Posted Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Equitable Distribution/Property Division, Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys
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
Posted Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Attorney-Client Relations, Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys
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
Posted Thursday, July 19th, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to General Public
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
Posted Thursday, July 19th, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys
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
Posted Thursday, June 7th, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Divorce and Marriage, Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys
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
Visitation cases have a different focus than custody cases
Posted Thursday, June 7th, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, Visitation
Typically parents retain me to handle visitation cases, rather than seeking custody, when they have not had much recent contact with their child. Often such
The perils of witness-drafted affidavits
Posted Friday, June 1st, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys
Having witnesses draft their own affidavits is a time and money saving method of preparing for family court hearings. Further having witnesses rather than the
The limits of South Carolina Family Court Rule 7
Posted Friday, June 1st, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Family Court Procedure, Litigation Strategy, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific
South Carolina Family Court Rule 7 creates various evidentiary exceptions to the general rules of hearsay. Some family law attorneys read this rule to allow
Reviewing family court temporary hearing affidavits before beginning argument
Posted Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific
Under South Carolina Rule of Family Court 21(c), “affidavits filed at a temporary hearing need not be served on the opposing party prior to the
The uses and misuses of ambiguity in family court agreements
Posted Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Litigation Strategy, Not South Carolina Specific, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys
Some of the most contentious family court litigation I have handled involved modification of prior family court agreements in which the agreements were ambiguous to
