Rule 1.01 Matters of Statewide Concern

Here's a plain English summary of this rule:

West Virginia has one set of rules that apply to every court in the state, no matter where you live or which county your case is in. These include the Rules of Civil Procedure, the Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the Trial Court Rules. Courts across the state must follow these same rules.

This means individual courts or counties cannot create their own local rules that conflict with the statewide rules. If a local court has a rule that says something different from the statewide rules, the statewide rules win out. The local rule gets pushed aside.

For anyone involved in a court case, this matters because it creates consistency. You can expect the same basic procedures to apply whether your case is heard in one county or another. It also means lawyers and people representing themselves do not have to guess which set of rules applies. The statewide rules always take priority when there is a conflict.