W. Va. Code § 62-1-5

This is the official text of W. Va. Code § 62-1-5, part of West Virginia’s Va. Code — part of the compiled statutory law of West Virginia, published by the state as "Va. Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§62-1-5. Same -- Delivery of prisoner before magistrate; complaint for person arrested without warrant; return.

Official statutory text

(a) (1) An officer making an arrest under a warrant issued upon a complaint, or any person making an arrest without a warrant for an offense committed in his presence or as otherwise authorized by law, shall take the arrested person without unnecessary delay before a magistrate of the county where the arrest is made.

(2) If a person arrested without a warrant is brought before a magistrate, a complaint shall be filed forthwith in accordance with the requirements of rules of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

(3) An officer executing a warrant shall make return thereof to the magistrate before whom the defendant is brought.

(b)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, if a person arrested without a warrant is brought before a magistrate prior to the filing of a complaint, a complaint shall be filed forthwith in accordance with the requirements of rules of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and the issuance of a warrant or a summons to appear is not required.

(2) When a person appears initially before a magistrate either in response to a summons or pursuant to an arrest with or without a warrant, the magistrate shall proceed in accordance with the requirements of the applicable provisions of the rules of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.