Sunday, January 24, 2010
UPDATES JOHN EDWARDS/JUDGE SEGARS-ANDREWS/BRISTOL PALIN
Edwards Admits Paternity
The Associated Press has reported "Edwards admits he fathered videographer's child" and has agreed to pay child support. According to the article, "In the statement Edwards released Thursday, he said, 'I will do everything in my power to provide her (Frances) with the love and support she deserves...I have been providing financial support for Quinn and have reached an agreement with her mother to continue providing support in the future. "
The Associated Press has reported "Edwards admits he fathered videographer's child" and has agreed to pay child support. According to the article, "In the statement Edwards released Thursday, he said, 'I will do everything in my power to provide her (Frances) with the love and support she deserves...I have been providing financial support for Quinn and have reached an agreement with her mother to continue providing support in the future. "
There has been no word yet on the terms of the financial settlement.
Judge Screenings on Hold
Judge Screenings on Hold
According to "Judge screenings on hold," "One of South Carolina’s top lawmakers said the state will postpone screening of judge candidates until the state Supreme Court settles legal questions about the process." Consequently, judicial elections will also be postponed.
This whole process may be confusing to most folks. But, South Carolina State Senator Nathan Ballentine illuminates the process and provides some useful links at his Blog. Still, in any event, this case is very important, which is why the Supreme Court of South Carolina has granted an expedited hearing.
Bristol Palin "Demands" Child Support
CNN reports that "Bristol Palin demands child support." While some folks appear to be upset about this development, we are neither surprised nor outraged. If Ms. Palin's Pleadings are to be believed, Levi Johnston--the "sperm donor" baby daddy--has generated a pretty good income from his relationship with the Palin family. So there is no reason why he should not provide for his child.
Labels: Child Support, Dodging Child Support, Election of Judges, Family Court Backlog, Responsibility
Sunday, April 12, 2009
COURTS BEING CLOGGED BY PEOPLE REPRESENTING THEMSELVES
Last fall we referenced the article More Americans serving as their own lawyers in our post of the same name MORE AMERICANS SERVING AS THEIR OWN LAWYERS. And now The New York Times has reported in In a Downturn, More Act as Their Own Lawyers:
Financially pressed people...are representing themselves more and more in court, according to judges, lawyers and courthouse officials across the country, raising questions of how just the outcomes are and clogging courthouses already facing their own budget woes as clerks spend more time helping people unfamiliar with forms, filings and fees.We all know that the numbers are through the roof,” said James K. Borbely, a circuit court judge in Vermilion County, Ill. “You just look at the courtrooms.”Judges complain that people miss deadlines, fail to bring the right documents or evidence and are simply unprepared for legal proceedings. Such mistakes make it more likely they will fare poorly — no matter the merit of their cases.
Reliable numbers for people representing themselves in noncriminal cases are hard to come by. Nationally there is no tracking system, and each state’s court system follows its own rules. Many people hire a lawyer for one phase of a proceeding but then drop them later. (In criminal cases, of course, defendants have a right to an appointed lawyer.)
Records of New York’s family courts, in which a vast majority of people appear without a lawyer, are imperfect. But in the first six weeks of this year, nearly 95 percent of litigants in paternity and support cases did not have a lawyer, compared with 88 percent in all of 2008 (emphasis added).
We wonder if the New York statistics on unrepresented litigants in paternity and child support cases holds true across the country. If so, this represents an opportunity for some enterprising young lawyers who are familiar with the concept of "price point" and may be willing to give some thought to restructuring their fee schedules in order to capture some of this market. More important, given the limited amount of constitutional protections afforded to the putative fathers in paternity and child support cases, we suspect that there are thousands of men in this country who have been labeled "Deadbeat Dads" who are neither deadbeats nor dads.
