South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

At defendant’s trial for sexually abusing his elder stepdaughter, he failed to preserve for appellate review the issue of whether the trial court erred in allowing his younger stepdaughter to testify that he abused her, too. We reverse the Court ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Because the allegedly libelous statement in this case involved an issue of public controversy or concern (a controversial post-game ritual performed by members of a high school football team) and was published by a media defendant, the common law presumption ...

Tagged with: Tort/Negligence

Where, as here, the state concedes that the trial court imposed an illegal sentence, an appellate court may correct that sentence on direct appeal or remand the issue to the trial court even if the defendant did not object to ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Respondent was convicted in a municipal court bench trial of violating Sullivan’s Island Town Code §§ 21-75 and 5-10 in the construction of his dock. Because there was no evidence that respondent violated any provision of the ordinance, we affirm ...

Tagged with: Municipal

Over the course of 13 hours, defendant drove the Victim – his ex-girlfriend – from Marion County into Dillon and Marlboro Counties and back to Marion County. Defendant beat and stabbed Victim in Dillon County and then tried to snap ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Reverse spot zoning – a novel concept in South Carolina – occurs when a zoning ordinance restricts the use of a property when virtually all the property’s adjoining neighbors are not subject to the use restriction. In order to promote ...

Tagged with: Zoning

When defendant pled guilty, he knowingly and voluntarily waived his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial; consequently, S.C. Code Ann. § 16-3-20(B) (“If trial by jury has been waived by the defendant and the State, or if the defendant ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

The Town of McBee Municipal Election Commission did not believe Sydney Baker when she testified that she did not “request” absentee ballots for other voters; rather, she assisted other voters in requesting their own absentee ballots. Since there was no ...

Tagged with: Elections

The defendant-developers promised – at the outset of development and periodically throughout the time leading up to this lawsuit – to transfer certain amenities to the project’s homeowners’ association. However, the developers made consideration-less transfers of the amenities among several ...

Tagged with: Corporate

Where the Workers’ Compensation Commission summarily denied a motion to reinstate an appeal without engaging in a rational analysis of the good cause standard, the commission failed to exercise its discretion; consequently, there was no exercise of discretion to which ...

Tagged with: Administrative