South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Where the trial court improperly excluded an expert who would have provided testimony material to the defendants’ defense, two defendants convicted of drug conspiracy charges are entitled to a new trial. Background A federal jury convicted Benjamin Galecki and Charles ...

Where the detective’s facially sufficient search warrant affidavit was imprecise, but had no proof an alleged error was intentionally or recklessly false,  the drug defendant’s post-conviction challenge to the affidavit failed. Background After a jury convicted Benitez Auguarius Moody of ...

For the third time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will attempt to determine whether construction of the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline will threaten four endangered species after the conclusions in FWS’s prior opinion were found arbitrary and capricious. ...

Because a sentencing judge who denied the victim’s request for restitution erred by not articulating how he balanced various competing factors, the victim will have another opportunity to argue he should be awarded restitution as part of the drunken driving ...

Where there was no evidence of an antecedent agreement to fight or pre-existing ill will between defendant and the victim, and where there was no evidence that the victim had reason to believe defendant was armed with a deadly weapon ...

Where neither the plat referenced in plaintiff’s predecessor’s deed nor the description in the deed itself precisely located the land claimed by plaintiff, and where the claimed waterfront land falls within the public trust, the master-in-equity did not abuse his ...

Once the family court entered a final equitable distribution order—without reserving continuing jurisdiction—and in the absence of extraordinary circumstances, the family court did not have jurisdiction to make substantive modifications to the equitable distribution of the marital estate. We reverse ...

Given the conflicting evidence as to the sequence of events leading up to and including defendant’s fatal shooting of the victim (1) within defendant’s live testimony, (2) between defendant’s testimony and his recorded statement, (3) between defendant’s testimony and witness ...

Although Bostic v. City of W. Columbia, 268 S.C. 386, 234 S.E.2d 224 (1977), found an ordinance that flatly prohibited variances conflicted with the enabling legislation at issue, the current enabling legislation specifically authorizes local governing bodies to “preclude the ...

Although the 10-year-old witness did not see defendant shoot his mother, he did see them fighting earlier, hear the gunshot, find his mother in a pool of blood and discover that defendant had left the house. When the witness immediately ...