The doctrine of res judicata prevents the relitigation of issues previously decided between the same parties. The doctrine requires three essential elements: (1) the judgment must be final, valid and on the merits; (2) the parties in the subsequent action must be identical to those in the first; and (3) the second action must involve […]
Archive for the ‘Of Interest to Family Court Litigants’ Category
Availability for family court mediations
Given Chief Justice Beatty’s order allowing mediation via videoconferencing, I can mediate family court disputes throughout South Carolina through zoom. Until the courts reopen I am willing to mediate for $250 per hour, including an hour for prep. My current availability is: March 30-31, April 1-3, 6-10, 13-16, 20-24, 27-30, May 1. Please contact me […]
Family court “emergencies” in the COVID-19 era
In a pair of March 18, 2020 orders, South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald W. Beatty cancelled all family court terms of court through May 1, 2020, and limited family court proceedings to “emergency matters.” I hear from other attorneys that, with this knowledge, some parents have begun refusing visitation or refusing to return […]
Visitation denial in the COVID-19 era
COVID-19 is the first airborne global pandemic to take place since the development of specialized family courts in the United States. Never before has mandated social distancing interacted with the awesome contempt powers of family court visitation orders. Thus, I am getting numerous questions about complying with visitation orders from custodial parents who are considering […]
Buying the child(ren)’s time
There’s a never discussed but occasionally employed litigation strategy of using money to purchase time with (or limit an opposing party’s access to) children. Earlier this month I settled a case in which grandparents used money to keep their own daughter from having enforceable visitation with her daughters. At the time of mediation my clients […]
Softening up an unrealistic defendant
I began trial in a visitation establishment case yesterday. While preparing for trial earlier this week my client (the plaintiff) asked me how I thought the case would end. I informed him it would likely settle halfway into my cross examination of the defendant. I was unduly pessimistic. About 15% of the way into my […]
Ninth time’s the charm
On January 16, 2020 the South Carolina Supreme Court denied certiorari in Moore v. Moore, 427 S.C. 26, 828 S.E.2d 224 (Ct. App. 2019). After eight prior published appeals denying alimony termination based upon allegations of continuing cohabitation, Moore is the first “final” published opinion in which a supporting ex-spouse successfully terminated his alimony on […]
2019 Published Family Court opinions summary
After a couple of years mid-decade in which South Carolina’s appellate courts published only six opinions addressing family law, 2019 produced a more robust set of opinions: eighteen, plus a refiled opinion from late-2018. Many of these opinions were highly consequential. Two Court of Appeals opinions, Singh v. Singh, and Kosciusko v. Parham, held that […]