Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect

Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect

October 16th, 2024

Court of Appeals holds juvenile cannot be ordered into confinement for an evaluation without first obtaining a recommendation from the community mental health center

The October 16, 2024, Court of Appeals opinion in SCDSS v.Caldwell, held that a juvenile cannot be ordered into confinement for an evaluation without first obtaining a recommendation from the community mental health center. Caldwell involved a seventeen year old juvenile, J.S., who was on probation with the Department of Juvenile Justice and whose parents […]

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Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect

September 9th, 2024

Court of Appeals holds results of a penile plethysmograph (PPG) test are inadmissible as unreliable

I typically don’t blog about criminal cases and In the Matter of Shawn T. Daily, 443 S.C. 557, 905 S.E.2d 310 (Ct.App. 2024), may still get altered by the Supreme Court, but the June 12, 2024 Court of Appeals opinion in this case has impact on issues in family court. Daily involved the admissibility of […]

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Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect

January 17th, 2023

Court of Appeals grants new trial on DSS sexual abuse case based on improperly limited cross-examinations

The January 4, 2023, Court of Appeals opinion in SCDSS v. Scott, 438 S.C. 400, 883 S.E.2d 229 (Ct. App. 2023), granted a new trial to a father who was found by the family court to have sexually abused his child.  It rejected Father’s claim that South Carolina lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the alleged […]

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Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect

November 5th, 2021

Pitfalls in cooperating with DSS child abuse investigations

Parents routinely contact me when they are in the midst of a DSS investigation into their potential abuse or neglect of their child. Typically, they reach out at two moments: 1) DSS wants them to undertake a drug or alcohol test that they will not pass or wants to speak to a child who will […]

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Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect

July 29th, 2020

The interactions of abuse and neglect placement plans with return of the child

Any time a family court finds a parent has abused or neglected his or her child, it will offer that parent a placement plan (sometimes referred to as a treatment plan) unless the court recommends permanent third-party placement or termination of parental rights. The development of such placement plans is guided by S.C. Code § […]

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Department of Social Services/Child Abuse and Neglect

July 2nd, 2020

The Folly of Fighting Child Protective Services after a Merits Finding

Early in my career, when family court attorneys were still being court appointed to represent indigent parents in abuse and neglect proceedings, I developed a theory that all such parents fall into one of three categories: 1) the innocent; 2) the repentant; and 3) the goners. The innocent were those parents who denied abusing or […]

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