South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Although Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015), applies retroactively, our state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage constituted an impediment to the formation of a common-law marriage until that impediment was removed. Since the parties separated before the impediment was ...

At the time respondent contracted marriage with the now-deceased James Brown in 2001, she had not resolved her first marriage (to Javed Ahmed); therefore, her marriage to Brown was void ab initio, and there was nothing to be “revived” by ...

While there was no evidence that respondent/petitioner-Husband planned to sell the family business (of which he owned 75 percent and petitioner/respondent-Wife owned 25 percent), when a family court is valuing a minority interest in a closely-held business, the decision as ...

Where petitioner-Husband contended that the typed version of a handwritten settlement agreement contained terms to which he did not agree, he could move for correction of a clerical error pursuant to Rule 60(a), SCRCP. The record does not contain evidence ...

Although appellant-Mother did not seek court intervention for more than seven years while respondent-Father paid less in child support than the court had ordered him to pay, Father did not present sufficient evidence to establish (1) any agreement between the ...

Our Supreme Court has not specifically addressed binding arbitration and the family court’s duty to protect the best interests of children; however, a court cannot be bound by an arbitration award and simultaneously act as parens patriae on behalf of ...

Because (1) both parents are fit, loving, and want custody of their child and (2) the parents have a divisive relationship and fail to communicate effectively, the family court erred when it ordered week-to-week alternating custody. We reverse the custody ...

Binding arbitration is not available to decide questions of child custody and support because the family court must always make the determination as to what is in the best interest of the child. The family court properly determined that it ...

Where DSS sought to remove three children from long-term foster care and place the children with a relative, and where the foster parents, in a private action, sought to terminate the biological parents’ rights and adopt the children, the family ...

Our grandparent visitation statute, S.C. Code Ann. § 63-3-530(A)(33), requires the family court to find compelling circumstances before awarding grandparent visitation over the objection of a fit parent. As a result, the statute is constitutional. In this case, the mother’s ...