Recent Articles from Jeff Jeffrey
Womble Carlyle and Bond Dickinson to tie the knot
Almost exactly one year after Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and U.K.-based Bond Dickinson announced they would be forming a strategic alliance, the two firms have decided to take things to the next level. The partners of Womble Carlyle and Bond Dickinson voted May 30 to combine their operations in a new entity that will […]
Unpublished opinion carries day for judge
Unpublished opinions typically go unnoticed. They carry no precedential value, so lawyers and judges tend to ignore them. But a federal judge in Anderson recently turned to an unpublished opinion to support his decision to deny the defendants’ request for summary judgment in a lawsuit stemming from an oil spill. In Lewis v. Kinder Morgan […]
Juveniles can be registered as sex offenders for life
Sentencing a juvenile to register as a sex offender and to wearing an electronic monitoring device for the rest of his life is not unconstitutional, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled earlier this month. The court’s unanimous May 3 decision in In re Justin B. held that goal of the state’s sex offender registry and […]
Not exactly mother of the year
Some mothers take Mother’s Day more seriously than others. Shontrell Murphy of Spartanburg is perhaps a little too into the holiday. Murphy was arrested on May 14 for allegedly hitting her son after he gave a Mother’s Day card to his grandmother but not to her. Spartanburg police said the boy’s sister witnessed the event […]
Foreclosure jury demand trumps rule on referrals
The South Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a Richland County clerk of court overstepped his authority when he approved a request to send a foreclosure case to a master, despite the defendant’s demand for a jury trial. In an April 26 opinion in South Carolina Community Bank v. Salon Proz, the appeals court determined […]
Defendants not part of suit not part of fault-finding
The South Carolina Supreme Court has used two cases on the the state’s Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors to underscore a basic legal principle: If someone is not a defendant in a lawsuit, they cannot have any fault attributed to them under the statute. The 2005 statute modified joint and several liability in tort cases with […]
Broad contract gave UPS store power to accept service
The broad language of a contract to rent a UPS box has allowed the owner of a liquor company to be served with a lawsuit, despite the complaint being served to the wrong box. A Charleston federal judge found March 23 that UPS’s acceptance-of-service contract grants the authority to accept legal documents to the store […]
Dram shop case results in $1.05M settlement
An Easley restaurant agreed to pay a commercial truck driver $800,000 to settle claims it overserved alcohol to one of its customers, who ended up crashing her car into his tractor-trailer after she left the restaurant. Under the terms of the settlement, the restaurant’s name was withheld. But court records say Karen Best was leaving […]
Booze ban unconstitutional
It took a ruling from the state Supreme Court to make it happen, but Aiken is set to get a Total Wine & More store. See, the problem was that South Carolina law prohibits any holder of a liquor license from opening more than three retail outlets in the state. Total Wine already had three […]
Greenville man settles forklift crash for $700K
A Georgia-based workplace staffing company has agreed to pay one of its employees $700,000 after he suffered a head injury during a forklift accident. Dexter Masters, 26, was operating a forklift at a BMW dealership in Greenville in 2015when another forklift driver crashed into him. The wreck caused one of the forklifts to strike Masters’ […]
Lazy river fall results in $775,000 settlement
A woman who broke her ankle after entering a lazy river at a Myrtle Beach resort is set to receive $775,000 in compensation for her injuries. According to court records, Patricia Holland was staying at the Dunes Village Resort in Myrtle Beach when she decided to enter the resort’s indoor lazy river. As she descended […]
Result of alleged hazing ‘unintended,’ so insurer had duty to defend claim
Allstate Insurance Co. had a duty to defend a swimmer from the University of Virginia in a lawsuit claiming he and four of his teammates forced a first-year swimmer to drink milk and prune juice until he vomited, a South Carolina federal judge ruled last month. Judge Bruce Hendricks’ March 14 ruling in Allstate Insurance […]
Business Law
- Economy forces attorneys to get down to business
- Business Court judges trawl for customers
- Va. company's Web site did not subject business to personal jurisdiction in S.C., appeals panel rules
- Former running back from S.C. wins courtroom victory in contract dispute
- Contract – Government Contract – Qui Tam – False Claims Act
- Tort – Business Tort – Va. Computer Crimes Act – Trade Secrets
- Consumer Protection – FCRA – Auto Loan – Bank Accounting Errors
- Licenses & Permits – Beer & Wine Permit – Restrictive Covenant – Suitable Location
- Licenses & Permits – Veterinarian – Vaccine Maintenance
- State regulators look at car dealer accused of lying to customers
- Textile firm, railroad settle Graniteville train wreck lawsuit
- Subprime mortgage meltdown hits securities law
Commentary
- High court justices cross the line of propriety
- High court’s term was rough on big business
- The flip side of generative AI in law and how to address it
- The fight for equal educational opportunity continues
- Letter From The Editor – Working from Home
- NLRB joins FTC in taking aim at non-competes
- Supreme Court leaves key internet protection untouched
- US Supreme Court bites back at parody’s use of the First Amendment
- My goal: Provide the information that you need now
- Case study: North Carolina courts provide guidance on scope, limitations of attorney-client privilege
- A Different Ode to Pro Bono Work
- N.C. Bar Association embraces homophobia