S.C. top judge seeks money to expand family courts ‘in crisis’
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - South Carolina’s family courts are “in crisis,” and the state’s top judge sometimes has to ask other agencies for information about what is happening in the court system.
That’s why Chief Justice John Kittredge is now turning to lawmakers for help addressing it, and solutions could come with a hefty price tag in taxpayer money.
Kittredge told a Senate Finance subcommittee last week that South Carolina’s judicial branch is at multiple serious points of inflection, the most critical of which is in its family courts.
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“There’s nowhere in our system of justice, in our society, in the state of South Carolina, that’s more in crisis than our family courts,” Kittredge said.
Cases are rising, and there are not enough judges to keep up — with children often caught in the middle of separations, divorces, custody disputes, adoptions, and other cases that go before family court judges.
Kittredge has asked lawmakers for an annual $1.8 million, starting later this year, to create three new family court judge positions in Beaufort, Berkeley, and Lexington counties, places where the chief said the population has dramatically risen but judicial resources have been stagnant for decades.
“When families are in crisis, it’s volatile, it’s potentially dangerous, and we’re telling them we’ve got a backlog and we’ll see you in a couple months? No sir,” Kittredge said.
Kittredge, who was sworn in as South Carolina’s chief justice last August, also asking for $45 million in one-time money to modernize the judiciary’s online case management system.
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He said the early-2000s system is outdated and needs constant upgrades, and some lawmakers who are also lawyers backed up his diagnosis.
“It’s finished,” Sen. Greg Hembree, R – Horry, a practicing attorney and former solicitor, said. “I mean, it’s done, so the ask is essential.”
Kittredge said the price tag to replace the entire online system is likely around $100 million, though the judiciary should be able to cover about half of that with money it already has.
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Nearly $35 million would be reallocated from other projects, while another $25 million comes from an appropriation the judicial branch received several years ago to upgrade this same computer system, but which is currently tied up in a legal dispute, Kittredge said.
But without a new system, the chief said staff, attorneys, judges, and even he himself have been forced to ask other agencies for information and data about what is going on in South Carolina’s court system.
“It is not good when the chief justice of South Carolina must embark on a treasure hunt to find how many DSS matters are heard, how many DJJ hearings are there. Why is it that the judicial branch is clueless to probation revocation hearings?” Kittredge said.
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The House of Representative’s budget committee finished writing its spending plan last week, and it included $25 million for the computer system and Kittredge’s full request for the three new family courtships.
That spending is still subject to the full House’s approval, while senators are in the process of crafting their version of the budget, so those allocations are not final yet.
Among his other requests, Kittredge is also asking lawmakers to restructure the way retired judges are paid, if they return to the bench.
He said the current structure disincentivizes them to hear cases but that their experience and knowledge is invaluable to the state’s court system.
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