A lawyer again for twenty-one days
Earlier this month a South Carolina attorney was reinstated to the practice of law after being suspended for six months. Exactly three weeks later he was placed on interim suspension. He got to...
View ArticleSouth Carolina Supreme Court amends Rules of Professional Conduct to address...
Today the South Carolina Supreme Court adopted amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct to address the charging of advance fees by lawyers. Given recent confusing disciplinary opinions...
View ArticleShould “vile” blogging be a basis for lawyer discipline?
A news release posted yesterday on the South Carolina Judicial Department website links to a cover story in the ABA Journal, “You’re Out of Order! Dealing with the Costs of Incivility in the Legal...
View ArticleCaught between Scylla and Charybdis
Two years ago, in In the Matter of Anonymous Member of the South Carolina Bar, 392 S.C. 328, 709 S.E.2d 633 (2011), an attorney was issued a letter of caution for sending an uncivil email that she...
View ArticleIs habitual and flaunted jaywalking “conduct that is prejudicial to the...
Recently South Carolina’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) has taken action against attorneys for their activities outside the context of actual cases if these acts are “conduct that is prejudicial...
View ArticleFamily court attorney gets public reprimand for inaccurate client affidavit
In what should put chills in my fellow family law attorneys’ spines, on July 2, 2014, a South Carolina family law attorney was publicly reprimanded by the South Carolina Supreme Court in the case of In...
View ArticleCourtesy copying clients on emails
Fellow attorneys often ask me why I courtesy copy my clients on almost all emails. Evidently it is not a uniform practice. However there are three good reasons for doing so. First, it helps one comply...
View ArticleCan judges stop attorneys from communicating their rulings to litigants?
I occasionally see or hear of family court judges issuing instructions for orders but asking attorneys not to reveal their ruling to their clients until the order is signed and filed. These judges’...
View ArticleDisciplinary opinion clarifies rules on records subpoenas in family court
#79 on my November 14, 2011 list of “One hundred things I don’t know about South Carolina family law,” reads, “Can one issue subpoenas duces tecum without an order of discovery?” The November 16, 2016...
View ArticleRepresenting witnesses of current family court clients
A few times every year a witness in a current family court case will ask me to represent him or her in a family court matter. Rule 1.7 of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct limits that...
View Article
