Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Judicial Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Judicial leaders ask lawmakers to equalize family-court pay, add judges and fund case-management upgrades
Summary
South Carolina’s judicial branch asked the House Ways and Means constitutional subcommittee for salary parity between family and circuit court judges, four new circuit judgeships, reclassification of interpreter positions and $20 million to continue a statewide case-management system, citing increased use of retired judges and growing filings.
Chief Justice Kittredge told the House Ways and Means constitutional subcommittee that recent changes to retired-judge compensation have materially increased the courts’ ability to handle caseloads.
"Has it made a difference? The answer is absolutely," Kittredge said, adding that retired judges "held court 354 times through December," a 109% increase from the same period the previous year. He said the change helps address backlogs as South Carolina’s population and filings grow.
Kittredge asked lawmakers to approve several recurring and nonrecurring requests. For recurring funds he sought equalization of family court judge salaries with circuit court counterparts, noting a current gap of about $5,800 and characterizing the required increase as roughly 2.7%. He said implementing the pay parity would require a one-time payment of approximately $4 million to the retirement system.
He also requested four additional resident circuit court judges "assigned to particular circuits," and asked the committee to reclassify five temporary court-interpreter positions and one temporary bar-admissions position to permanent FTEs, saying the funding already exists and only classification is needed.
On nonrecurring spending, Kittredge requested $20 million to continue the trial court case-management system project. He said the branch still believes a conservative total project cost is $100 million and that last year the House initially awarded $45 million before the amount was reduced and later adjusted.
Kittredge also sought roughly $20 million for a county courthouse stabilization fund, citing the Bamberg county courthouse as an example of a rural facility in need of repair to maintain local court operations. He concluded by asking the committee to reaffirm most previous provisos, highlight a new proviso tied to the salary-equalization request and delete proviso 57.2 related to Calhoun Building office space because those funds had been redirected.
Representative Davy Hyatt pressed for details about where retired judges were being assigned and how the program works in practice. Kittredge said the active-retired judges are serving in both circuit and family court, that roughly 15 judges have agreed to serve, and that the legislature set the compensation at about $50 per hour (characterized as about $2,000 for a week of court).
