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Family Court changes could make big difference in lives

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For months, a group of state senators has worked quietly to reform the way South Carolina's Family Court system works.

In the coming week, senators will discuss the changes to the court, which deals with divorce, alimony, child custody and visitation, and juvenile criminal offenses, among other things.

In the late 1970s, Family Court became a unified statewide system, but it hasn't been overhauled since. In the intervening decades, observers say the system has become so clogged that children and families often find themselves mired for months -- or years -- before they can get resolutions to issues.

"Today, Family Court is so inundated with cases that judges have on average 20 minutes per case to make decisions which have permanent impacts on a child, on a parent, on a family," Chief Justice Jean Toal told a joint assembly of senators and House members this week. "Our Family Court system is drowning."

State Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, led a specially appointed panel of five senators who met in the off-session to probe what's really happening in Family Court. After months of hearings and research, the bipartisan panel in January recommended five major changes to state law to improve the system:

• Voluntary Family Court hearing officers. The study found much of the burden of the above-average load on Family Court judges involves matters that tend to be administrative. Senators and Toal recommend a voluntary system of Family Court hearing officers, which would include retired judges and experienced Family Court lawyers. These officers would handle uncontested and routine matters to allow judges to spend more time on more serious cases.

• Mandatory mediation. Senators and Toal also recommend a mandatory mediation process be used on the front-end of Family Court cases to try to come to a resolution more quickly -- perhaps as soon as in six months -- before formalizing the process in a court setting. Often, court settings make matters more adversarial when they might not need to be, Toal suggested. "I believe the returns in time saved and in human anguish alleviated would be enormous," she told lawmakers.

• Alimony. The senators recommend tweaking the alimony system to do two major things: take into account that people in short-term marriages might not need to get permanent alimony and make the system more equitable for spouses after divorce papers have been filed. This second notion challenges current law that states that anyone who has an affair while married -- even if a couple has filed divorce papers and split -- is barred from receiving alimony. This concept was shot down by the Senate in debate during the week, but might return in the coming week.

• Support payments. Senators recommended changing the child support system by shifting payment to the court clerk's office, instead of the current system of the supporting parent paying the receiving parent. Proponents said the shift should cut down on deadbeat parents.

• Frivolous proceedings. Lawmakers also suggest putting the Family Court process under the state's frivolous civil proceedings act, which means people could be held more accountable for meritless lawsuits.

Ritchie said he thought the Senate would soon pass reforms to the Family Court system that would make it better for children and families in trouble. He added that the House, which would next consider the Senate proposal, appeared to be on board with the proposals.

"The public has been clamoring for reform and they need it and they deserve it," Ritchie said. "The judges, families and children of the state need more time to make better decisions so that children can heal faster. These reforms will achieve that goal."

Andy Brack, publisher of S.C. Statehouse Report, can be reached at .