In the September 21, 2011 Court of Appeals opinion of South Carolina Department of Social Services v. Mary C., 396 S.C. 15, 720 S.E.2d 503 (Ct. App. 2011), a child’s therapist opined that a three-year old’s masturbating and defying her potty training by urinating on the floor were signs of “sexualized behaviors” indicative of sexual abuse. This […]
Posts Tagged ‘Department of Social Services’
Who buggered my dog?
Posted Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, Of Interest to General Public, South Carolina Appellate Decisions
3 Comments »
Tags: Benjamin Stevens, Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Social Services, South Carolina Court of Appeals
Posted in Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, Of Interest to General Public, South Carolina Appellate Decisions | 3 Comments »
Supreme Court grants termination of parental rights, finding mother’s failure to support was “willful”
Posted Monday, July 18th, 2011 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Adoption/Termination of Parental Rights, Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific
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In SCDSS v. M. R. C. L., 393 S.C. 387, 712 S.E.2d 452 (2011), it took the South Carolina Supreme Court less than a year to reverse the Court of Appeals’ opinion, 390 S.C. 329, 701 S.E.2d 757 (Ct. App. 2010), which itself reversed a family court grant of termination of parental right against a mother whom the […]
Tags: Department of Social Services, South Carolina Supreme Court, Termination of Parental Rights
Posted in Adoption/Termination of Parental Rights, Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific | No Comments »
Monthly visits and small gifts sufficient to prevent termination of parental rights says Court of Appeals
Posted Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Adoption/Termination of Parental Rights, Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific
1 Comment »
Note: this decision was later reversed by the South Carolina Supreme Court. See, Supreme Court grants termination of parental rights, finding mother’s failure to support was “willful” Today’s 2-1 decision in SC Department of Social Services v. M. R. C. L., 390 S.C. 329, 701 S.E.2d 757 (Ct. App. 2010), reversed a family court ruling terminating […]
Tags: Department of Social Services, South Carolina Court of Appeals, Termination of Parental Rights
Posted in Adoption/Termination of Parental Rights, Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific | 1 Comment »
Despite children already being removed, reversible error for family court to order removal in a DSS intervention case
Posted Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 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
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Today’s Court of Appeals opinion in SCDSS v. Randy S., 390 S.C. 100, 700 S.E.2d 250 (Ct.App. 2010), reverses the family court’s decision to remove children from the Father’s care, where DSS brought the lawsuit against Father as an action for intervention[1] rather than for removal.[2] Randy S. seems like a strange case for the appellate […]
Tags: Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Social Services, South Carolina Court of Appeals
Posted in Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Appellate Decisions, South Carolina Specific | No Comments »
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
9 Comments »
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 (1989), rejected a claim that negligence of a child protective service agency to protect a child from an abusive caregiver was a violation of the due process clause of the […]
Tags: Charleston Post & Courier, Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Social Services, Jurisprudence, New York Times, United States Supreme Court
Posted in 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 | 9 Comments »
Will the Recent Changes to the Abuse and Neglect Statute Make These Cases Harder to Settle?
Posted Sunday, July 18th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Guardians Ad Litem, Litigation Strategy, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific
1 Comment »
I received an email from a recently licensed attorney noting a previous blog and asking whether I thought she, as the guardian ad litem in an abuse and neglect case, should be making recommendations on the merits. This got me thinking about how the recent changes to the abuse and neglect statute, explained here, will impact […]
Tags: Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Social Services, Litigation Strategy
Posted in Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Guardians Ad Litem, Litigation Strategy, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific | 1 Comment »
State of Abuse
Posted Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Law and Culture, Of Interest to General Public, South Carolina Specific
No Comments »
The first in a series on Child Protective Services in South Carolina was published in today’s Charleston Post & Courier: State of Abuse. This initial piece accurately describes what I see in family court abuse and neglect cases. Subsequent articles in the series can be found here: DSS not meeting requirements; here: The guardians; and here: Norton center […]
Tags: Adam Parker, Charleston Post & Courier, Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Social Services, Guardian ad litem
Posted in Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Law and Culture, Of Interest to General Public, South Carolina Specific | No Comments »
Updated abuse and neglect materials
Posted Friday, March 26th, 2010 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific
1 Comment »
Less than a year after undertaking extensive research in 2007 to draft materials for lectures on representing parents in abuse and neglect cases, South Carolina’s legislature recodified the abuse an neglect code. Unlike the recent recodification of the children’s code, this was not mostly labeling old statutes with new statute numbers in a one-to-one mapping. […]
Tags: Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Social Services, Litigation Strategy
Posted in Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific | 1 Comment »