Last Wednesday, while most of us were rushing around making last minute arrangements for our Thanksgiving meals, visiting relatives, and preferred football viewing, the South Carolina Supreme Court was hard at work promulgating new rules and regulations for Temporary Hearings in the Family Court. 
These new rules were published via Administrative Order on November 21, 2012. Temporary Hearings in the Family Court are governed by the South Carolina Rules of Family Court, Rule 21. The text of the rule remains the same but nuts and bolts have changed. Before reading on, review the text of the Order here: Administrative Order- Temporary Hearings.
The effects of the Order are a mixed bag. First the good news:
Get into Court Faster
Your court date will be within four weeks of filing. Attorneys in other parts of our state complain of waiting periods lasting several months!
Get out of Court Faster
Your hearing will not last longer than thirty minutes. Temporary Hearings, perhaps intrinsically, are brief. What’s new is that these hearings are now short in duration by order of the Supreme Court. A Temporary Hearing will now be scheduled for 15 minutes unless a party makes a written request to the Chief Administrative Judge that the matter be deemed “complex” and that the hearing therefore be scheduled for 30 minutes to allow more time for oral argument.
Now for the news that may not be so great:
Limited Affidavits
The above referenced Family Court Rule 21 provides that evidence permitted at a Temporary Hearing is confined to 1) the pleadings, 2) affidavits, and 3) financial declarations of the parties. There is an exception for taking testimony upon good cause shown but I am curious to see how likely it is that testimony can be successfully given inside of half an hour.
Given such a narrow scope of evidence, coupled with the importance of a temporary hearing, many attorneys devote a lot of time and effort assembling packets of Affidavits through which their case is presented to a judge. Now affidavits, excluding the Temporary Hearing- Background Information Form (also new), Parenting Plan (when custody is an issue), Financial Declaration, affidavits for attorney’s fees, and other attachments offered as verification of information contained in affidavits, must be contained within 8 pages. However, if a Temporary Hearing is deemed to be “complex” as referenced above, the 8 page maximum is inapplicable.
The reason I classify this as a change that is not for the better is for two reasons. One practical and one substantive.
First, as a practical matter, taking statements from more than one or two people will be extremely difficult within eight pages. I foresee attorneys reverting to their law school word processing tricks to fit everything in; be on the lookout for shrinking margins and tiny font.
Second, a family court litigant’s opportunity to be heard may be severely limited. Due Process provides that a litigant must enjoy an opportunity to be heard. But in many cases, such as custody/visitation actions or contested child support modification actions, eight pages will be insufficient to fully apprise the Court of one’s position. If you do not have a reasonable opportunity to state your case, your rights are being tread upon. The key here will be the Court’s analysis of what types of cases are deserving of the “complex” tag. The Court seems to define a “complex” hearing as one that it is not “routine”.
Self Negation
When these new rules are combined in a hypothetical, incongruities quickly reveal themselves. For example, many Motions for Temporary Relief are filed along with the Summons and Complaint and often take place only a few days after the opposing attorney is hired. Charleston Family Law Attorney, Greg Forman’s article poses the question, what happens when the moving party files for temporary relief as a “routine” motion and the responding party arrives armed with affidavits in excess of 8 pages arguing the matter is “complex”? The Due Process argument would be to continue the case to allow the moving party to get more affidavits so they may be fully heard. But if the case is continued then the four-week rule is no longer in effect.
There are several other aspects of this Administrative Order do not affect the client but, nonetheless are important to the lawyer. If you are involved in a domestic relations dispute take a few minutes to read over the Order and decide for yourself what it means to your case.