South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

A pair of federal judges in South Carolina has joined a growing national trend in finding that recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions requiring heightened pleading requirements from plaintiffs are not applicable to affirmative defenses raised by defendants. For nearly a ...

Tagged with: Affirmative Defenses

A sheriff-turned-legislator who fired a jail worker for leaking information about an inmate’s death cannot raise qualified immunity as a shield against a lawsuit claiming First Amendment violations, a South Carolina federal judge has ruled. Former York County Sheriff Bruce ...

Tagged with: sheriff

The most important opinions from the second quarter of 2017. Administrative APA & Mandamus – Savannah River Site – Nuclear Fuel Removal South Carolina v. United States (Lawyers Weekly No. 002-092-17, 37 pp.) (J. Michelle Childs, J.) 1:16-cv-00391; D.S.C. Holding: ...

Tagged with: Most Important Opinions

A federal judge has found that DirecTV, the satellite service provider, failed to prove that it is exempt from a Fair Labor Standards Act overtime wage requirement because its technicians do not work in a retail or service “establishment.” Local ...

Tagged with: overtime

Leaders at the Charleston School of Law are talking with the U.S. Department of Education on the revision of rules meant to protect students from predatory schools whose graduates find themselves buried in debt with little chance of finding good ...

A paralegal with the Charleston law firm of Yarborough Applegate has been named 2017’s American Association for Justice Paralegal of the Year. Amy Johnson, who has been with the firm for seven years, was selected from numerous entrants across the ...

Tagged with: Paralegal

Allegations that a U.S. Naval Hospital allowed a mentally unstable patient to escape while he was out for a stroll are claims for medical malpractice, not ordinarily negligence, a federal judge has ruled. The runaway patient commandeered a fire truck ...

Tagged with: Medical Malpractice

An argument by prosecutors that a drug dealer engaged in two separate conspiracies and could be prosecuted in separate Virginia districts has failed to persuade judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 4th Circuit unanimously held June ...

Tagged with: Cocaine Double Jeopardy

A divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found on June 1 that a district judge erroneously allowed the introduction of a defendant’s prior drug convictions, irreparably tainting a drugs-and-guns case. Prosecutors failed to prove that ...

Tagged with: Marijuana

What does it mean to “occupy” a vehicle? For a South Carolina federal judge, intent was the key. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focused on proximity. The appellate court on May 30 reversed U.S. District Judge J. ...

Tagged with: UIM