South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Where the district court failed to identify which § 3553(a) factors it thought supported its sentence based on its independent assessment of the offense conduct and defendant’s history and characteristics, and where the court did not explain which of the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Even though there was no direct evidence supporting the state’s theory of the case – that defendant sucker punched the victim (Victim) in the back of the head – and even though the evidence seemed to point to defendant having ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Where the record shows that the claimant’s duties as a firefighter included lifting heavy objects on a regular basis, the claimant’s evidence showed a repetitive-motion injury to his back. It appears that the Workers’ Compensation Commission equated activities that are ...

Tagged with: Workers' Compensation

In this case arising out of an armed robbery and murder, the trial court instructed the jury that it was permissible (but not required) to infer malice if the killing occurred during the commission of a felony. Even if this ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Even though the government will generally need a warrant to access cell site location information (CSLI), the exigent circumstances exception allowed police to use CSLI without a warrant here, just hours after a violent home invasion, because defendant was potentially ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Plaintiff’s nuisance claim is based on the defendant-trust’s installation of a driveway that allegedly directs stormwater runoff onto plaintiff’s property. The trial court properly found that (1) credible evidence showed that the driveway did not cause considerable amounts of stormwater ...

Tagged with: Real Property

The respondent-associate is suspended from the practice of law after using his firm’s software to inflate the hours that he worked, resulting in an overpayment of $17,772.74 by the firm (no clients overpaid). The associate repaid the overpayment, expresses remorse ...

Tagged with: Attorneys

The matter of physical and legal custody of the parties’ minor child has been in contention for almost six years—since the child was two months old. We regret the delay caused in part by our state’s court system and acknowledge ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

In this case arising out of a shooting during an altercation on the lawn of a mutual friend of defendant and the victim, the trial court’s decision under the Protections of Persons and Property Act failed to make specific findings ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

In this case arising out of a deputy sheriff’s U-turn and two successive collisions, the original of a surveillance video from a nearby business was not produced because the video was recorded to a hard drive. A state trooper set ...

Tagged with: Tort/Negligence