Labels: "Deadbeat Dads", Family Court Backlog, Sixth Amendment
Sunday, March 22, 2009
TEXT OF H3117 RELATING TO TEMPORARY ORDERS FOR PROTECTION AND CUSTODY OF PETS IN DOMESTIC ABUSE CASES*
A BILL TO AMEND SECTION 20-4-60, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO AN ORDER FOR PROTECTION FROM DOMESTIC ABUSE, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT THE COURT MAY PROHIBIT HARM OR HARASSMENT TO A PET ANIMAL OWNED, POSSESSED, KEPT, OR HELD BY THE PETITIONER AND TO PROVIDE THAT IN ORDERING TEMPORARY POSSESSION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY, THE COURT MAY ORDER THE TEMPORARY POSSESSION OF PET ANIMALS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 20-4-60(C) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 319 of 2008, is further amended by adding an appropriately numbered item at the end to read:
SECTION 1. Section 20-4-60(C) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 319 of 2008, is further amended by adding an appropriately numbered item at the end to read:
"( )prohibit harm or harassment, including a violation of Chapter 1, Title 47, against any pet animal owned, possessed, kept, or held by:
(a) the petitioner;
(b) any family or household member designated in the order;
(c) the respondent if the petitioner has a demonstrated interest in the pet animal."
SECTION 2. Section 20-4-60(C)(5) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 319 of 2008, is further amended to read:
"(5) provide for temporary possession of the personal property, including pet animals, of the parties and order assistance from law enforcement officers in removing personal property of the petitioner if the respondent's eviction has not been ordered;"
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
----XX----
This web page was last updated on December 9, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Labels: Family Court Backlog, Silly Laws
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
SOUTH CAROLINA DOMESTIC COURT DOMESTICATED ANIMAL CUSTODY ACT
The AP reported in SC bill seeks to help victims leave abusers:
A South Carolina bill seeks to protect pets in domestic violence cases to make it easier for victims to leave their abusers.
Democratic Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg told The State newspaper some women stay because their abuser has threatened to kill their beloved pets if they leave. Her bill would allow victims seeking temporary restraining orders to ask a judge for custody of a pet.
Advocates of domestic violence victims praised the legislation as removing one barrier that keeps women from seeking help.
South Carolina consistently ranks high nationwide in domestic violence. The state ranks second nationwide in women killed by men in the latest report by the Violence Policy Center. A House subcommittee hearing for the bill has not been set.
We are not making this up. Despite reports of jail overcrowding, serious backlogs in Family Court, and PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS TO HIT SOUTH CAROLINA COURTS--which will increase the likelihood of even greater backlogs in Family Court--some members of the Legislature want to grant jurisdiction to the Family Court Judges to litigate the issue of "pet custody."
The South Carolina Legislature needs to focus on real issues and stop trying to invent problems where none exist. Dogs, pot-bellied pigs, and (even more so) cats--no matter how beloved--are not children and their custody should not be litigated in Family Court. End of story.
---
---
Labels: Family Court Backlog, Silly Laws
Monday, March 02, 2009
PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS TO HIT SOUTH CAROLINA COURTS
On January 28, 2006, the Post and Courier published Security, judgeships priorities for Toal. In that article it was reported that Chief Justice Toal "also advocated mandatory mediation in some Family Court matters, saying it would go a long way toward keeping harmony in stressful family situations. The adversary 'dog-eat-dog' approach is often harmful to children, she said." And today, in Budget cuts hit S.C. courts, it was reported that proposed budget cuts will further increase the Court backlog.
When will the South Carolina Legislature learn that underfunding the Court System costs the taxpayers more money in the long-run?
Labels: Family Court Backlog
Friday, August 29, 2008
TOO FEW SESSIONS CONTRIBUTE TO CROWDED DETENTION CENTER
The letter Too few court sessions contribute to crowded detention center by Alvin C. Hanson Jr., Deputy. Administrator (Retired), Charleston County Detention Center, raises some interesting points, but appears to miss the most obvious point.
Mr. Hanson posits that the one sure way to cut overcrowding in the Charleston County Jail is to increase the number of General Court Sessions. He concedes that, as an alternative, "We could set a time for how long a case can be continued before going to trial, " but concludes " That won't work because each case is different and each is handled by an attorney based on workload and whether the client is paying or not." However, he does not consider the obvious solution to relieving overcrowding.
A large percentage of detainees in any County Jail in South Carolina are incarcerated for failure to pay child support. Once they are incarcerated, there is no mechanism in place to allow for their release until they have either served their complete sentence, complied with the terms of the Order of Contempt that resulted in the incarceration, or successfully appealed the Order of Contempt. Scheduling more General Court Sessions will, therefore, do little to decrease the overcrowding in the Charleston County Detention Center. Relieving overcrowding will necessitate finding a way to helping keep fathers out of jail for failure to pay child support and a way of decreasing the amount of time they spend in jail for non-support.
