What The Judges Do
I am often perplexed when I hear a client (or a Lawyer) tell me that they “know” what what the judge will do in their case. My first question is: To which Judge are you referring?
We have 56 full time Family Court judges in South Carolina, and due to our unique (and inefficient) court administration system, a person in Charleston is just as likely to get a judge from Greenville who is holding court in Charleston as a person in Greenville is likely to get a judge from Charleston who is holding court in Greenville! Furthermore, judges are not assigned cases that they will see through from beginning to end, as in virtually every other court system in the United States. In South Carolina however, every time a person goes to family court, they will most likely see a different judge.
What the judges do on any particular case is simply impossible to predict. If a person does not know who the judge will be, or where the judge will come from, then how can a person know what the judge will do in any particular case?
