DUI/DUAC Caseload Reduction

Since the order from 3/21/11 by Chief Justice Toal of the South Carolina Supreme Court to reduce the DUI and DUAC case loads across the state, prosecutors in every county have been hard at work chipping away at what seemed an impossible task.  Well, the results of that effort have now been posted and detail a statewide effort to make our court system work a little better.

Horry County started out with the highest number of DUI/DUAC cases as of the 3/21/11 Order with 1,545.  This is not surprising being that Myrlte Beach is a tourist destination as well as the fact that Coastal Carolina University resides in Conway and we know college kids like to drink.  Nevertheless, Horry County disposed of 1,221 DUI/DUAC cases since the 3/21/11 Order with only 324 cases currently remaining since the time of that Order.  However, no Order can change the facts stated above about Horry County.  661 new cases were filed since 3/21/11 bringing the grand total to 985 pending DUI/DUAC cases as of 7/21/11.  This represents a -36.2% decrease in the DUI and DUAC case load from 3/21/11 to 7/21/11.

First and foremost, I applaud the assistant solicitors Ricky Todd and Manuela Ardeljan who worked so hard to dispose of these cases and next I applaud the Judges who got tough with the officers and defense attorneys to organize this debacle.  But I can't help but see that we are close to where we were before and nothing the courts do on their end will likely change this trend.  Don't drink and drive, call a cab or a friend, but if you do and you get arrested for it, please call Daniel A. Selwa, II.

For a full look at all the counties in South Carolina and the Courts comments, check out this link.