COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD)- South Carolina lawmakers have reached a compromise on reforming how the state chooses some of its judges after months of back-and-forth discussion.

The measure passed both chambers with unanimous support following hours of negotiation by a conference committee on Wednesday.

South Carolina is one of two states where the General Assembly picks judges.

This is done through a process in which a panel known as the Judicial Merit Selection Commission screens applicants and then presents a pool of qualified candidates to the full legislature for a vote.

The current panel consists of 10 members, six of whom are legislators and also lawyers. Critics, including the attorney general and several solicitors, have argued this gives lawyer-legislators undue influence over the process.

The bill passed Wednesday expands the size of the JMSC to 12 members, giving four appointments to the governor, four to the Senate, and four to the House. Eight of the 12 members could be legislators.

It also raises the cap on qualified candidates that can be put forward to the General Assembly from three to six.

It does not bar lawyer-legislators from serving on the screening panel, but it imposes two-year term limits for commission members and restricts them from serving more than two consecutive terms.

Additionally, current JMSC members who have served more than four years on the commission are not eligible for reappointment, excluding the chairman and vice chairman who can serve an initial two-year term but not a successive term.

However, some reform advocates argue those limits are not enough to mitigate the influence of lawyer-legislators, and the bill, as a whole, does not adequately address perceived transparency and accountability issues with the process.

“I really did not want to criticize it at all because I was really hoping for some kind of progress, but I don’t see how it’s progress when we increase the percentage of lawyer-legislators on the JMSC,” said First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe. “That’s the biggest problem with the JMSC and instead of making it better, they made it worse.”

“In my opinion, this appears to be a shell game,” he added.

The bill also does not include House-proposed changes requiring magistrate judges to undergo a similar screening process and expanding the court’s jurisdiction.

“Our Senate colleagues were not interested in magistrate reform,” Rep. Weston Newton (R-Beaufort) told lawmakers on the House floor, referencing the saying:  ‘Don’t let perfection get in the way of the good.’

“That policy did not get included and we did not want to miss the opportunity to have meaningful reform in the way we elect and select judges in the state over that issue,” he added.

The measure now heads to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk. He is expected to sign it.