South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

After defendant’s trial, our Supreme Court said in State v. Burdette, 427 S.C. 490, 832 S.E.2d 575 (2019), “Regardless of the evidence presented at trial, trial courts shall not instruct a jury that the element of malice may be inferred ...

The parties’ 2003 divorce decree said the alimony awarded to the defendant-Wife would be “non-modifiable and will cease only at the death of [Wife] or [the plaintiff-Husband] or the remarriage of [Wife].” Although this decree did not expressly deny the ...

The child victim testified that in 2015 (when she was 11 years old), she and her uncle, the defendant, stayed up late to watch movies on New Year’s Eve. While the victim was asleep on the couch, defendant kissed her ...

In an order certifying a plaintiff class, the circuit court, without being asked to do so, stated that, until notice of the action was given to the class, “no party shall communicate with the class members regarding this class action ...

Where the pro se plaintiff conceded he did not comply with Rule 4(d)(8), SCRCP, when he first attempted to serve defendant Healy (a police officer who had accused plaintiff of stealing a ring from her yard sale), and where plaintiff ...

Even if the lender violated the bidding statute, S.C. Code Ann. § 15-39-720, by using a “straw man” to bid at the second foreclosure sale, res judicata bars the appellant-Guarantors’ assertion of the alleged statutory violation as a defense, and, ...

Where a calendaring mistake by the defendant-appellant’s counsel led defendant to miss the filing deadline for its appellate brief and led the Workers’ Compensation Commission to dismiss the appeal, the commission was required to consider whether there was good cause ...

In her bid for immunity from prosecution, defendant proceeded solely under S.C. Code Ann. § 16-11-440(C). However, defendant’s statements to law enforcement indicated that she retrieved a gun and pointed at the victim, her abusive paramour, in an attempt to ...

Petitioner asserts that the state forced him to either accept a plea offer without viewing a surveillance video, purportedly of him engaging in a drug transaction, or view it and face a sentence of life without parole at trial. However, ...

Although a verbatim reading of S.C. Code Ann. § 12-43-220(c)(2)(ii) would allow the appellant-taxpayer to claim the homestead exemption for her Beaufort County house, since her husband lives in Tennessee, we construe § 12-43-220(c)(2)(ii)(A) to disqualify appellant from claiming the ...