How to Complete and Submit the West Virginia Court Disposition Report (CDR)

The West Virginia Court Disposition Report, filed on WVSP Form 29, is the document that records the final outcome of a criminal case and sends it to the West Virginia State Police Criminal Identification Bureau (CIB). The arresting officer fills out the top of the form at the time of fingerprinting; the court clerk completes the bottom once the case ends in a verdict, plea, or dismissal. The original goes to the CIB, one copy stays with the court, and one copy goes back to the arresting officer.¹

Where to Get Form 29

WVSP Form 29 is available as a downloadable PDF on the West Virginia State Police website.¹ The West Virginia Judiciary publishes a companion manual, “Criminal Records in West Virginia: Roles and Responsibilities,” that walks officers and clerks through each field.² When a magistrate court case is bound over to circuit court, the CDR follows the case up rather than being completed at the magistrate level.

What the Arresting Officer Fills Out

The officer completes the top portion at the time fingerprints are taken. Everything must be typed or printed legibly.¹ The required fields are:

Case ID Number generated by the LiveScan or ink card fingerprint submission. If this is blank when the file reaches the clerk, the clerk should contact the officer to have it filled in before the form is sent.
Full legal name (last, first, middle), any alias, Social Security Number, date of birth, street address, race, sex, height, and weight.
Date of arrest, arresting officer’s name, officer ID or PID, and the law enforcement agency.
The specific criminal charge at the time of arrest. Do not write “warrant,” “summons,” or a case number in this field. Record the actual charge.²
Checkboxes indicating whether the charge is a felony, whether the defendant is a juvenile charged as an adult, whether the defendant is a fugitive, and whether fingerprints were taken by LiveScan or another method.

Accuracy in the demographic section matters more than it looks. A wrong name or date of birth can cause the CIB to match the record to the wrong person, or to no one, leaving someone’s criminal history incomplete.

What the Court Clerk Fills Out

Once the case has a final resolution, the clerk completes the bottom half. Before entering any dispositions, the clerk should scan the officer’s section for errors or blanks. The judiciary’s manual says to strike through mistakes and write the correction nearby. Do not use white-out.²

The clerk’s fields are:

County of adjudication, with the appropriate box checked for municipal, magistrate, or circuit court.
Court of jurisdiction and its physical address.
Court case number, which is separate from the Case ID Number the officer entered.
Any charges changed, reduced, or added by the grand jury. Charges added at indictment go on the original CDR below the arrest charges, each marked with an “I” for indictment. If it is unclear which charges were modified during grand jury proceedings, the clerk should check with the prosecutor.²
Date of disposition for each charge. Charges can have different disposition dates, and every charge must have one.

Marking the Disposition and Sentence

The form has up to 24 numbered charge lines. For each charge, the clerk marks exactly one disposition from the checkboxes: found guilty, plea of guilty, no contest (which covers nolo contendere and Kennedy pleas), found not guilty, no probable cause, dismissed (no explanation required), or assessed fine and cost.

In the “Sentence Imposed” space next to the charge, the clerk writes the specifics: jail time, probation, community service, and the duration in hours, days, months, or years. If the court imposed only fines and costs, write “none” in the sentence field. Do not record credit for time served on the CDR.² Do not hold the CDR waiting for the defendant to pay a fine. Submit it as soon as the disposition is entered.

Every Charge Needs a Disposition

A CDR cannot go to the CIB with charges left unresolved. If a bound-over CDR lists charges that were never presented to the grand jury, the clerk should alert the prosecutor so a proper order can be entered to dispose of them.² Gaps on the form become gaps in the person’s criminal history record.

Where to Send It and How Often

Circuit and magistrate clerks mail the completed original CDR to:

West Virginia State Police Headquarters
CIB Division
725 Jefferson Road
South Charleston, WV 25309²

West Virginia Code 15-2-24(g) requires every court handling criminal charges, circuit, magistrate, and municipal, to report dispositions to the CIB at least monthly.² The judiciary encourages clerks to send CDRs immediately after the disposition is finalized rather than batching them, and there is no reason to wait for an appeal period to run before mailing.

Penalties for Not Filing

Filing is not optional. Under West Virginia Code 15-2-24(j), a clerk or official who neglects or refuses to submit required disposition reports commits a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $25 to $200, up to 60 days in jail, or both. The neglect also counts as misfeasance in office and can be grounds for removal.²

Fixing a CDR That Was Wrong

When a previously submitted CDR has an error, a misspelled name, the wrong charge, an incorrect disposition, the clerk files an amended CDR. The form has an “Amended” checkbox that tells the CIB to update the existing record rather than open a new one. State exactly what is being corrected so the CIB can find and change the right entry in the Central Criminal History database.

Amendments are also needed after certain legal changes. If a conviction is reversed on appeal, or a court grants an expungement, the record has to be updated. Under West Virginia Code 61-11-25, when a court orders expungement for someone found not guilty or whose charges were dismissed, every agency holding records of the arrest must certify to the court within 60 days that the expungement is complete.³

Checking That Your Own Record Reflects the CDR

If you are the person named on a CDR and want to confirm the record is right, you can request your West Virginia criminal history through IdentoGO. The State Police no longer runs background checks at headquarters. All personal record requests go through IdentoGO at identogo.com or 855-766-7746.⁴ You schedule a fingerprint appointment, and the fee is approximately $32.50.

If the state record shows an arrest without a disposition, or lists the wrong outcome, start with the circuit clerk in the county that handled the case. The clerk can compare the court file to the sentencing order and file an amended CDR if the record needs to be corrected.⁴

1
West Virginia State Police. West Virginia Court Disposition Report
2
West Virginia Judiciary. Criminal Records in West Virginia: Roles and Responsibilities
3
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 61-11-25 – Expungement of Criminal Records for Those Found Not Guilty of Crimes or Against Whom Charges Have Been Dismissed
4
West Virginia State Police. Criminal Records