PARENT'S RIGHTS NOW!

The following article appeared in SC Statehouse Report and can be downloaded at Legislature needs to deal with family court backlog:

FEB. 8, 2008 - - South Carolina lawmakers need to listen Wednesday when SC Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal asks again for three extra family court judges.

Why? Because investing in justice will reduce backlogs and get cases through the system more quickly. In turn, more than 100,000 parents (voters) and children will be able to get on with their lives.

"It galls me to see the Legislature obsessing about the smokescreen issue of immigration reform as they shirk their responsibility to help state government provide services that their badly citizens need," said one man involved in a case in family court.

"They want us to love them for cutting property taxes. Mine have been reduced, but any savings I've realized have been offset by being forced, because of the court delays, to continue to provide support for my estranged wife. "

More than 30,000 cases currently are pending in the family court system. Last summer when three seasoned family court judges died, the state's large backlog of cases got even worse. Fortunately, the legislature provided some help over the past week by filling those vacancies, but Toal said more needed to be done.

Having three new additional family court judges would be "a huge impact for a very small investment," said the chief justice, who delivers a State of the Judiciary speech at the Statehouse Wednesday. The state could spend less than $2 million to fund three new family court positions, three new circuit court positions and staffs to support them, said Toal, who has been asking for more judges for the last three years.

But there's also more that lawmakers could do to improve the family court system. They could enact a proposed family court reform that has been stalled in the House since 2006. That year, the state Senate passed a measure to encourage the family court system to use mediation between parties before going to a judge and to allow family courts to use voluntary hearing officers to deal with administrative matters with which judges currently are saddled.

"We're [essentially] running a collection program for DSS and it sucks up a day out of every week of a family court judge," Toal said. Voluntary hearing officers could take some of the administrative pressure off judges in support matters that often are prescribed by the Department of Social Services.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, didn't return calls about why the House continues to hold up family court reform. He and other leaders should resurrect the bill and push reform through to help thousands of South Carolina families.