Blog

You're on your spouse's health plan and the divorce is coming. What happens to coverage while the case is pending, what COBRA offers after the decree, and the Marketplace alternative.

A stranger has been appointed to investigate your family for the court. What a South Carolina guardian ad litem does, what they notice, who pays, and how to work with one.

Your spouse won't sign, won't answer, won't hire a lawyer. What South Carolina law lets you do anyway: service, default, waiting periods, and the hearing that ends it.

Ready to make your blended family official? What a stepparent adoption takes in South Carolina. Consent, the other parent, and what affects how long it takes.

Wondering what a divorce lawyer will cost before you make the call? How family law fees work in South Carolina, what drives them up, and what you control.

Heading into mediation with children involved? The parenting provisions South Carolina parents most often regret leaving out of their agreement. Holidays, travel, expenses, phones, college, and more.

Planning to take your child out of the country this holiday season? Passports, custody orders, and what to do if the other parent won't sign.

Earning less on purpose rarely lowers child support in South Carolina. How courts treat a chosen pay cut, the situations parents ask about, and what to do before you make the change.

Most people arrive at a first consultation wanting to know what they will get. It is the wrong question for that hour. What the meeting is really for, and the four dull documents worth bringing.

There is more than one way to get or pay child support in South Carolina. The DSS route and the Family Court route compared, how payments move, and when you still need your own lawyer.

The financial declaration is the sworn form the Family Court works from. What it asks for, how it drives support, alimony, and property division, and why an incomplete one hurts.

Your messages to your co-parent have two readers: the one they are addressed to tonight, and the judge who may read them a year from now. What South Carolina law rewards.

No South Carolina statute says whether a parent may move a child out of state. What your custody order controls, what applies without one, and what judges weigh.

In South Carolina, an unmarried mother has custody of her child unless a court orders otherwise. What a father has to do first, and why paternity alone is not a custody order.

There are two ways to change your name in South Carolina, and timing decides which applies. The divorce route, the full petition process, and the rules for children.

Some parts of a South Carolina divorce decree can change when life does, and some are meant to be permanent. What can be modified, what generally cannot, and the clause that can lock alimony in place.

Leaving an abusive relationship is often the most dangerous time. What South Carolina's numbers show, how Orders of Protection work, and what a legal safety plan should cover.

A child's refusal does not cancel a South Carolina custody order. What the order requires of you, when a child's preference really matters, and how to handle a refusal well.

South Carolina's child support chart stops at $40,000 a month in combined income. Above that line, the judge decides. How income is counted, and what the court looks at instead.

Explicit messages are not automatically adultery under South Carolina law, but an online affair can still shape a divorce. The grounds, the no-fault route, and the two alimony rules in play.

Paying child support on time does not hurt your credit — falling behind can. When support reaches a credit report, and how mortgage lenders count support you pay and receive.

Two of our attorneys spent four days at the AAML’s Institute for Family Law Associates in Chicago, IL, and a third attended the SCBLA Annual Conference in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Why that training matters to a client.

South Carolina has no statute setting a default holiday schedule — your order is the schedule, and October is the month to find out what it actually says. What to look for, and what to do if it no longer works.

No South Carolina statute says living with a partner costs you custody — the ninety-day rule everyone has heard about is an alimony rule. What the custody statute actually asks, and what your own order may add.

South Carolina law says retirement is grounds for a hearing on alimony. It does not say retirement ends it. The six factors a judge weighs — and the settlement language that can make the whole question moot.