A spouse’s adultery is generally an absolute bar to alimony. See S.C. Code Ann. § 20-3-130(A) (“No alimony may be awarded a spouse who commits adultery before the earliest of these two events: (1) the formal signing of a written property or marital settlement agreement or (2) entry of a permanent order of separate maintenance and support or of a permanent order approving a property or marital settlement agreement between the parties.”).
However, adultery that has been condoned–conditionally forgiven–or is the result of connivance, does not act as a bar to an award of alimony. Recrimination, the defense that both parties are guilty of the same fault-divorce ground, does not remove adultery’s bar to alimony. See, Spires v. Spires, 296 S.C. 422, 373 S.E.2d 698 (Ct. App. 1988).
Developing good witnesses for visitation cases
A common problem in trying to get fathers[i] of young children more visitation is that often few folks other than family members (who
Court of Appeals affirms Mother can be held in contempt for publishing book critical of Father
The March 5, 2025, Court of Appeals opinion in Clark v. Clark, 446 S.C. 909, 17 S.E.2d 917 (Ct. App. 2025), affirms the
The wrong times to be starting marital or custody litigation
One of my earliest blogs addressed the idea that the family court only has jurisdiction over a child’s custody for a period of
