible for filing the docketing statement, even if
different counsel will handle the appeal.
4. Only one docketing statement shall be filed for each petition for appeal. In the case of multiple
petitioners joining in one petition for appeal, the parties should confer and decide who will file the
docketing statement.
5. The nature of proceedings and relief sought should be stated summarily. The docketing statement is
not a brief and should not contain argument or motions. The issues should be expressed in terms and
circumstances of the case but without unnecessary detail. Conclusory statements such as "the
judgment of the trial court is not supported by the law or facts" are unacceptable.
6. Counsel or parties unrepresented by counsel should make every effort to include in the docketing
statement all of the issues to be presented to the Supreme Court of Appeals. Failure to include all
issues or the manner of presenting issues in the docketing statement, however, will not affect the
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Appeals to consider the issues as presented in the petition.
7. If a respondent concludes that the docketing statement is inaccurate or incomplete, such inaccuracies
or omissions should be addressed in the response to the petition for appeal.
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