By Andy Brack
Contributing Writer

For months, a group of state senators has worked quietly to reform the way the state’s family court system works to make it perform better.

In the coming weeks, senators will discuss changes to the system, which deals with divorce, alimony, child custody and visitation, and juvenile criminal offenses.

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

“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 representatives. “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 is 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.

The panel recommended 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 their time on more serious cases.

Mandatory mediation. The panel also recommended 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 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 said. “I believe the returns in time saved and in human anguish alleviated would be enormous,” she told lawmakers.

Alimony. The panel recommended 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 a current law that says anyone who has an affair while married, even if a couple has filed divorce papers and split, is barred from receiving alimony.

Many say that is unfair because someone who could qualify for alimony isn’t able to “get on with their lives” after divorce papers are filed.

This concept was shot down by the Senate in debate but may return.

Support payments. The panel recommended changing the child support system by shifting payment to the court clerk’s office instead of the current system of the supporting parent to the supported parent.

Proponents said the shift should cut down on deadbeat parents.

Frivolous proceedings. Lawmakers also suggest creating a state law that puts 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 thinks the Senate could soon pass reforms to the family court system that would make it better for children and families in trouble. He added that the House of Representatives, which would next consider the Senate proposal, appeared to be on board with the changes.

“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 is the publisher of the S.C. Statehouse Report (www.statehousereport.com), a forecast of business developments in the South Carolina Legislature and state government. E-mail him at brack@statehousereport.com.

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