South Carolina General Assembly
115th Session, 2003-2004

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H. 4362

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Reps. Phillips, McCraw and Littlejohn
Document Path: l:\council\bills\gjk\20722sd03.doc

Introduced in the House on June 4, 2003
Currently residing in the House Committee on Judiciary

Summary: Circuit court judges, circuit with more than one resident judge

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
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    6/4/2003  House   Introduced and read first time HJ-8
    6/4/2003  House   Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-8

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

6/4/2003

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND SECTION 14-5-610, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE JUDICIAL CIRCUITS OF THIS STATE AND THE ELECTION OF RESIDENT AND AT-LARGE CIRCUIT JUDGES, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT IN ANY CIRCUIT WITH TWO OR MORE RESIDENT CIRCUIT JUDGES, AT LEAST ONE JUDGE MUST BE A RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE COUNTIES IN THE CIRCUIT WHICH DOES NOT HAVE THE LARGEST POPULATION IN THE CIRCUIT, AND TO PROVIDE EXCEPTIONS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION    1.    Section 14-5-610 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 155 of 1997, is further amended to read:

"Section 14-5-610.    (A)    The State is divided into sixteen judicial circuits as follows:

(1)    The first circuit is composed of the counties of Calhoun, Dorchester, and Orangeburg.

(2)    The second circuit is composed of the counties of Aiken, Bamberg, and Barnwell.

(3)    The third circuit is composed of the counties of Clarendon, Lee, Sumter, and Williamsburg.

(4)    The fourth circuit is composed of the counties of Chesterfield, Darlington, Marlboro, and Dillon.

(5)    The fifth circuit is composed of the counties of Kershaw and Richland.

(6)    The sixth circuit is composed of the counties of Chester, Lancaster, and Fairfield.

(7)    The seventh circuit is composed of the counties of Cherokee and Spartanburg.

(8)    The eighth circuit is composed of the counties of Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens, and Newberry.

(9)    The ninth circuit is composed of the counties of Charleston and Berkeley.

(10)    The tenth circuit is composed of the counties of Anderson and Oconee.

(11)    The eleventh circuit is composed of the counties of Lexington, McCormick, Saluda, and Edgefield.

(12)    The twelfth circuit is composed of the counties of Florence and Marion.

(13)    The thirteenth circuit is composed of the counties of Greenville and Pickens.

(14)    The fourteenth circuit is composed of the counties of Allendale, Hampton, Colleton, Jasper, and Beaufort.

(15)    The fifteenth circuit is composed of the counties of Georgetown and Horry.

(16)    The sixteenth circuit is composed of the counties of York and Union.

(B)    One judge must be elected from the second, sixth, and twelfth circuits. Two judges must be elected from the first, third, fourth, seventh, eighth, tenth, eleventh, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth circuits. Three judges must be elected from the fifth and ninth circuits. Four judges must be elected from the thirteenth circuit.

(C)    In addition to the above judges authorized by this section, there must be thirteen additional circuit judges elected by the General Assembly from the State at large for terms of office of six years. These additional judges must be elected without regard to county or circuit of residence. Each office of the at-large judges is a separate office and is assigned numerical designations of Seat No. 1 through Seat No. 13 respectively.

(D)    In any circuit with two or more resident circuit judges, as provided in this section, at least one judge must be a resident of one of the counties in the circuit which does not have the largest population in the circuit. The provisions of this subsection apply prospectively only when a vacancy exists in a resident judgeship for a circuit where an incumbent judge from that circuit whose election would cause the provisions of this subsection to be violated is not a candidate for reelection."

SECTION    2.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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