SCLAWYERSWEEKLY.COM VOLUME 20 NUMBER 7 ■
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Hawk lawyer’s suit against ODC won’t fly in federal court ■ BY HEATH HAMACHER hhamacher@sclawyersweekly.com
O
ur Top Verdicts & Settlements list for 2021 is the first—and, hopefully, only—list that was fully impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As that year began, none of us really knew what it had in store for the legal profession. But as it turned out, our 2021 list ably demonstrates the resiliency of the legal profession and the civil justice system, and their ability to pursue justice even under the most trying of circumstances. As you look over the list from 2021, there is hardly any sign at all that attorneys were operating in any sort of adverse environment. That was largely true of our 2020 list as well, but the
first three months of that year were largely unaffected by the pandemic, and plenty of other settlement negotiations were surely very close to the finish line when the pandemic closed down courts, and only needed a little bit more of a nudge to get over the line. There were understandable
See page 6 concerns that 2021 might prove different. The closing of courts caused a backlog of cases awaiting trial, which potentially could have slowed down both trials and settlements. Our list
is only a partial snapshot of the civil justice system, comprised mostly of cases submitted to us by attorneys, but the picture we have suggests that these fears did not come to pass, and attorneys were able to keep the wheels of justice turning at a normal speed even in the face of adversity. The pandemic is not truly over, of course, but it does seem to finally be receding into history. If so, the civil justice system has done a truly remarkable job of navigating the storm and helping clients bring their cases to a close and get on with their lives. David Donovan Editor-in-chief
A federal court has declined to hear constitutional claims brought by a South Carolina attorney and his law firm against the state’s Commission on Lawyer Conduct and Office of Disciplinary Conduct, citing the abstention doctrine established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1971 ruling in Younger v. Harris. John Hawkins, founder of HawkLaw in Greenville, sought declaratory and injunctive relief from the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, claiming violations of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. But U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs ruled that the court should abstain from the matter in the absence of bad faith, harassment, or another extraordinary circumstance that would make abstention inappropriate under Younger. In Younger, the nation’s highest court held that federal courts were required to abstain from hearing civil rights tort claims brought by those being prosecuted for a matter arising from the claim. Childs wrote that though Hawkins’ firm isn’t a party in any pending state court proceedings, its claims that the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct—applicable only to attorneys licensed in the state—are unconstitutional are entirely derivative of Hawkins’ claims, “unavoidably intertwined and inseparable,” See Hawk Law Page 5 ►
$6.55M settlement for estate of wife killed by husband’s negligence ■ BY HEATH HAMACHER hhamacher@sclawyersweekly.com The estate of a woman who was killed in a highspeed car crash has agreed to settle its wrongful death suit against the woman’s husband for $6.55 million, its attorneys report. Robert Phillips of McGowan Hood Felder & Phillips in Rock Hill and Bert “Skip” Utsey of Clawson Fargnoli Utsey in Charleston report that Helen Phillips and Ashley Phillips were already experiencing marital difficulties six weeks after they were married in 2017. During an argument,
Ashley “coerced” his new bride to go out in her vehicle, the attorneys said. Ashley, who had been drinking, sped down the winding back Robert Bert Utsey roads of Chesterfield County and Phillips lost control of the vehicle, slamming into a telephone pole. Ashley suffered serious injuries but was able to free
himself from the vehicle. Helen survived approximately two weeks before succumbing to her injuries, her attorneys said. The attorneys said that the vehicle’s insurer tendered its coverage limits of $50,000, but the insurer of seven commercial vehicles used by Ashley’s business initially asserted the limiting vehicle doctrine to tender just $175,000 ($25,000 per vehicle) in total underinsured motorist coverage (UIM). Phillips said that the estate’s attorneys beSee Husband Page 3 ►
INSIDE VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS
VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS
COMMENTARY
Florence Co. settles suit over inmate’s death for $1.35M
Fatal crash into stalled truck prompts $735K settlement
Open letter to a DEI skeptic
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