2005 West Virginia Code - §48-9-603. — Effect of enactment; operative dates.

PART 6. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
§48-9-603. Effect of enactment; operative dates.
(a) The enactment of this article, formerly enacted as article eleven of this chapter during the second extraordinary session of the Legislature, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, is prospective in operation unless otherwise expressly indicated.
(b) The provisions of section 9-202, insofar as they provide for parent education and mediation, became operative on the first day of January, two thousand. Until that date, parent education and mediation with regard to custody issues were discretionary unless made mandatory under a particular program or pilot project by rule or direction of the supreme court of appeals or a circuit court.
(c) The provisions of this article that authorize the court, in the absence of an agreement of the parents, to order an allocation of custodial responsibility and an allocation of significant decision-making responsibility became operative on the first day of January, two thousand, at which time the primary caretaker doctrine was replaced with a system that allocates custodial and decision-making responsibility to the parents in accordance with this article. Any order entered prior to the first day of January, two thousand, based on the primary caretaker doctrine remains in full force and effect until modified by a court of competent jurisdiction.