I spent the dying years of the “second wave feminism” movement living, through a dorm exchange, at Bryn Mawr College, one of the “Seven Sisters” (seven elite Northeastern all-female liberal arts colleges) that had remained single sex into the 1980’s. While living there I was inculcated with the belief that almost all gender differences were […]
Archive for May, 2009
Are the new South Carolina pro se divorce forms a good idea?
On March 17, 2009 the South Carolina Supreme Court approved and adopted forms for unrepresented spouses to obtain divorces without the use of attorneys. Most family law attorneys who have weighed in on these forms have been strongly opposed. An expressed concern is that these forms will lead unrepresented spouses to make uninformed decisions regarding […]
Court of Appeals provides guidance on alimony reduction in an economic downturn
As I have previously noted in Lump Sum Alimony, it is hard to offer clients guidance as to potential alimony reduction when they incur a reduction in income through no fault of their own. A recent Court of Appeals decision, Gartside v. Gartside, 383 S.C. 35, 677 S.E.2d 621 (Ct.App. 2009) is not only a victory for a […]
Correct result, questionable rationale on multi-state child custody jurisdiction appeal
In 2007 South Carolina substituted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) for the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). S.C. Code Ann. § 63-15-300, et seq. The change was intended, in part, to correct a few loopholes in the power of courts of one state to take jurisdiction and modify another state’s […]
Centralized record keeping and the law
It is hard to conceive of any political or organizational unit larger than a village that could sustain itself without a centrally recorded repository of its actions. Without having this repository of what the entity had done, has promised to do, and what it is expecting to do (along with the who, when, how and […]