South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Taking the reins May 14 as the S.C. Bar’s new president, Fred Suggs made it clear that three priorities would top his agenda: eliminating the Rule 608 system of indigent appointments, forging ahead on the Bar’s building project and nurturing ...

The results are in, and Columbia still maintains its crown as the unofficial mecca for the attorneys employed by the largest law firms in the Palmetto State. A South Carolina Lawyers Weekly survey of the state’s 20 biggest firms shows ...

The S.C. Supreme Court has declared a 2008 state law invalid in a ruling aimed at halting legislative “log-rolling,” the practice of bundling unrelated proposals into one measure to ensure their passage. In a unanimous May 4 decision, the court ...

A dispute over police dog tracking evidence has led the state Supreme Court to provide the first-ever guidelines for trial courts to use in determining whether such evidence is reliable. In an April 27 decision, the court described the guidelines ...

Although a DUI suspect neither read nor signed an implied-consent form, the state still could suspend his driver’s license because a law-enforcement officer read the form to him, the S.C. Supreme Court has ruled. In a 3-2 decision, the court ...

Judge boosts award in trademark dispute over toy names

A multi-million-dollar verdict for three workers injured in a 2004 chemical explosion in Seneca has defense lawyers pondering their options days after a circuit judge more than doubled the award for two of the plaintiffs. Judge J.C. Nicholson Jr. ordered ...

Environmental regulators’ approval of a Lowcountry dock that violated state regulations drew a stinging rebuke from the S.C. Supreme Court in an opinion scolding the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. Landowners who said the dock blocked a tributary ...

Lawyer owed no duty to third parties to draft will

The S.C. Bar’s first ethics advisory opinion of 2009 may be a wake-up call for lawyers who have been attending real estate closings for out-of-state closing coordinating companies. Ethics Advisory Opinion 09-01 addresses the responsibilities of lawyers in attending residential ...