VA can’t force paralyzed man to use their medical services
A federal judge in Columbia has ruled that Veterans Affairs may not present evidence concerning “speculative free care” as part of a medical malpractice tort filed by a South Carolina man. U.S....
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When I was a child, grownups were often telling me that I ought to be a lawyer when I grew up. Usually this career advice was given right after an exhausting argument over some injustice that I felt...
View ArticleRegulation of HOAs now in effect
A bill regulating homeowners associations took effect May 17 with Gov. Henry McMaster’s approval, making it the state’s first attempt to formally govern housing organizations. While the bill does...
View ArticleAn experiment in Charleston: Criminal mediation efforts could spread statewide
Charleston County Chief Administrative Judge Markley Dennis balked at the thought of using mediation to resolve criminal cases when a local mediator pitched the idea six or seven years ago. “My first...
View ArticleTowing policy not a 4th Amendment violation
Columbia police officers who arrested a man in a private driveway did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights when they performed an “inventory search” of the vehicle he was driving and had it...
View ArticleChambers of commerce can use public money without being subject to FOIA
A divided South Carolina Supreme Court has overturned a trial judge’s ruling that the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce is a public body under the state’s Freedom of Information...
View ArticleMunicipal courts did not provide required counsel for indigents
Two Lowcountry municipal courts are going to have to defend allegations that they unconstitutionally incarcerated numerous indigent defendants without providing counsel, a federal judge has ruled. In...
View ArticleInsurer can sue lawyer it hired for malpractice
An insurance company can bring a malpractice action against an attorney it hired to represent an insured, a divided South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled. While some are applauding the decision of...
View ArticleHow to guarantee a judge will take your noncompete … and shove it
After working in the same factory for nigh on 15 years, Johnny Paycheck sang, he wanted nothing more than to work up the nerve to tell his bosses to take this job and shove it, because he wouldn’t be...
View ArticleQuid pro quo referrals OK with consent
A lawyer can give referrals to a specific chiropractic practice in exchange for their paying part of the costs for a lawyer’s commercial, under a new Ethics Advisory Opinion from the South Carolina...
View ArticleA game of craps: Law school, bar admissions a gamble for applicants with...
If Marlowe Rary had known in 2011 what he eventually learned the hard way, he probably never would have applied to law school. Nearly a decade earlier, Rary, a “typical invincible teenager,” had a...
View Article‘Made in Kirkland’: Reference hinted at criminal past
Prosecutors are required to authenticate fingerprint evidence, but that doesn’t give the state a free pass to introduce information that suggests to the jury that a defendant has a criminal history,...
View ArticleIRS ordered to pay $61K to disbarred SC lawyer
The IRS has been ordered to pay more than $61,000 in attorneys’ fees to a disbarred South Carolina lawyer who operates a tax advisory firm that caters to American expats. “They gave us every dime we...
View ArticleReasonableness needed to monitor sex offenders
Electronic monitoring of a person convicted of misdemeanor failure to register as a sex offender is no longer mandatory based on a South Carolina Supreme Court opinion issued June 13. Instead, the...
View ArticleCounty sold house for back taxes, didn’t tell owner
A South Carolina county’s alleged failure to follow the law has led to the undoing of the forced tax sale of a home, which happened without the owner’s knowledge. The homeowner, Corretta McMillan,...
View ArticleProbation, parole not ‘confinement’ under rules
While on trial for attacking his wife with a barbecue fork after downing moonshine, a Laurens County man opened the door for prosecutors to inform jurors that he was convicted of murder when he was a...
View ArticleMost Important Opinions for 2Q 2018
The most important opinions for the second quarter of 2018. Administrative State disability findings may deserve substantial weight An administrative law judge erred in according little weight to a...
View ArticleDefendant’s death wipes out restitution order
The U.S. government will have to refund the restitution money it collected from a defendant who died while his conviction was on appeal, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in an...
View ArticleSignature trumps truth on forms for insurance
Nationwide is on your side—unless you’ve signed an insurance form excluding your unlicensed wife from being covered under an auto policy and she ends up causing a crash while taking her DMV driving...
View ArticleAvvo ditches fixed-rate legal services ahead of ethics opinion
The new owner of Avvo.com, one of the top players in the online legal marketplace, has put the kibosh on the company’s fixed-rate legal services—just as a North Carolina State Bar committee was working...
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