“I don’t know/recall” may be the best interrogatory or deposition answer you can get
April 21, 2016
I lectured last week to recent law school graduates about family law discovery. Part of this lecture discussed Rule 37(a)(3), SCRCP which reads: “Evasive or
Why join stepparents as opposing parties to family court proceedings?
March 25, 2016
The short answer is discovery. While I understand the logic of joining stepparents as parties to custody or visitation proceedings when that stepparent will not
Why not divide up legal custody?
February 27, 2016
Deciding who will have legal custody–final decision making authority for a child–can be one of the more contentious issues in custody cases. Often one parent
Using opposing parties’ evasive discovery responses against them
February 9, 2016
Often opposing parties will respond to discovery with evasion: giving answers that respond to some, slightly different allegation; providing lengthy responses to “yes/no” questions without
February 7, 2016
In responding to discovery or pleadings, some of the responses, if accurate, will bolster the other party’s case. Clients, even (especially) sophisticated clients, often balk
Respecting the ongoing duty to supplement written discovery responses
February 5, 2016
South Carolina case law recognizes the fundamental importance of discovery to preparing a lawsuit for trial: The primary objective of discovery is to ensure that
That ship has sailed (or implicitly condoning past child abuse or neglect)
February 5, 2016
A decent subset of my custody and visitation cases have one parent raising abuse or neglect allegations that predate an agreement (whether a temporary consent
The problems in splitting children’s expenses based upon undefined “pro rata income shares”
January 8, 2016
I have recently encountered a number of court-approved child support agreements in which child-related expenses are divided upon undefined “pro rata [Latin for “in proportion”]
