Rule 5.01 Purpose

When lawyers or judges have scheduling conflicts because they need to be in more than one court at the same time, this rule helps sort out which case takes priority. It applies to conflicts between state and federal courts in West Virginia, including magistrate courts, trial courts, appellate courts, and bankruptcy courts.

The goal is to make sure every court in the state handles these scheduling conflicts the same way. Instead of each court deciding on its own how to resolve a scheduling clash, everyone follows the same set of rules. This keeps things fair and predictable for lawyers, parties in a case, and the courts themselves when calendars overlap.