Blog

Overusing appraisers in valuing marital property

Posted Thursday, November 5th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Equitable Distribution/Property Division, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys

In equitably dividing marital property the South Carolina family court judge has three tasks: 1) identifying which property of the parties is “marital” and which

Co-mediation

Posted Friday, October 30th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific

My wife, Karen Klickstein-Forman, LISW-CP, and I co-mediated our first cases today, mediating three abuse and neglect cases in the Charleston County Family Court, completely

Family leave = family values

Posted Thursday, October 29th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Law and Culture, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to General Public

80° sunny day in Charleston and my morning calendar fell apart...so I decided to do lunch at my second grader’s school.  After lunch I organized

Entrepreneurial cognizance within the professions

Posted Thursday, October 29th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Law and Culture, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys

Last week Thomas L. Friedman, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist, wrote a piece describing the current recession as largely caused by

The distinction between a witness who doesn’t understand the question and who doesn’t understand why you are asking the question

Posted Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys

I am not one of those lucky souls who can speak extemporaneously in perfectly coherent paragraphs.  Thus, when conducting cross-examinations, I am not surprised when

216 months redux

Posted Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Child Custody, Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys

A few months ago I blogged on the concept that a child’s minority only lasts for 216 months and that the number of months of

Despite guilty plea to simple assault and battery on child at issue, Court of Appeals reverses family court finding that defendant abused child

Posted Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific

The Court of Appeals’ decision in South Carolina Department of Social Services v. C.H., L.K., T.M. and D.M., 386 S.C. 58, 685 S.E.2d 835 (2009), reversed the

How to deal with the witness who, on cross-examination, loses the ability to answer questions

Posted Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys

One of the things I am enjoying about mentoring newly-licensed attorneys is the opportunity to share little tips on how to deal with common litigation

Emergency hearings versus expedited hearings

Posted Friday, October 23rd, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific

Unlike a number of my family law brethren, I seek few emergency hearings; unlike almost all of my family law brethren, I seek many expedited

Risking one’s law license

Posted Sunday, October 18th, 2009 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Miscellaneous, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys

Just this month, one of my local family law colleagues was placed on interim suspension by the South Carolina Supreme Court.  Not only did this