PARSONS – Students at Tucker County High School attended a West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals session Tuesday at the Tucker County Courthouse. Senior and junior students participated in the Legal Advancement for West Virginia Students, or LAWS program, where they are briefed before the session about cases that will be argued and attend the session to see the WV Supreme Court of Appeals in action.
“If you look at my election, coming from a small county of about 7,000, I was fortunate to win a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals,” Loughry said. “I want to bring the message to all of the students here that they do count and they do matter.”
The LAWS program was established by Justice Robin Jean Davis in 1998. Students are assigned at least one case to study with the help of local volunteer attorneys and on the day of the court visit, students hear the case being argued and attend a debriefing with the attorneys who argued the case.
Chief Justice Allen H. Loughry II said he selected Tucker County as the venue for the program because it was important for him to bring the program to the county where he came from.
“If you look at my election, coming from a small county of about 7,000, I was fortunate to win a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals,” Loughry said. “I want to bring the message to all of the students here that they do count and they do matter.”
Loughry said he wants students to realize they can achieve any dream as long as they work hard and play by the rules.
“Today we are hearing three different cases, and they are real cases,” Loughry said. “The students have been working with these cases with volunteer attorneys and local judges for several months. I spent yesterday talking with the students and it was very refreshing. The students were very engaged and they asked wonderful questions.”
After asking about the positives the students found in the program, he asked for any complaints they had. The one complaint he received was the student felt he did not get to spend enough time working with the cases.
Loughry said he hopes he sends the message students can do anything they set their minds to doing.
“Whatever their interest is in life or in school, I want them to know they can achieve any of their goals,” Loughry.
Loughry, who is a Tucker County High School graduate with the class of 1988, used to work at the Parsons Advocate.
“I started the Parsons Advocate’s first full time sports section while playing sports in high school,” Loughry said. “I generally would not use my own name within the story when writing.”
Loughry said he thinks it is very important for students to be exposed to the Judicial Branch of government.
“We are often times the less understood branch because we are not a political branch. While we do run for office to become Justices, Magistrates or Judges, we have to be apolitical in everything we do. The Executive and Legislative branches are entitled to be political. But we treat everyone equally regardless of any political affiliation.”
He said exposing students to the Judicial Branch of government is a pleasure.
“It’s great to let them know what we do,” Loughry said.
Tucker County High School senior Elizabeth Nichols said she enjoyed the opportunity to see the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in action.
“It was very interesting to me,” Elizabeth said. “They were very good to keep us up to date on what was going on with the cases and I thought it was eye opening. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to experience something like that.”
Elizabeth said when the lawyers were finished presenting their arguments they were able to ask questions.
“The lawyers went into depth about what they had to do to get to the Supreme Court of Appeals,” Elizabeth said. “We had an understanding of what was really going on. The past three weeks we had some of the attorneys who came up twice a week and explained the cases to us so we understood what we would be seeing. At the actual hearings, we had a program that explained the cases and what the attorneys would be talking about.”
Elizabeth said they anticipate they will receive the outcomes of the three hearings before they graduate in May.
Additional information about the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals is available online at www.courtswv.gov.
