South Carolina — Palmetto

The South Carolina case lifecycle.

Six stages, and the gates that must come in ORDER — each pinned to the loaded corpus.

TrialVector shows South Carolina law verbatim, teaches the procedure, and routes judgment calls to licensed South Carolina attorneys - it prepares no documents for you in South Carolina today.

1. STAGE 1

   Before filing — the gates that come FIRST

   The three-year core (contracts AND injuries) is already running on discovery accrual; UCC sales get six years by their own section. Against the government, the Tort Claims Act gives TWO years 'forever barred' — unless a verified claim was filed first, which buys the third year. And a professional-negligence complaint must carry its expert affidavit CONTEMPORANEOUSLY — filed as part of the complaint itself.

   S.C. Code § 15-3-530S.C. Code § 15-78-110S.C. Code § 15-36-100

2. STAGE 2

   Filing and the theater decision

   The civil side of Circuit Court is the Court of Common Pleas, sitting in sixteen circuits composed county by county in the statute itself. At or under $7,500 the magistrate room holds concurrent jurisdiction with its own loaded rulebook. Probate has its own lane — and an equity case can be referred to the master-in-equity, a bench the appellate rules name inside circuit court itself.

   S.C. Code § 14-5-610S.C. Code § 22-3-10Rule 202(b)(1), SCACR

3. STAGE 3

   Service and the answer — SERVED in 30

   'A defendant shall serve his answer within 30 days after the service of the complaint upon him' — the verb is serve, not file. There is no document builder here (the strictest-tier posture, stated on the served page). And plan the filing logistics early: the e-filing policies define the Authorized E-Filer as a licensed South Carolina attorney — self-represented paths run on paper unless a court says otherwise.

   Rule 12(a), SCRCPSCEF Section 1

4. STAGE 4

   Discovery — the family is loaded, whole

   Rules 26 through 37 are loaded per rule from the court's own pages — scope, depositions, interrogatories, production, admissions, sanctions. The ESI safe harbor is the OLD federal one, kept (Rule 37(f)). Out-of-state discovery runs on the UIDDA, loaded whole as Chapter 47 of Title 15 — a foreign subpoena goes to the county clerk without constituting an appearance.

   Rule 26, SCRCPRule 37, SCRCPS.C. Code § 15-47-120

5. STAGE 5

   ADR and the motions pace

   Court-annexed arbitration is NON-BINDING by its own scope line, its subpoenas ride Rule 45, SCRCP, and the evidence rules guide without governing (except privilege). After a Rule 12 ruling, the responsive pleading is served within 15 days of notice; a granted more-definite-statement motion carries its own 15.

   Rule 12, SCADRRule 12(a)(1), SCRCP

6. STAGE 6

   Judgment, costs, and after

   The cost motion's clock is 20 days from written notice of entry — doubled by the April 30, 2026 wave, which the loaded rule's own note records. Interest ships here as a REFUSAL until the governing section is read and loaded. Appeals run under the SCACR, whose lower-court definition includes the master-in-equity; in the magistrate room, relief from judgment caps at one year.

   Rule 54(d), SCRCPRule 202, SCACRRule 12(b), SCRMC