Family Court
The South Carolina Family Court system has complete jurisdiction over custody and visitation decisions across the state. Family Court is divided into sixteen circuits, and each circuit may have slightly different expectations and guidelines. For that reason, if an opposing counsel ever asks that your client agree to abide by “local”/“standard” visitation orders or parenting guidelines, always first ask to be provided with the local circuit’s standards in writing. The 9th Circuit standards may vary slightly from those of the 8th or 10th Circuit.
Do not hesitate to modify the Circuit guidelines to better suit the needs of your client.
South Carolina Family Courts do not have clerks. It is standard practice for the judge to designate at the hearing a party to draft Orders, which are then submitted to both the judge and any other parties for review.
South Carolina applies a best interest of the child standard to custody decisions. Each parent is thus equal before the court, with no “tender years” assumption favoring the mother.
Venue
Although Family Court has jurisdiction over every South Carolina custody case, if parents live in different states or previous orders exist in other states, jurisdiction is determined by UCCJEA § 63-15-300.
A child must reside in South Carolina for six months in a stand-alone custody action.
Within South Carolina, the appropriate venue for custody decisions is the home county of the defendant. It is not unusual for South Carolina towns to cross county lines. If you ever make an honest mistake and file in the wrong venue county, it is typically easy to move for a change of venue. Alternatively, the filing county may hear the case if the defendant waives an objection to venue.
In a South Carolina divorce action, venue may be the county where parties last resided together, the county where opposing party currently resides, or the county where plaintiff resides if defendant resides out of state.
Forms of Custody in South Carolina
Sole Custody – One adult has both physical custody of the child and legal custody, which is the decision-making power in major parental decisions (religion, education, legal and medical care). The other parent often has visitation rights.
Joint Custody – South Carolina courts are reluctant to assign true 50-50 physical custody (ie, parents alternate weeks or months throughout a year) as the courts generally believe that such arrangements are not in the best interest of the child. Thus, what South Carolina joint custody grants primary physical placement to one parent and shared legal custody, though primary placement often is designated as ultimate decision maker. Whichever parent lacks primary physical placement has extensive visitation rights.
Shared Custody – Shared custody is rare, usually restricted to situations where the parents live within the same school zone. It is a close to 50-50 split in physical placement.
If your client is an unwed mother, she is the de facto custodian until the father files. It may be in the unwed mother’s best interest to maintain the status quo and avoid a custody filing.