South Dakota’s new chief justice is calling for an increase in pay for the state’s circuit court judges. Steven Jensen says the current pay makes it tough to compete with the private sector.
Chief Justice Jensen is the first new chief justice in two decades. He’s replacing retired-Chief Justice David Gilbertson.
During Jensen’s first State of the Judiciary address, Jensen says he’s asking legislators to consider raises for the state’s judges.
“The state judicial qualifications commission has warned for several years that inadequate compensation is contributing to a lack of applicants for judicial positions,” Jensen says. “The UJS conducted an informal study of attorneys last year and found that judicial compensation was a significant issue discouraging qualified attorneys from applying for judicial positions.”
That’s something that the Republican leader of the Senate says he supports. State Senator Lee Schoenbeck sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and is also a trial lawyer. He says it’s almost impossible to get a lawyer to leave private practice to take a position on the bench.
“It’s $141,000 a year, what a circuit judge makes and you might say, ‘Well, that’s a lot,’” Schoenbeck says. “But, it isn’t if you’re in the marketplace trying to compete and pull people away from the private sector. It’s not going to do it.”
Schoenbeck also says he backs Jensen’s request for a centralized court security officer who will coordinate with county courthouses across the state.
Chief Justice Jensen says there’s currently no one within the Unified Judicial System who does that job.
“We’ve always relied upon the counties to do that,” Jensen says. “And they do a really great job. The sheriffs are very attentive to us, but it also causes us sometimes to be reactive rather than proactive because we don’t have someone who does that as their exclusive job.”
Jensen also says statewide, the coronavirus has slowed the court system’s ability to do its job, but that cases are being heard. He says courts have some catching up to do.
-Contact SDPB reporter Lee Strubinger by email.