In praise of modest decision making in family court
February 1, 2015
With a new family court judge for Charleston County due to be elected this week, the issue of the candidates’ attributes, and the bigger question
How should the family court handle misbehaving stepparents in custody litigation?
August 12, 2014
I have a fundamental jurisprudential difference with most of my family law colleagues and many of the state family court judges regarding how one should
When should the family court award grandparent visitation?
June 17, 2014
There’s some dispute surrounding last week’s blog regarding the wholesale revision of South Carolina’s grandparent visitation statute. Some commenters contend that grandparents should never be awarded autonomous
Should there be a uniform waiting period for a no-fault divorce?
March 8, 2014
I rarely blog on proposed family law legislation. Often legislation fizzles to nothing: in my twenty years of practice bills to abolish common law marriage
March 5, 2014
South Carolina family law’s approach to alimony continues to reflect an antiquated view of gender roles. South Carolina is the only state in which a
Should there be automatic de novo review of temporary custody and support orders?
January 30, 2014
I’ve previously complained that South Carolina’s handling of family court temporary hearings violate due process. This is because allowing such hearings to proceed on affidavits
The Burgess opinion and “The End of Men”
January 23, 2014
Every published opinion tells a story and the January 15, 2014 Court of Appeals opinion in Burgess v. Burgess, 407 S.C. 98, 753 S.E.2d 566
2013 again provides a dearth of published family law opinions
January 3, 2014
There are literally hundreds of commonplace but unresolved family law issues in South Carolina. Yet, at the rate our appellate courts issue published family law
