South Carolina Lawyers Weekly articles from June 2009

South Carolina Lawyers Weekly archives from June 2009

Commentary: dicta from Desa; facing up to mental health issues in the profession.(South Carolina)
June 8, 2009... Byline: Desa Ballard Please don't turn away. Pretend to be reading the other page, if you must, but please give me just a minute to share an issue about which I feel tremendous passion. Lawyers are people; we have foibles and...

Coach's corner: life is unfair - but layoffs shouldn't be.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Ed Poll Law firms are not exempt from the legal requirements to operate a workplace free from discrimination. That means ensuring that characteristics other than an individual's skills, experience and knowledge do not become...

Direct examination: a Q&A interview with South Carolina attorney Lindsay Blanks.(Interview)
June 8, 2009... Byline: Diana Smith A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, E. Lindsay Blanks has 21 years of experience handling cases involving auto accidents, workers' compensation, wrongful death, medical and hospital...

S.C. Bar Foundation seeks better returns on IOLTA accounts.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck In the wake of the nation's economic earthquake, the state Bar's philanthropic arm has asked the state Supreme Court to approve a rule change expected to increase interest rates on IOLTA accounts. In a petition...

Dealer, finance company not one 'person' under tax law, rules S.C. Supreme Court.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck The S.C. Supreme Court has ruled that a couple could not get a $330,000 sales tax refund because two companies they set up to take advantage of tax benefits didn't count as a single person under a state statue. ...

Ten weeks in Montana: S.C. team wins acquittal for client in environmental case.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck If law has any cases of truly biblical proportions to offer its practitioners, a likely candidate for the title would be United States v. W.R. Grace, et al., as a trio of South Carolina lawyers can attest. Bill...

Commentary: quill & parchment: don't subscribe to doctrines of lawyer derision.
June 15, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck A long time ago, in a kitchen far, far away, a newly minted legal eagle got the surprise of his fledgling professional life. He had just completed law school and was hard at work as a contract attorney, reviewing...

Commentary: has Wilkinson decision changed over 70 years of precedent?(Wilkinson v. Palmetto State Transportation Co.)(South Carolina)
June 15, 2009... Byline: Tom Ervin Does the recent South Carolina Supreme Court decision in Wilkinson v. Palmetto State Transportation Co. arguably reverse over 70 years of state court precedent? Historically, our Supreme Court has recognized that the...

South Carolina law firms' fortunes turning.
June 15, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck Months after the nation's economic storm broke over the Palmetto State and its 13,000 lawyers, the winds of fortune may be starting to shift toward recovery, managing partners at S.C. law firms say. For about a...

Log truck's coverage reformed to $750,000, rules S.C. Supreme Court.
June 15, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck A truck driver involved in a fatal 2004 collision was required to have $750,000 in liability insurance rather than $40,000 because he was a commercial motor carrier under a state regulation, the state Supreme Court...

Clause not enforceable when arbitrator unavailable, rules S.C. Supreme Court.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck An arbitration clause was unenforceable in a personal injury dispute between a nursing home and a resident's estate because the litigants' designated arbitrator was not available to mediate, the Supreme Court has...

Defending design: S.C. law firm turns interest in architecture copyright law into a specialty.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck A South Carolina law firm is reaching out to clients nationwide in a practice area that it has, appropriately enough, built from the ground up since 2001. Wyche, Burgess, Freeman & Parham of Greenville has turned...

Duty to verify comp coverage continues, rules S.C. Supreme Court.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck General contractors now have more incentive than ever to make sure that subcontractors have workers' compensation insurance under S.C. Code Ann. Sect. 42-1-415. In its third interpretation of the statute this...

A Q&A interview with Charleston legal scholar Alex Sanders.(Interview)
June 22, 2009... Byline: Diana Smith Alex Sanders, chairman of the board at the Charleston School of Law, recently presented a paper on the similarities between baseball and the law at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Here, he...

Commentary: a plan for putting an end to telephone tag.(South Carolina)
June 29, 2009... Byline: Ruth W. Cupp Kevin Campbell, a bankruptcy lawyer, has found a good system to avoid "telephone tag, the lawyer's nemesis." "The system starts with control of my calendar. In my office, I have a number of assistants who have the...

Jurisdiction OK despite scrivener's error in statute, rules S.C. Court of Appeals.
June 29, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck A man removed as a personal representative of singer James Brown's estate could not avoid a circuit court's punishment for contempt by arguing that probate court held exclusive jurisdiction, the S.C. Court of Appeals...

Pastor settles claim over fall on slippery mat at Charleston hospital.(South Carolina)
June 29, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck A man who was a trainee in pastoral counseling at a hospital in Charleston has settled for $775,000 in a federal slip-and-fall lawsuit against an Australian construction company. Plaintiff Sylvester Morton claimed...

York County jury awards $4.75M to student paralyzed after climbing tower accident.(South Carolina)
June 29, 2009... Byline: Fred Horlbeck A York County jury has awarded $4.75 million to a former Fort Mill High School student and his family after lawyers argued that he was paralyzed in a climbing tower accident because of negligence. Larry Keeter, a...