Columbia Standard

At 81 years old Judge Jean Hoefer Toal has been practicing law for 56 years and has already been forced to retire due to her age once. 

Despite South Carolina’s law requiring appointed judges to retire at age 72, Toal has been able to continue to serve as a special, part-time circuit court judge while pulling down a healthy six-figure yearly state retirement wage and overseeing a healthy asbestos docket resulting in an average of five trials per year. 

Toal is now paid on a per trial basis. 

In many countries Toal would have been forced to retire from the bench in the early 2000s. 

Countries that provide a mandatory retirement age include Ethiopia at age 60, Austria and Barbados at age 65, Lebanon and Singapore at age 68, Australia, Belgium, England, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya and New Zealand at age 70 and Brazil, Canada and Chile at age 75.

However, the politically-connected career of Toal goes on and on. 

Notably, in late 2023 Toal was also appointed to decide whether infamous convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, subject of Netflix documentary Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, was entitled to a new trial. 

Since her required “retirement” Toal has even returned on two occasions to hear cases on South Carolina’s Supreme Court. 

Toal, whose office is located at the Richland County Judicial Center, has received several appointments overseeing asbestos cases in the state where critics have alleged bias in her judgments.

In a 2023 questionnaire for the South Carolina State Legislature’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission, which screens judges, Toal noted she has remained a “Senior Active Retired Judge.” 

“I have very much enjoyed serving as a Senior Active Judge,” Toal said in the questionnaire. “I have served as an Acting Circuit Court Judge for each year since l retired. At the appointment of Chief Justice Beatty, I have managed the asbestos docket for many years. I have managed to trial or settlement at least 500 cases.” 

Toal also noted she has seen mediator and arbitrator appointments from U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel and U.S. District Judge Donald C. Coggins for which she earned $52,800 from 2020-2022. 

Most recently, Toal has been criticized for her oversight of U.K. mining companies Anglo American and its De Beers diamond unit over asbestos claims. 

Notably, Anglo American and De Beers have never done business in the state.

Known for imposing harsh sanctions against defendants who challenge her, defense attorneys have sought Toal’s recusal, citing perceived bias in favor of plaintiffs. 

Despite numerous attempts by the defense to move the case to federal court, all efforts have been unsuccessful.

Toal's controversial appointed of personal injury attorney Peter Protopapas has him overseeing claims against Cape Plc, a former South African asbestos company, with extensive powers to pursue documents and third-party claims, including against Anglo American. 

However, defense attorneys have argued allegations that Anglo American owes a share liability for asbestos cases have been unfounded. 

Still, Toal has also consistently rejected arguments that she lacks jurisdiction over the foreign companies involved, accepting Protopapas's allegations as fact due to Cape's refusal to respond in court. 

“I want to find a reasonable way to move this trial forward at this point,” Toal said at a hearing in Columbia, S.C. in recent days. 

Toal overruled defense objections regarding the need for additional information before proceeding.

Toal is a legend in South Carolina jurisprudence whose career was highlighted in Madam Chief Justice, a collection of essays released in 2015. 

A Democrat, Toal was a member of the state legislature from 1975 until her nomination and election by that body in 1988 as an associate justice to the South Carolina Supreme Court. She was the first woman to hold the role. 

In 2000, she was elected by the legislature as the first female Chief Justice, a role she held until the end of 2015 when she reached the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Toal’s career has not been without personal scandal. 

Prior to leaving the state’s high court, she faced scrutiny for hit-and-run property damage incidents in 2001 and 2007, with the Commission on Judicial Conduct clearing her of ethical wrongdoing in the first incident, while the status of the 2007 is unclear. 

While Chief Justice in 2014, Toal was also receiving approximately $131,000 in "retire-in-place" benefits, which allow for senior judges in South Carolina to collect retirement pay while still earning their full salaries.

This practice was enabled by state law, which permits eligible judges to receive separate paychecks totaling 90% of their six-figure salaries, while keeping their retirement income confidential.

Critics, such as The Nerve, have been drawing attention to the South Carolina Judicial Department's lack of transparency regarding such benefits for judges. 

The outlet also reported critically on over 70 judges who attended expensive conferences funded by special-interest legal organizations, yet the records of these trips were not made publicly available on the department's website. 

It is unclear if Toal was on that list.