Equity Is Swell

October 18, 2011

Last Friday,  I was lucky enough to be in attendance and be a speaker, at the Equity Bench Bar CLE in Columbia put on by the South Carolina Bar. One of the topics, that I personally found so very interesting, is the rules surrounding when an attorney can be a witness and when an attorney is forbidden to be a witness. The speaker, was a very well-known South Carolina lawyer, John Nichols, Esq. and he was kind enough after the seminar to tell me that he would have no problem with me posting his materials on this website. So, I pass along John’s outstanding legal talk and his legal research on a topic that is always of some interest — when can an attorney become a witness? This question is far from academic as it regularly comes up in equity courts in mortgage foreclosures where there has been a default by the opposing party. Of course, it also comes up in other contexts as well as John’s materials discuss. I sincerely want to thank John for his granting me permission to share his excellent legal materials with others who could not attend the seminar.

Spitz

Recently, someone sent me a comment looking for some personal advise about a pending legal matter. I am genuinely sorry — but the purpose of this blog is not to engage in legal counsel to anyone.

My purpose is merely educational — to pass on some possibly interesting student papers / my own and some student power point presentations / and sometimes to even post some interesting lower court orders in South Carolina that have been completed, finished, and not on appeal, that may be of value to lawyers and other judges and law students someday. I teach the course Equity and Equitable Remedies at the Charleston School of Law and hope these types of materials may be of use someday.  Although I always welcome comments, suggestions, or even criticism of what is posted — in general, I have to draw the line when it comes to giving any formal or informal legal counsel or advise to anyone.

There are a lot of reasons for this particular stopping point —  merely to mention one obvious one: creating an attorney client relationship is truly a private, personal matter and simply cannot be done on the internet (at least in my own personal opinion) as a private, confidential attorney client relationship is impossible on a public blog.  

At all events, I ask all future readers, to again respect this limitation, and not post future requests of a personal nature dealing with pending legal matters.  

With the very kindest personal regards, I remain,

Very truly yours,

Professor Stephen Spitz
Charleston School of Law
Charleston, S.C.

The late Honorable Louis E. Condon was the Master in Equity for Charleston County, South Carolina. He was a close personal friend, a superb judge, and a very nice person.

I have taken the liberty of attaching, as I thought some people who read the Equity is Swell Blog might find it of genuine interest, his obituary that ran in the Charleston Post & Courier Newspaper. I have also attached my own very brief remarks at his funeral, which took place this past weekend.

This is the third student presentation of this semester. It deals with the interesting question of preliminary injunctive relief. When is a party entitled to ask a Court to enjoin some activity prior to the trial itself? The equitable requirements for this type of relief vary somewhat from state to state. Nonetheless, there is also a whole lot of uniformity among the states, and the Federal Courts, about the elements of proof necessary under SCRCP or FRCP 65 as to what may be necessary. This next case, from the Re & Re Casebook, illustrates some of the very interesting questions that can arise in this area of law.

The students did an excellent job with this presentation.  

1.  I am teaching Equity again this coming semester. I plan to post four or five of the   best “law firm” papers at the end of April/early May.

2.  I plan to post some of my PowerPoints from the actual class.

3.  I have posted the first seven weeks of the Syllabus for the class.

4. And, students are going to be making some presentations in this class. If they are first-rate, and I have their consent to do so, I will be posting those materials as well.

5.  All in all, I am looking forward to a “swell” semester in Equity & Equitable Remedies.

Odd Interview

This is merely a reminder of the obvious:  this site does not purport to dispense specific legal advice and no attorney/client relationship is ever created by anything posted on it.  These are student papers and teaching materials, hopefully of some enjoyable interest for lawyers and judges and anyone else interested in the academic side of equity. 

Signed,

Stephen A. Spitz
Professor of Law
Charleston School of Law
Charleston, South Carolina