June 2010

Jurisprudence

June 29th, 2010

How does a judge know evidence is relevant without (generally) resorting to hearsay?

While responding to a comment on my blog “Why isn’t corporal punishment considered domestic abuse?,” I began thinking about how one might “know” a fact without resorting to hearsay.  This is important in making a threshold determination of whether evidence is relevant under the South Carolina Rules of Evidence.  Rule 402, SCRE requires evidence to […]

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Law and Culture

June 26th, 2010

Why isn’t corporal punishment considered domestic abuse?

Yesterday, while bantering with a DSS attorney I really like during a lull in a mediation I was conducting, she mentioned that she used corporal punishment as discipline when her child “needed correction.”  I facetiously responded that I believed I should be able to exercise corporal punishment on my wife when she too “needed correction.” I […]

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South Carolina Specific

June 26th, 2010

I too have read South Carolina Family Court Rule 9 (or how to piss-off a family court judge <i>part 2</i>)

If you practice family law in South Carolina, how often has the following happened to you?: ATTORNEY: [Asks the witness a question] OPPOSING COUNSEL: Objection JUDGE: Sustained If I am the attorney who has just had my question cut off without being able to explain why my question is permissible, I will ask the judge, […]

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Litigation Strategy

June 26th, 2010

A new response to “move on counsel; you’ve made your point” (or how to piss-off a family court judge <i>part 1</i>)

Since family court proceedings are bench trials a family law attorney’s task is to convince a judge, not a jury.  Judges who feel that the attorney is belaboring an issue are known to cut off an attorney’s questioning of a witness by telling the attorney some variation on “move on counsel; you’ve made your point.” […]

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South Carolina Specific

June 22nd, 2010

Not publishing opinions to save the trial court embarrassment

I have been a past critic of the South Carolina Court of Appeals’ failure to publish opinions that do not meet the criteria of S.C. Code Ann. § 18-9-280 for leaving opinions unpublished.  Sometimes I read an unpublished opinion that, to my thinking, clearly doesn’t meet that criteria and the only reason I can figure […]

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South Carolina Appellate Decisions

June 22nd, 2010

How crazy does one have to be to get relief from a judgment?

I am currently assisting a local attorney in seeking relief from a judgment, pursuant to Rule 60(b)(1), SCRCP, based on the claim that the client was suffering from such a significant mental illness at the time he entered what he alleges was an unfair agreement that he had excusable neglect in entering this agreement.  At […]

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