Please use the information below for communication and correspondence with the Lincoln County Circuit Clerk’s office.
Circuit Clerk
Lincoln County Courthouse
PO Box 338
Hamlin, WV 25523
Phone: (304) 824-7990 Ext. 239
Fax: (304) 824-2011
The Office of the Lincoln County Circuit Clerk is charged with keeping records of every lawsuit filed in circuit court, whether the legal action is Criminal or Civil in nature.
Whether the action is criminal or civil in nature, the Circuit Clerk is responsible for keeping track of the enforcement of the order of the Court, including all fines, penalties, judgments, verdicts, and so forth. The Circuit Clerk maintains a set of books for this purpose. The Circuit Clerk files all court orders, as well as all other records and documents contained in all lawsuits, in permanent record books.
The Circuit Clerk’s records date back to about 1920, shortly after the Courthouse burned, and it will maintain those records, and all new ones, for all posterity. The Staff of the Circuit Clerk can assist you in finding out about any lawsuit in which you have some legitimate interest, whether it is ongoing litigation or 90 years old! Admittedly, some of the very old records are sketchy, due at least in part to the various practices over time.
Charles Brumfield
Circuit Clerk
Civil Lawsuits
A Civil Lawsuit is brought by a plaintiff who believes that he or she has been harmed in some way by a defendant. These can range from personal injury to malpractice to divorce to libel and slander to anything that an individual believes has caused harm and injury to the plaintiff and which is caused by the defendant.
Due to their highly sensitive nature regarding families, certain records and documents contained in divorce actions are among those Circuit Court records that are not open to public scrutiny.
Any individual can represent himself or herself in court. However, as Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said, a lawyer who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. Certainly, it would be prudent in most cases for individuals to be represented by an attorney in court. A company, corporation, church, organization, town or other non-person entity must be represented by legal counsel in all actions in court.
Since many plaintiffs and defendants in divorce actions often represent themselves, generally because of the cost of obtaining legal counsel, the Circuit Clerk provides certain forms approved by the court for use by pro se parties, that is, parties who are not represented by legal counsel. The cost for these forms is $10.00. The filing fee for a divorce action is $135.00. The filing fee for any other civil case is $200.00. Many other court costs and fees, in addition to attorney fees, may be incurred during the course of any litigation.
Besides the subject matter, another huge difference between civil and criminal actions is the burden of proof that the court requires in order for a party to prevail. In criminal matters, the State must convince the jury “beyond all reasonable doubt” that the defendant is guilty before the defendant can be found guilty. In a civil action, on the other hand, generally the jury must only be convinced by a “preponderance of the evidence” (greater than 50%) that the defendant committed the acts charged or caused the damage done. In some civil actions, the proof is somewhere between a mere preponderance and beyond reasonable doubt, which is called “clear and convincing” evidence.
Criminal Lawsuits
The Office of the Lincoln County Circuit Clerk is charged with keeping all records of every lawsuit filed in circuit court, whether the legal action is Criminal or Civil in nature.
A Criminal Lawsuit is brought to Circuit Court by the Prosecuting Attorney, who represents the interests of the State of West Virginia and Lincoln County. Criminal proceedings are instituted in Circuit Court by the Grand Jury returning a “true bill”, or indictment, that charges an individual or company with violating a criminal law. Although a misdemeanor (minor) offense might be a lesser and includable offense within a felony (major crime) indictment, misdemeanors also can end up in Circuit Court on appeal from a conviction in Magistrate Court.
The case file, which the Circuit Clerk is required to keep, maintain and control essentially forever, is comprised of all of the indictments, pleadings, motions, subpoenas, evidence, jury instructions, verdicts and all other important information about the criminal proceeding throughout the course of the proceeding. The Circuit Clerk is the depository for all of this information and, under the Federal Freedom of Information Act and other public records laws, must make these records available to the public for inspection upon request, unless the Circuit Judge or a higher court has entered a lawful order barring public inspection of all or part of the information contained in the file.
The Circuit Clerk also keeps a record of all of the proceedings in a criminal trial, including jury selection; scheduling hearings and jury trials; and generally making sure that all of the business of the Circuit Court is carried out in a lawful, systematic and timely fashion.
Jury selection is not a duty that the Circuit Clerk takes lightly nor is it completed in a whimsical fashion. Rather, the master jury list from which a jury eventually is selected is compiled from Lincoln County voters’ registration records and from the Lincoln County drivers license list furnished by the West Virginia Secretary of State. From this master list, the names are selected randomly by computer. The Circuit Clerk obtains information about each prospective juror, which the attorneys may use to determine whether to strike the juror from the pool or to let the juror serve. Generally, about 16 jurors are selected to serve on grand jury, which is the body that decides whether a person charged with a felony should be indicted and stand trial for the alleged crime. The petit jury panel usually starts out with about 40 persons. When a jury trial begins, the list of petit jurors is used to eventually sit the actual jury that hears and decides the case. First, the State and the Defense can strike potential jurors for good cause shown. Then, once the number is narrowed to 20 potential jurors, each side has a number of no-cause strikes to use to finally limit the number to 12.