South Carolina Public Interest Foundation v. South Carolina Transportation Infrastructure Bank Since the respondent Transportation Infrastructure Bank’s board of directors has the power to “borrow money through issuance of bonds and other forms of indebtedness,” and since it is within the province of the legislature to incur debt on behalf of the state, there is a constitutional nexus between the powers and responsibilities of the directors on the board and members of the General Assembly

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State v. Dawson By the time defendant was sentenced, the General Assembly had reduced the penalty for her crime; however, a savings clause in the legislation made the reduced penalty inapplicable to defendant’s pending case

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Gladden v. Boykin Although our General Assembly requires home inspectors to be licensed, the General Assembly does not require home inspectors to carry errors and omissions liability insurance. Furthermore, the Residential Property Condition Disclosure Act imposes liability on a seller if she knowingly withholds information about defects.

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Two hours in this spacious meeting room at the Gressette Building on the State House grounds in Columbia and already I've seen all I ever want to see of sausage-making. Those state senators are amazing. For two hours now, they've been cranking out the product, unabashedly batting ideas back and forth, niggling over details and considering the future, all in the name of the prospective betterment of the great state of South Carolina.

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A bill capping punitive damages in civil actions was set to go before the S.C. Senate after the Senate Judiciary Committee gave it a thumbs-up. The committee voted to send H. 3375, named the Fairness in Civil Justice Act of 2011, to the full Senate with a favorable review and amendments. The proposal would limit a plaintiff's punitive damages to $350,000 or three times the amount of his compensatory damages, whichever is greater.

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A bill that would cap punitive damages in the South Carolina is now before the state Senate's Judiciary Committee, having won a thumbs-up from a judiciary subcommittee last week. The bill, H. 3375, named the Fairness in Civil Justice Act of 2011, passed the House of Representatives by a 100-to-11 vote on Feb. 10. It would limit punitive damages to $350,000 or three times the amount of the compensatory damages, whichever is greater. "We believe the fact that South Carolina doesn't have any caps when every other state around us does means that we're simply at a competitive disadvantage when other states are recruiting economic development head to head with us," said state Sen. Larry Martin (pictured).

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An effort by the S.C. Bar to reach out to Republican Gov. Nikki Haley in the wake of an election season that jarred the image of lawyers surfaced as members met in Hilton Head Island for their annual convention. In a Jan. 21 videotaped speech to the House of Delegates, Bar President Carl Solomon (pictured) praised Haley for appointing lawyers to her cabinet and said he had written her a letter congratulating her on the appointments. "She sought out attorneys to handle very difficult issues in difficult situations," Solomon said of the governor.

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  COLUMBIA (AP) – South Carolina legislators are considering an anti-illegal immigration law similar to Arizona’s. The bill was up for debate in Senate Judiciary, but the meeting ended before senators could get to that issue. It would allow police ...

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The tab for unpaid Rule 608 civil appointments is now up to about $500,000 and could exceed $1 million by the end of the fiscal year. That's the latest word from the state Commission on Indigent Defense, which is charged with administering the 608 system despite a lack of legislative funding dating back years. And it isn't likely to get better any time soon. Executive Director Patton Adams said the commission asked a legislative subcommittee on Jan. 19 for $1.9 million to pay for civil appointments in the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

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No later than February of each year, the South Carolina Supreme Court has the opportunity to submit amendments to the court rules to the General Assembly. The General Assembly then has 90 days to reject them, which has never occurred to my knowledge. No changes can be made. The legislature's only choice is to ignore the rules, in which case they take effect, or reject them. This bizarre process is the result of a compromise between the General Assembly and the South Carolina Supreme Court in the early 1980s, after a period of wrestling between the two over which body had the ultimate authority to establish court rules. Prior to that time, lawyers had to search both statutes and court rules for procedural rules that governed court proceedings in the state.

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