This article was produced in partnership with The Post and Courier, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.

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A South Carolina lawmaker is proposing the most sweeping changes in two decades to the state’s magistrate system after an investigation by The Post and Courier and ProPublica exposed how politics and flawed oversight provided fertile ground for incompetence and corruption on the bench.

The legislation filed Wednesday by Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort Republican, would bolster the required legal training for magistrates who aren’t lawyers, increase protections for the many criminal defendants who appear before them and add a layer of scrutiny to magistrate appointments — posts that often go to politically connected insiders.

As the news organizations reported last month, South Carolina’s roughly 320 magistrates handle hundreds of thousands of cases each year, but most have never practiced law in their life; to qualify for nomination to the lower courts, applicants need only to earn an undergraduate degree and pass basic competency exams. As a result, these little-watched judges can sentence someone to jail for months or saddle them with thousands of dollars in fines, but have less required training than the state’s barbers or masseuses.  READ MORE HERE