Bowers v. College of Charleston is an unpublished December 2011 opinion from the South Carolina Court of Appeals. One of my few recent non-family law appeals, I represented Dr. Bowers as he appealed a grievance proceeding decision terminating his tenured employment as a professor at the College of Charleston based on a finding that he sexually harassed a student. At the grievance hearing the College placed limitations on his attorney’s right to participate in the proceedings and allowed an ex-parte deposition of the alleged victim to be introduced into evidence when she refused to testify without her attorney being present.
The Court of Appeals affirmed Bowers’ termination and refused to address these issues because his trial counsel had failed to object. This loss was heartbreaking, as I believe Dr. Bowers was terminated based on an inappropriate procedure and based on faulty and non-credible evidence. However, it’s hard to remedy such injustices on appeal when trial counsel does not preserve error.
Developing good witnesses for visitation cases
A common problem in trying to get fathers[i] of young children more visitation is that often few folks other than family members (who
Court of Appeals affirms Mother can be held in contempt for publishing book critical of Father
The March 5, 2025, Court of Appeals opinion in Clark v. Clark, 446 S.C. 909, 17 S.E.2d 917 (Ct. App. 2025), affirms the
The wrong times to be starting marital or custody litigation
One of my earliest blogs addressed the idea that the family court only has jurisdiction over a child’s custody for a period of
