Dumpster diving the family court files
August 26, 2012
When I first started practicing family law an early mentor, William J. Hamilton, III, told me that, “the evidence for a thousand divorces lies in
Equalizing incomes doesn’t always equalize lifestyles
August 25, 2012
In setting alimony for really long marriages (30+ years) the family courts sometime try to equalize incomes. In cases in which both parties are retired
Fighting the wrong battle on transmutation
August 25, 2012
I attended a mediation training yesterday in which one of the exercises dealt with the issue of “transmutation,” the process by which non-marital property becomes
August 21, 2012
Sometime around 2007 I encountered a situation involving a marital home I not previously dealt with: negative equity. Prior to 2007 unhappily married folks often
Successfully representing the uncredible family court client
August 8, 2012
Credibility is a major issue in most family court trials. See e.g., Lewis v. Lewis, 392 S.C. 381 709 S.E.2d 650, 654 (2011) (“The highly fact-intensive nature
July 19, 2012
The past few years I have, on numerous occasions, met with a family court litigant who has made obvious attempts to alter his or her
July 19, 2012
I reviewed two files yesterday in which one party to a custody dispute was refusing to answer questions by invoking her 5th Amendment privilege against
Inter-spousal legal claims that survive the marital dissolution action
June 7, 2012
Except when explicitly reserved, most inter-spousal claims do not survive a divorce or final order of separate maintenance. If one spouse owes the other money
