Judge John D. Beane
Fourth Judicial Circuit (Wood County)

Judge J.D. Beane was appointed to the circuit court bench in 2006, was elected in 2008, and was re-elected in 2016 and 2024.
Judge Beane served as Chief Circuit Judge from 2011 to 2020. He has been appointed to serve on the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia when a justice has been recused, and he is a former member of the Judicial Investigation Commission.
Judge Beane attended Wood County public schools. He graduated from West Virginia University and Capital University Law School in Columbus. He attended summer law programs at Ohio State University College of Law and Oxford University. He was in private practice in Parkersburg for 16 years before he was appointed to the bench.
He was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1990 to 2006. In the House, he served on the following committees: Government Organization (Chairman), Joint Committee on Government Operations (Co-Chairman), Insurance (Chairman), Banking (Vice-Chairman), Judiciary, Finance, Constitutional Revisions, Industry and Labor, Joint Committee on Interstate Cooperation (Co-Chairman), Rules, and West Virginia Law Institute. Then-Governor Bob Wise appointed him to the Governors Cabinet on Children and Families and the Commission on Governing in the Twenty-First Century.
While a legislator, he also served on the following regional and national committees: Property and Casualty Insurance, Workers’ Compensation, Subcommittee on National Disasters Insurance Legislation, and the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators; Public Safety and Justice Task Force of the Council of State Governments; Law and Criminal Justice Committee of the National Conference of State Legislators; Human Services and Public Safety Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference.
He is married to Jill L. Redinger.