Labels: Family Court Backlog
Sunday, February 10, 2008
LEGISLATURE NEEDS TO DEAL WITH FAMILY COURT BACKLOG
The following article appeared in SC Statehouse Report and can be downloaded at Legislature needs to deal with family court backlog:
FEB. 8, 2008 - - South Carolina lawmakers need to listen Wednesday when SC Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal asks again for three extra family court judges.
Why? Because investing in justice will reduce backlogs and get cases through the system more quickly. In turn, more than 100,000 parents (voters) and children will be able to get on with their lives.
"It galls me to see the Legislature obsessing about the smokescreen issue of immigration reform as they shirk their responsibility to help state government provide services that their badly citizens need," said one man involved in a case in family court.
"They want us to love them for cutting property taxes. Mine have been reduced, but any savings I've realized have been offset by being forced, because of the court delays, to continue to provide support for my estranged wife. "
More than 30,000 cases currently are pending in the family court system. Last summer when three seasoned family court judges died, the state's large backlog of cases got even worse. Fortunately, the legislature provided some help over the past week by filling those vacancies, but Toal said more needed to be done.
Having three new additional family court judges would be "a huge impact for a very small investment," said the chief justice, who delivers a State of the Judiciary speech at the Statehouse Wednesday. The state could spend less than $2 million to fund three new family court positions, three new circuit court positions and staffs to support them, said Toal, who has been asking for more judges for the last three years.
But there's also more that lawmakers could do to improve the family court system. They could enact a proposed family court reform that has been stalled in the House since 2006. That year, the state Senate passed a measure to encourage the family court system to use mediation between parties before going to a judge and to allow family courts to use voluntary hearing officers to deal with administrative matters with which judges currently are saddled.
"We're [essentially] running a collection program for DSS and it sucks up a day out of every week of a family court judge," Toal said. Voluntary hearing officers could take some of the administrative pressure off judges in support matters that often are prescribed by the Department of Social Services.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, didn't return calls about why the House continues to hold up family court reform. He and other leaders should resurrect the bill and push reform through to help thousands of South Carolina families.
Labels: Family Court Backlog
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
FAMILY COURT BOGGED DOWN CHIEF JUSTICE SAYS
The following article was in today's Post and Courier. Chief Justice Toal has suggested that part of the problem stems from the need for more Family Court Judges. But, many people maintain that the problem is not a lack of judges, but is a lack of competent judges willing to apply the law coupled with procedural and substantive flaws in the system.
From our perspective, much of the Family Court caseload would dissipate if the Trial Judges both understood and applied the law consistently and fairly.
___________________________________________________________________
Family court bogged down, Toal says
The following article was in today's Post and Courier. Chief Justice Toal has suggested that part of the problem stems from the need for more Family Court Judges. But, many people maintain that the problem is not a lack of judges, but is a lack of competent judges willing to apply the law coupled with procedural and substantive flaws in the system.
From our perspective, much of the Family Court caseload would dissipate if the Trial Judges both understood and applied the law consistently and fairly.
___________________________________________________________________
Family court bogged down, Toal says
Associated Press
COLUMBIA--South Carolina Chief Justice Jean Toal says the state's family court system is overloaded and too time-consuming for judges.
Toal told a Senate subcommittee considering major reforms in the state's system that the number of judges would have to double to "reasonably process" family court cases that include divorces and child support issues. Lawmakers previously rejected Toal's request for three additional family court judges.
During a recent subcommittee hearing, Barry Knobel, a family court judge in Anderson, said each of the state's 52 family court judges typically hears 4,000 to 5,000 cases a year.
The chief justice said family court judges spend about an average of 20 minutes on any case during a year, and much of the caseload is child support cases brought by the state Department of Social Services.
A committee of family court judges headed by Knobel recently found that South Carolina should use special hearing officers to better process DSS cases, which is done in other states.
Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appointed a subcommittee to study the issues and draft legislation.
Labels: Family Court Backlog
