I had lunch yesterday with Charlie F.P. Segars-Andrews, who mentioned she had been contacted to do work with an agency, Responsible Committed Fatherhood Initiative, attempting to assist fathers establish visitation at the same time the Department of Social Services establishes child support. Given my interest in assisting such fathers obtain court-ordered visitation–my most recent volunteer case […]
Archive for August, 2010
Licenced to parent?
I read this week in the New York Times that half of all pregnancies in America are unplanned. Many of the social problems I observe–in family court; in my community; in the media–are the result of people becoming parents when they did not intend to become parents. Not a month goes by when my local paper, […]
Court of Appeals opinion clarifies transmutation and adultery’s bar to alimony
The August 4, 2010 South Carolina Court of Appeals opinion in Pruitt v. Pruitt, 389 S.C. 250, 697 S.E.2d 702 (Ct. App. 2010), covers numerous issues, a few of which are not that uninteresting or novel. The uninteresting issues are: 1) Transfers of property to family members close to the time that marital litigation commences that are […]
Living “The Life of Riley” and puffery in financing documents while claiming poverty is not conducive to minimal child support obligation
Yesterday’s Court of Appeals opinion in Bennett v. Rector, 389 S.C. 274, 697 S.E.2d 715 (Ct.App. 2010), provides further guidance on imputation of income in a child support case. Living “The Life of Riley” on a claimed income of $1,967 a month while claiming a monthly income between six to ten times greater in financial […]
Put it in writing
Early in my career I would treat any outlandish allegation an opposing counsel would make regarding my client as serious. Upon being informed via telephone of some wacked-out claim–my client was having sex with a German Shepherd puppy while snorting cocaine off of a 16 year old girl’s buttocks while the children were in an […]
Who you calling crazy?
Today the South Carolina Supreme Court, at the request of our state bar, promulgated new rules requiring all attorneys and judges to attend one hour of legal ethics/professional responsibility education every three years “devoted exclusively to instruction in substance abuse or mental health issues and the legal profession.” The Supreme Court’s rationale was that “members […]
Calling bullsh*t on custodial parents who let the children decide their visitation
When I first started practicing family law I would encounter a number of visitation enforcement hearings in which the custodial parent tried to excuse his or her failure to have the children visit with the other parent because “the children didn’t want to.” Occasionally, and much to my frustration, the judges would sometimes accept this […]