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Solicitor: Plan would save court money
Proposal would make a second judge available during criminal court sessions starting in January.
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Duffie Stone, solicitor for the 14th Judicial Circuit, is proposing a plan that will relieve judicial bottlenecks, help reduce case backlog and slash jury costs.
The plan calls for a second judge to be available during the criminal court session beginning in January. Sorting guilty plea cases out from trials while two judges are working cases simultaneously creates the time- and money-saving efficiencies, Stone said.
With two judges, one judge can take trials while the other one takes plea cases, which don't require juries.
What is now a two-week process could be completed in one, reducing the time potential jurors must be available and the court's obligation to pay them, Stone said.
People called for jury duty are paid $12.50 per day and receive reimbursement for mileage. Depending on the length of trials and where the potential jurors come from, Stone estimated savings ranging from about $39,000 to $109,000.
Last year, Stone's office prosecuted more than 2,000 Beaufort County cases.
The proposal doesn't demand the creation a new judgeship, just shuffling schedules so two judges are assigned to the same week instead of one judge for two weeks, Stone said.
Mary Schroder, deputy director for the South Carolina Office of Court Administration, said factors such as case load, other solicitors' requests and the availability of judges will be part of the scheduling considerations her office must consider.
"We're in the process of reviewing all the recommendations from the solicitors regarding that general sessions term in 2009. They'll all be taken into account when preparing the schedules," Schroder said.
The new schedules will be published in June at the earliest, Schroder said.
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