Not South Carolina Specific

What’s “conditional” about the conditional forgiveness in condonation?

Posted Thursday, September 9th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Divorce and Marriage, Jurisprudence, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific

“Condonation” is one of the few family law doctrines that appeals to the better angels of our nature.  Allowing one spouse to conditionally forgive the

Treating Unwed Daddies as Wallets

Posted Friday, August 27th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Child Support, Contempt/Enforcement of Orders, Jurisprudence, Law and Culture, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, Of Interest to General Public, Paternity, Visitation

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

In era of DNA paternity testing, Supreme Court finally (and greatly) weakens presumption of in-wedlock paternity

Posted Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Jurisprudence, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, Of Interest to General Public, Paternity, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific, Visitation

“The presumption that a child born in wedlock is legitimate, although rebuttable, is one of the strongest known in the law.” Lewter by Epps v. Thompson,

When the buck stops nowhere, failure is to be expected: the problems created by the lack of tort liability for a Social Service agency’s failure to protect a child from abusive caregivers

Posted Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Jurisprudence, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, Of Interest to General Public

My first year of law school the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Deshaney v. Winnebago Cty. Soc. Servs. Dept., 489 U.S. 189

South Carolina’s bass-ackwards approach to life insurance to secure support payments

Posted Thursday, July 15th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Alimony/Spousal Support, Child Support, Jurisprudence, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific

South Carolina’s approach to the requirement of life insurance to secure child support or alimony payments could only have been designed by someone with no

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

Posted Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Jurisprudence, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys

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

Not publishing opinions to save the trial court embarrassment

Posted Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Child Custody, Jurisprudence, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, Of Interest to General Public, South Carolina Specific

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.

Applying Family Court Rule 27 to line jump the docket on visitation enforcement

Posted Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Child Custody, Contempt/Enforcement of Orders, Family Court Procedure, Jurisprudence, Litigation Strategy, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific, Visitation

I met with a father earlier this week for a consult.  He mentioned that he had gone five months without seeing his teenage daughter and

The link between animal cruelty and domestic violence

Posted Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Jurisprudence, Law and Culture, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to General Public, Protection from Domestic Abuse, South Carolina Appellate Decisions

When I was in my late teens my best friend was a brilliant, iconoclastic, Catholic, conservative, whose parents has escaped Communist Poland and lived in

Can miscarriage expenses be considered an incident of child support?

Posted Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Attorney's Fees, Child Support, Equitable Distribution/Property Division, Jurisprudence, Litigation Strategy, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific

Today’s Court of Appeals opinion in Susan R. v. Donald R., 389 S.C. 107, 697 S.E.2d 634 (Ct. App. 2010), affirmed, with one seemingly insignificant modification,