Photo by Joselyn King New West Virginia Appellate Court Judge Jim Douglas stands tall after being sworn in to office in Wheeling on Thursday.

WHEELING — New West Virginia Appellate Court Judge Jim Douglas was sworn into office during ceremonies in Wheeling on Thursday.

Douglas has been holding roving swearing-in events across the state, with others taking place in Martinsburg and Charleston. The event Thursday was convened at the Federal Building in Wheeling.

“This was a long time coming,” Douglas told those attending. “I thank you for bringing me here. It was you who made this possible.

“You don’t take on a job like this because it is easy. You do it because it is hard.”

Douglas, who presently serves as a family court judge in Kanawha County, reminded everyone his first name “is Jim, and not Judge.”

Douglas took his oath in Wheeling before U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey of the Northern District of West Virginia, and the two have known each other for years. They attended law school together at West Virginia University.

“It’s a very special moment for me,” Bailey said. “I am swearing in my old law school classmate and former drinking buddy.”

Douglas is the father of Jarod J. Douglas, senior prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia. The younger Douglas introduced his father prior to the swearing-in ceremony.

Other family members also were involved. His grandchildren Helena and Henry Douglas opened the ceremony by leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

Daughter-in-law Miriam Roth Douglas, a professor at West Liberty University, spoke about Douglas before playing on her phone messages of good will to him from her side of the family in Germany.

Ohio County Clerk of Courts Brenda Miller said she did not need notes to reflect on her friendship with Douglas, whom she first met during a state conference in Martinsburg.

“You have to like him,” she said. “People immediately warm up to him.”

His longtime companion Phyllis Veith helped him on with his judicial robe during the ceremony.

Douglas was elected to the court after defeating sitting Judge Dan Greear in the May 12 primary election. Douglas captured 112,862 votes statewide to Greear’s 78,811, according to data from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office.

Douglas was born in Sutton and raised in Charleston and Ivydale in Clay County.

He was elected to the bench in the 11th Family Court Circuit (Kanawha County) in 2016 and was re-elected in 2024.

Douglas also served as Braxton County prosecutor from 1985 to 1988.