She has little choice.

Like every other segment of state government, the S.C. Judicial Department is wrestling with a major budget crunch.

Four years of zero growth and an ever-expanding deficit have forced state lawmakers to trim the budgets of all departments. A year ago, the Judicial Department had a budget of $43 million, $37 million of which went to salaries. Its budget is now $32 million.

Tickets and fines have helped offset part of the lost revenues, but most agree this method is not ideal for funding a court system.

In her search for cost savings, Toal is looking for changes, such as reducing piles of paper, that would save money while improving overall performance. Pulling it off will be quite a challenge, but that's nothing new for Toal, the state's first and only female justice on the S.C. Supreme Court.

Elected to the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1988, Toal became chief justice in 2000, replacing Ernest A. Finney Jr., the state's first black chief justice.

She is up for re-election next year and is the only justice on the ballot. Candidates for the S.C. Supreme Court go through a screening process during which a commission determines whether they are qualified. If they pass the screening, they are voted on by a joint session of the House and Senate.The vote on Toal will not be scheduled until after December's official screenings, but all of that is seen as window dressing. Toal is running unopposed. Even if she had competition, it's not considered likely someone could pose a serious challenge to her.

Even a minor scandal in May 2001, in which Toal sideswiped a parked car and later admitted she had been drinking before the incident, has done little to tarnish her image. A disciplinary panel cleared her of all charges in the case.

"She is highly respected and rightfully so," said state Sen. John Graham Altman III, R-Charleston. "She has one of those high-powered minds. And honestly, I think if she had taken a different route in her life, she would have made one heck of a candidate for governor. But she went in a different direction, and the state has been well served by it."

Such praise is common around the statehouse, where Toal spent 13 years as the state representative from Richland County.

She made a name for herself during that time, becoming the first women to chair a standing committee in the House. But law was the love of her life.

Toal, 60, was born and raised in the Old Shandon neighborhood of Columbia, not far from where she lives today. She was raised Roman Catholic and began her education at parochial school.

She attended Dreher High School, where during her senior year she was recognized as the state's top debater. Still, a career in law was not yet her goal.

"You have to understand," Toal said, "This was South Carolina in the '60s, and I was a young women. The law was a man's world at the time."

Toal graduated high school and pursued a degree in philosophy at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga. Her ambition at the time was a master's degree and a career in teaching.

But during her senior year, after being accepted into the University of Michigan's graduate program, Toal's life changed course.

"The father of a close friend, Judge Louis Rosen, took me aside one day at Thanksgiving and said 'Jean, I want you to think about law school,' " Toal said.

"He had looked up some law courses at Emory University and suggested I enroll in one of them, to see if I liked it. So I took his advice and enrolled, and I wasn't in the class two weeks before I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life."

Still, stereotypes die hard. One of Toal's guidance counselors tried to talk her out of law school.

"She told me the profession was closed to women," Toal said. "I'm glad I didn't take her advice." Toal graduated from the University of South Carolina law school in 1968.

There were 10 women practicing law in the state at the time, only three of whom were actual trial lawyers. South Carolina didn't even allow women to sit on juries until 1969.

"That was a different time," she said. "That's why now, I am very sensitive to helping women achieve their goals."

A good example of this occurred in the late 1970s when Toal was a young state representative. She became friends with a young woman named Inez Moore, who was working as a researcher in the S.C. House.

When Moore mentioned she was considering law school, Toal pushed her.

Today, Moore is better known by her married name, Inez Tenenbaum, and is the state's Superintendent of Education and a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

"I was 32, and some people were joking that I was too old to go back to school, but Jean encouraged me," Tenenbaum said.

"She said that to do what I wanted to do, I needed a law degree. But that is just Jean. She encourages women to climb the ladder of success. She pushes them, and that's the kind of person you need in your corner."

Toal is mindful of her role as a mentor. At least once a week, she makes public appearances, usually talking to young people. She tells them to follow their dreams and to fight through limitations imposed on them. Understandably, she has a soft spot for young women.

"They have to know that anything they want to do is possible," she said. "And sometimes they need a person who has been there to help them."

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