Earlier this week I received what may be one of the bigger complements of my career. A fellow member of the local family court bar was discussing two recent cases we’d had against each other. In both of these cases my clients had been represented by other attorneys prior to retaining me and in one […]
Archive for the ‘Not South Carolina Specific’ Category
Even in South Carolina, corporal punishment is becoming highly problematic
When I first started practicing family law in South Carolina a quarter century ago, “Spare the Rod; Spoil the Child” was a biblically sanctioned cultural meme. Not only would family court judges approve of corporal punishment as a method of disciplining children, many believed that failing to use corporal punishment for a thoroughly misbehaving child […]
The pessimistic defendant’s attorney
I suspect I lose a lot of business by projecting a pessimistic outlook when first meeting with Defendants in family law cases. While many litigants prefer the primacy of being the Plaintiff, and thereby going first, I’ve never seen a clear advantage in trial to representing the Plaintiff or the Defendant. However experience teaches that […]
Should I stay or should I go?
With Hurricane Florence slowly approaching Charleston and with South Carolina’s northeastern coast under a mandatory evaluation order, I’ve spent the past few days with my office closed fielding a number of questions from current clients regarding evacuation and visitation in the midst of unpredictable weather conditions. Most of these questions address visitation issues and my […]
Can non-custodial parents delegate their parenting time to third-parties?
An issue that commonly arises in interpreting custody orders is whether the non-custodial parent is allowed to delegate his or her (in this culture, mostly his) visitation to third-parties during his custodial periods when the custody order is otherwise silent on the issue. South Carolina case law remains silent on this dispute. However, while acknowledging […]
A client’s tolerance for uncertainty is a consideration in settlement negotiations
There’s a theory that our modern world offers us so little exposure to pathogens that our autoimmune systems overreact to things like pollen and peanuts, causing a massive increase in allergic reactions to relatively benign substances. On a level of culture I see something similar playing out with the human ability to tolerate risk. Evolved […]
Mediator or messenger
During the past few weeks two attorneys I greatly respect have conducted mediations for my clients. One mediator settled every single case, often in circumstances in which I thought reaching settlement would be difficult. The other attorney failed to obtain a settlement in a case that frankly should have settled without much difficulty. This had […]
Crossing the Rubicon
Per wikipedia, during the Roman republic, the river Rubicon marked the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul to the north-west and Italy proper (controlled directly by Rome and its allies) to the south. Governors of Roman provinces were appointed promagistrates with imperium (roughly, “right to command”) in one or more provinces. The governor […]