Chief Justice asks legislature for judgeship additions and rural courthouse stabilization fund
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Chief Justice John Kittredge told a Senate subcommittee the judiciary needs four additional resident circuit judgeships, permanent funding for court interpreters, and a rural courthouse stabilization fund (Bamberg cited) to address growing backlogs and aging infrastructure.
Chief Justice John Kittredge told the Senate Law Enforcement Subcommittee that the South Carolina judiciary needs new judgeships and targeted capital funding to reduce mounting case backlogs and shore up rural courthouses.
Kittredge, thanking the General Assembly for prior support, said a recent change to pay active retired judges has substantially increased their use: "In 2025 after July 1... retired judges held court 354 times," a 109% increase over the comparable period in 2024, he said, and called that “making a huge difference.”
Kittredge asked for three recurring and two nonrecurring budget actions. Recurring requests included a one‑time payment to the retirement system to equalize family court judges’ pay with circuit court judges (approximately $4,000,000 to the retirement system) and reclassification of five temporary court‑interpreter positions as permanent FTEs (funding already available). He also asked to add four resident circuit judgeships to address localized backlogs and population growth.
He specified the circuits and reasoning for each new judgeship: a resident judgeship in the 15th Circuit (Horry and Georgetown Counties) to respond to fast growth and a backlog of more than 16,500 cases; restoring a third resident judge in the 10th Circuit (Anderson and Oconee) after an at‑large judge retirement; adding a resident judge in the 6th Circuit (Chester, Lancaster, Fairfield) where only one resident judge remains and pending cases approach 10,000; and assigning a resident judge to Kershaw County within the 5th Circuit (Richland and Kershaw) to address a severe criminal backlog there.
On nonrecurring items, Kittredge requested $20,000,000 to continue the trial‑court case management project (supplementing last year’s appropriation) and proposed a rural county courthouse stabilization fund to help smaller counties repair or replace problematic facilities. He cited Bamberg Courthouse—left inoperable by a 2022 storm and currently using an improvised armory facility—as a primary example of a county in need.
Committee members pressed for details about allocations and staffing for retired judges. Kittredge said court administration is planning roving law clerks to support retired judges who travel and handle heavy dockets, and that the judiciary prefers data‑driven decisions on adding judgeships rather than automatic expansion.
No formal action or vote was recorded during the presentation; Kittredge concluded by asking the committee to reaffirm prior provisos, propose a statutory amendment or, if needed, a proviso to achieve the family/circuit salary equalization, and to consider deleting proviso 57.2 whose purpose he said has been completed.
The committee moved next to presentations from agency directors; the chairman said he would follow up with Kittredge on details as budget deliberations continue.