CHARLESTON — South Carolina’s trial courts are the most overburdened in the country, the state’s top judge said Friday.

In her annual State of the Judiciary speech at the S.C. Bar convention, S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal said the Palmetto State has the lowest number of judges per 100,000 people and the highest number of filings per trial judge of any state.

She said the state’s general sessions courts, where more serious criminal cases are heard, have not hit her department’s 180-day benchmark of moving cases “in some time.”

“This backlog is frightening,” she said, noting those courts tend to concentrate on violent crimes.

Common plea courts, which hear civil cases involving more than $7,500, have met the 180-day benchmark in only one of the state’s 16 judicial circuits, while family courts in seven circuits are in general compliance, Toal said, though she noted family courts are “the most overloaded courts we have.”

To ease backlogs, Toal said she has asked state lawmakers this year for funding of three more circuit and three more family court judges. Although similar requests have been denied twice, she said she has been “told by the leadership (of the Legislature) I will be successful this year.”

The state has 46 circuit and 52 family court judges serving in full-time positions, according to the state Office of Court Administration.

Toal said the state’s solicitors recognize they have a serious problem in managing their criminal dockets. She said that while she is not opposed to solicitors having control of scheduling most trials — which no other state allows — she will “continue to insist and require that all criminal dockets be managed in a businesslike way” using computer software approved by her department.

“The days of managing by roll call and on the back of an envelope have got to go the way of the buggy whip,” she said.

She said she supports the creation of hearing officer positions in family courts to handle certain routine matters so judges can handle more complex matters, noting that visitation and custody disputes “go on for years sometimes.”

Toal also said the state’s courts need a more stable source of funding. She pointed out that when she became chief justice in fiscal year 1999-2000, all but 1 percent of the judicial department’s approximately $41 million budget came from state appropriations. In comparison, more than $15 million, or about 26 percent, of this year’s projected $57 million budget will come from court fines, surcharges and fees instituted in previous years because of state budget cuts.

“This is not a stable way to fund the third branch of government,” she said, adding she will ask state lawmakers to make permanent certain one-year budget provisos involving fees, fines and surcharges.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484.

TOAL TAKEOUTS

Other observations by S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal

‘Sensible discussion’ of reforms needed

Toal said she was “disappointed” about how discussions began last year with a special S.C. Senate task force charged with revamping the state’s criminal justice system, noting participants were blaming each other for problems. She said with recent recommendations by the task force — which, for example, address the state’s gang problem — she is “hopeful we will have a sensible discussion on a very crucial issue.”

Establish a business court

Toal said the S.C. Bar, led by its president, Charleston attorney Brad Waring, is studying the creation of specialized business courts.

Greater public access to courts, records

Toal has created separate task forces to address public access to court records and giving the state’s lower-income residents greater access to legal representation in civil cases.