Rules of civil and criminal procedure and rules of evidence specify in detail how parties must proceed to resolve their disputes in court. There are also local rules for specific courts like Family, Probate, and Magistrate courts, as well as rules of appellate procedure.
The print South Carolina Code Annotated includes a paperback Court Rules volume of annotated South Carolina court rules. You can find specific court rules using the general A-I and J-Z indexes to the South Carolina Code Annotated. There is also a separate index for the court rules in the back of that volume.
Click on the Court Rules link under QUICK LINKS on the South Carolina Judicial Department’s home page to search or browse the un-annotated South Carolina court rules online for free.
South Carolina trial and appellate courts provide forms to file certain matters with their courts.
Click on the Court Forms link under QUICK LINKS on the South Carolina Judicial Department's home page to access these forms by Court, Title, or Form ID.
The South Carolina Forms Index is a finding aid maintained by the University of South Carolina Law Library. The Forms Index aims to organizeSouth Carolina Court forms from the SC Judicial Department's website by topic to improve ease of use. The Forms Index provides keywords to allow users to perform a Control+F / Command+F search for forms of interest.
For parties representing themselves (referred to as self-represented litigants (SRLs), the South Carolina Judicial Department has posted court approved Divorce and Child Support Modification form packets under the General Public tab on its home page.
LawHelp.org/SC, a project of South Carolina Legal Services (SCLS), offers interviews to help parties complete these and other SC court approved forms, including visitation and order of protection forms.
South Carolina Legal Services (SCLS) also offers Online Classrooms on their LawHelp.org//SC website. These online classrooms include forms, instructions, and videos to help you represent yourself in court on several legal issues.
The USC Law Library and some public libraries in South Carolina also provide their members access to the South Carolina Legal Forms Library by Gale Legal Forms, which you can search, browse by category, and download in Word.
Citing a South Carolina court rule requires the rule number and abbreviated name of the court rule. A date is not required, as long as you are citing to the current rule. Below are examples of cites to the South Carolina rules of civil procedure, criminal procedure, evidence, and appellate procedure. The blue bullets in the citations represent spaces.
Rule•12,•SCRCP.
Rule•5,•SCRCrimP.
Rule•403,•SCRE.
Rule•203,•SCRAP.
See South Carolina Appellate Court Rule 268 (Citation of South Carolina Authority) for how to cite these rules and rules for specific South Carolina courts.