LEGAL NEWS - 4 SEPTEMBER

News from court has just arrived via the Church diocese. Find their announcement here .

Judge Edgar Dickson, of the circuit court, has asked the lawyers on both sides to submit briefs to him by September 24. He is asking for responses to the briefs by October 5, and replies to the responses by October 12.

Dickson told the lawyers he plans to hear the (6) motions and petitions before him during the weeks of October 22 and October 29. 

The Diocese of South Carolina and the Episcopal Church in South Carolina each have three motions/petitions before Dickson spanning the time of November 2017 to July 2018. DSC is asking for a trial on its Betterments lawsuit. In its "List," DSC asked the court to set aside the state supreme court decision of August 2, 2017, as too conflicted to be enforced. Find info on the two lists here . TECSC is asking the court 1-to dismiss DSC's Betterments suit, 2-to implement the SCSC decision, particularly by a Special Master, and 3-an accounting of the DSC assets since January 1, 2008, by an accounting firm.

We now know that Dickson will consider the whole matter together. The whole would include the six motions/petitions and the two sets of lists and presumably the briefs, responses and replies. This implies that he intends to settle all of the different related issues as one big unit. This should work to the advantage of the Church diocese which is essentially asking the judge to implement the state supreme court decision. For instance, I cannot see how a full trial on Betterments could fit into an expeditious resolution of the whole bundle. It would require a separate course and take probably at least a year. I also doubt that it is relevant to the overall issue; and I expect Dickson to dismiss the suit as he turns to the enforcement of the SCSC decision. He really has no choice on the SCSC decision. The SCSC remitted its decision to the circuit court in November of 2017.