Opinion
2024-001410
11-06-2024
Re: Amendments to Rule 411, South Carolina Appellate Court Rules
ORDER
John W. Kittredge C.J.
The South Carolina Bar has proposed amending Rule 411 of the South Carolina Appellate Court Rules (SCACR) to permit the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection Committee to deposit at interest in federally insured banks or savings and loan associations located outside of the State of South Carolina. The Office of Disciplinary and the Office of Commission Counsel have separately filed proposed amendments to two other provisions in Rule 411 to correct incorrect or outdated nomenclature in the rule.
Pursuant to Article V, Section 4 of the South Carolina Constitution, Rule 411(c)(3)(D), (c)(5), and (e) are amended as set forth in the attachment to this order. These amendments are effective immediately.
John Cannon Few J., George C. James, Jr. J., D. Garrison Hill J., Letitia H. Verdin J.
Rule 411(c)(3)(D), SCACR, is amended to provide:
(3) The Committee may use or employ the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection for any of the following purposes within the scope of the Committee's objectives:
. . .
(D) to deposit at interest in federally insured banks or savings and loan associations, with the interest or other income from the deposit to become a part of the Fund.
Rule 411(c)(5), SCACR, is amended to provide:
(5) The Commission on Lawyer Conduct, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, and the Receiver's Office of the Supreme Court shall allow a member of the Bar who is assigned to investigate the application for reimbursement to have access, during the investigation, to any information contained in their files if any pertain to the alleged loss.
Rule 411(e), SCACR, is amended to provide:
(e) That, in addition to the foregoing, the Fund shall accept and hold on deposit funds received from the Receiver, in addition to monies raised by the assessment established herein for purposes of restitution ordered by the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and shall thereafter disburse these additional monies as directed by order of the Court or upon directive from the Commission on Lawyer Conduct made in accordance with a Plan of Restitution between the Commission on Lawyer Conduct and a lawyer or former lawyer. Amounts disbursed under this paragraph shall not apply toward the maximum limits otherwise available to be paid to any applicant, except to reduce the total amount due for such an applicant, and the disbursement thereof shall not be limited by the time limits otherwise applicable to those making application to the Fund. Nothing in this paragraph shall give any victim of the misconduct of a lawyer or former lawyer a right to make a claim against monies received by the Fund under this
paragraph, nor create any cause of action to contest disbursements made under this paragraph by an order of the Supreme Court of South Carolina or a Plan of Restitution arrived at between the Commission on Lawyer Conduct and a sanctioned lawyer or former lawyer. Nothing in this rule shall in any way affect the right of any victim of the misconduct of any lawyer or former lawyer to seek redress against a lawyer or former lawyer's representatives in any legal forum, except to reduce the amount owed by the amount of any payment made to the victim/applicant under the provisions of this rule. Any such Plan of Restitution shall consider and address amounts paid out by the Fund on account of a lawyer or a former lawyer and may, if the parties to that Plan of Restitution agree, include provision for repayment of all or portions of monies paid out by the Fund on account of such lawyer or former lawyer from monies raised by assessments rated under this rule.