S.C. chief justice seeks nine new judges from lawmakers

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina's top jurist told state lawmakers on Wednesday that she needs nine new judges to run the state's court system more effectively and that she'll use a new electronic filing system to fund them.

In her annual State of the Judiciary address, Chief Justice Jean Toal told a joint session of the Legislature that she can pay for three new circuit court judges and six new family court judges by implementing a new system for attorneys around the state to file court documents electronically.

"We'll own it, and the fees that are generated will go right back into the technology system," Toal said. "Technology is certainly the key to your not spending any more that you have to in terms of new judicial personnel."

The Judicial Department can handle the system in house, Toal said, meaning that the court system will reap any fees generated by the program, instead of paying them to an outside vendor.

The system and what it funds represent dual goals that Toal has consistently presented to lawmakers in her dozen years as South Carolina's top jurist. Under Toal's leadership, the state's circuit court system has moved to an electronic case management system, through which records and case information can be accessed online. Later this year, the public will also be able to access filings for the state's appellate courts through an online system.

But the need for more judges is also a point that Toal, a former state lawmaker, has consistently pressed. On Wednesday, she noted that each judge's average caseload in South Carolina is more than 5,000 cases - well over twice the national average.

South Carolina currently has 53 active Circuit Court judges. In her address, Toal focused on the struggles in the state's Family Court system, which deals with issues including divorce and child support and has 60 active judges.

"People are hurting and are desperate in our Family Court system," Toal said, noting that 20 percent of Family Court time is spent just on collecting child support - much of which goes not to custodial parents but instead to repay a state agency that pays out support funds. "Real people who need help suffer because we don't have the Family Court time for them."

Toal also told lawmakers of her efforts to talk with prosecutors around the state to make case dockets more efficient. She also opened her address by remember Matthew J. Perry Jr., a civil rights leader and South Carolina's first black federal judge who died last year.

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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP