SC Supreme Court Chief justice’s wish list: More diversity, pay and independence

SC Supreme Court Chief Justice Don Beatty told legislators Wednesday the state needs to pay its judges more, and must stop the unconstitutional practice of jailing poor people who can not afford lawyers.

“Justice Beatty, home run!” state Rep. Max Hyde, R-Spartanburg, a lawyer from Beatty’s home county, told the chief justice as he left a joint legislative session held in the S.C. House chambers.

“All I was trying to do was (hit) it out of the infield,” Beatty replied.

As chief justice, Beatty is chief administrator of the state’s court system, which has a $57 million-a-year budget and 3,700 employees, including 49 Circuit Court judges, 59 Family Court judges, and 625 city judges and magistrates.

In his annual speech to the Legislature, Beatty touched on the judiciary’s needs and accomplishments. He said:

▪ The state needs more women and people of color as judges. Judges, who are elected by legislators, must be qualified but also “must be able to understand those with different backgrounds and needs. This requires diversity on the bench.”

Of the state’s 129 appellate and trial judges, only 34 percent are women and 13 percent are African-American. But, Beatty added, “That is a good start.”

▪ The court system is reaching out to students and citizens to tell them about the importance of the courts in the U.S. system. The efforts include having judges speak in schools, producing a brief educational video and hiring the department’s first-ever public information officer, Ginny Jones, to field media inquiries and coordinate outreach efforts.

▪ To address a shortage of court reporters, who produce transcripts of what is said in a courtroom, the Judicial Department is hiring more court reporters and working to use more computer-aided transcribing systems.

▪ Referring to a recent American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, challenging the jailing of poor defendants who do not have lawyers in magistrate court cases, Beatty said the widespread practice must stop. “This is a violation of the Sixth Amendment (which guarantees the right to a lawyer in criminal cases) and cannot continue,” Beatty said. “We are developing solutions to address this issue.”

▪ Income from court fines and forfeitures, which go to pay for the courts, is “rapidly declining.” The court system will need more money from the Legislature to ensure it continues to be an independent, effective co-equal branch of government.

▪ More money is also needed to recruit and retain high-quality judges. “The most experienced lawyers don’t want to leave a successful practice to become a judge and take a significant pay cut.” S.C. Circuit Court judges make $141,354 a year.

Following the speech, state Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and an attorney, said a pay increase for judges is in the works as part of the state budget that takes effect July 1.

This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 5:54 PM.