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Awareness of pregnancy required to make prenatal abuse charge stick
In what may be the first-ever instance of a judge citing the television show “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant,” the South Carolina Court of Appeals has reversed a finding of child abuse and neglect...
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Most Important Opinions First half of 2013
Administrative Driver’s License Suspension – DUI Arrest – Refusal to Blow – Arbitrary & Capricious Chisolm v. South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-040-13, 16 pp.)...
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Appeals court denies Liberty University’s Obamacare challenge
From staff and wire reports Obamacare’s mandate for employers to provide health insurance to most employees is “no monster,” a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided in upholding...
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‘Balancing’ test gets a test drive
Nearly two years have passed since the South Carolina Supreme Court adopted a new test to gauge the liability of business owners and landlords when someone is hurt on their property. It now appears...
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Designated driver went one shot over the line, court rules
Nobody likes the job of driving an obnoxious drunk home, but two bullets in the back of the head seem like harsh treatment. One South Carolina man convicted of murdering his drunken passenger tried to...
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Defense bar stunned to find docket-control committee already at work
During her state of the judiciary address earlier this year, South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean H. Toal announced she was forming a committee to address the sticky problem of managing the...
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Woman wins $1.5M verdict from homebuilder-friend
Mixing business with friendship has cost a woman more than $1 million, but that money might be recovered if she ever gets her hands on a jury award she won in Charleston County. Connie Godowns...
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Court: Witness carrying child’s remains no cause for mistrial
Prompt action by a judge may have prevented a mistrial in the criminal case of the death of a five-month-old boy. The South Carolina Court of Appeals denied the defendant’s motion for a mistrial after...
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Title insurance firms face off in Wisconsin lawsuit
MILWAUKEE — A stymied mixed-use building in downtown Milwaukee could have new momentum, but two companies that insured the original, failed project remain stuck. Construction stalled in 2009 on a hotel...
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With chain of title broken, bank’s foreclosure fizzles
DETROIT — A bank that was assigned a mortgage interest in a couple’s property did not have standing to foreclose by advertisement because the bank that previously owned the mortgage note never recorded...
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A failure to communicate? Criminal defense lawyers excluded from docket...
News that S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean H. Toal had been meeting with solicitors to discuss a new system for managing the state’s criminal trial docket – and that they were close to going...
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Deputy’s wife was OK for criminal jury, court rules
Criminal defense attorneys generally prefer to keep spouses of police officers off juries, on the theory they’re unlikely to be sympathetic to defendants. But because of an error by a court clerk, one...
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Lawyers and LinkedIn: a ‘like’ story
ROCHESTER, NY — LinkedIn is billed as the “professional” social network, which is why lawyers dipping their toes into social media for the first time often start with LinkedIn. The problem is that as...
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Employers, lawyers prepare for post-DOMA world
BOSTON — Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s refusal to recognize state same-sex marriages was unconstitutional, employers are scrambling to figure out...
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Opening doors
Watch a few episodes of “Cops” and there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll see an officer swing open a car door during a traffic stop, either to drag out a suspect or to get a better look at what’s...
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Expert affidavit not needed in suit against corporations
A South Carolina law that makes it more difficult to sue engineers will not protect a corporation being sued over a product its engineers designed, a federal judge has ruled. George Oakman suffered a...
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Suit alleges bank was in cahoots with law firm
Beaufort lawyer J. Ashley Twombley pulled on a thread and unraveled what he alleges is a long-running conspiracy between a law firm and a local bank. Twombley has brought a class-action suit against...
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Despite Senate moves, lawyers eye NLRB appointment case
WASHINGTON – The recent Senate confirmation of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the forward motion on the nominations to the National Labor Relations Board...
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Pro bono populi
A sense of betrayal and wounded Palmetto State pride has fueled the anger expressed by many Charleston School of Law alumni in the wake of the school’s announcement of a business arrangement with the...
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SC defendants linked to federal forensics inquiry
At least three prisoners in South Carolina, including one who is serving life, might have been wrongly convicted based on bad forensic science and exaggerated testimony from crime lab analysts. Their...
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