Subcommittee advances bill to add four resident circuit judges and approves magistrate fee changes after security discussion

The subcommittee voted to report House Bill 4805 favorably after hearing testimony from the chief justice, who said the measure would add four resident circuit judges and convert several at-large judgeships to resident seats to address local caseloads.

Chief Justice (title used in testimony) told the committee that "We currently have 53 circuit judges in South Carolina. Adding 4 ... would bring us to 57," and argued the first new seat should be designated to Kershaw County to address pressing civil and criminal backlogs. He described additional requested resident seats for the sixth circuit (to give that circuit a second resident judge), the tenth circuit (Anderson and Oconee), and the fifteenth (Horry and Georgetown), citing population and filings data as the drivers of those recommendations.

Erin, committee staff, summarized the bill’s provisions, including converting three at-large circuit court seats (first, third and eighth circuits) and four at-large family court seats to resident seats, and reducing the years of earned service required to vest judicial retirement from 10 to 8 years to align with solicitors and public defenders. Erin noted that the Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) would delay nominating processes for the new seats until funding appears in the General Appropriations Act.

The committee then considered House Bill 4813, which would increase certain magistrate-court fees and assessments in Title 8, Chapter 21. Paula Benson, committee staff, said many fees had not been revised in decades and that the changes would take effect on 01/01/2027. Benson said any increased revenues would "supplement, not supplant" existing county support for magistrate courts, and that some assessments collected by magistrate courts are forwarded monthly to county treasurers for remittance to the state treasurer for judicial-department allocation.

Members pressed whether some of the revenue should be explicitly available for security improvements after the chief justice raised concerns about threats to judges and insufficient courthouse security in many counties. The committee agreed to direct staff to draft amendment language that would make clear fee revenues could be used for security improvements or personnel if appropriate; that modification was acknowledged during a motion and the bill was reported favorably to the full committee by voice vote.

The subcommittee approved a favorable report on HB 4805 by voice vote and likewise reported HB 4813 favorably with the understanding security-related language would be added for full-committee consideration. The votes were voice votes; no roll-call tallies were recorded.