We will admit our judges have tough jobs.

In criminal cases, they deal with the scum of the earth who commit horrific crimes.

In civil cases, they deal with complex situations on which millions of dollars are at stake.

But that does not excuse them from being held accountable to the voters and taxpayers.

When ethics complaints are filed against local judges, we may never hear about it.

That’s because SC Supreme Court rules ensure secrecy in complaints against judges.

We only learn about misconduct complaints against judges if formal charges are approved by the Supreme Court’s Commission on Judicial Conduct.

It’s hard to believe but in the last 10 years, no formal charges have been filed against a single judge, the commission claims.

Of 3,016 complaints about judges, 2,553 – nearly 85% – were dismissed, investigative reporter Rick Brundrett found.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the Supreme Court’s investigative arm, dismissed the vast majority. Investigative panels dropped the rest.

For complaints that weren’t dismissed, judges received private “letters of caution.”

As many as 97 caution letters have been issued since 2011. Yet no judges receiving the letters – or even the courts they serve – were identified in the commission’s annual reports.

Under court rules, a disciplinary agreement that results in a caution letter “shall not be available to the public at any time.”

Because misconduct complaint details against judges are secret, if no formal charges are filed, you will have no way of knowing their seriousness or if disciplinary action was needed.

We have covered court trials in which judges’ conduct was civil, respectful and above reproach. We wish we could say that about all SC judges.

Judges can have bad days like the rest of us. But with the power they wield, they can’t afford to show that – and the public can’t afford it either.

We welcome your thoughts.

Please email JerryBellune@yahoo.com

We wish we could say all judges’s conduct is civil, respectful and above reproach.