SOUTH CAROLINA BAR STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONALISM
STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES


1.17 A lawyer should, at all times in his or her professional life,
act in a manner that will enhance or maintain the public’s esteem
for the law, the judicial system and the legal profession.

1.20 A lawyer should counsel and encourage other lawyers to
abide by these standards of professionalism.

3.2 A lawyer should not oppose matters on mere form or style
when such dispute creates an undue burden on the judicial
system or the parties involved.

3.9 A lawyer should voluntarily withdraw claims or defenses
when it becomes apparent that they are without merit or are
superfluous or merely cumulative.

3.12 A lawyer should notify opposing counsel of all communications
with the court or other tribunal, except those involving
only scheduling matters not related to the choice of judges, and
should simultaneously provide opposing counsel with copies of
any written communication with the court by the same or
substantially the same means by which they were provided to
the court.

3.13 A lawyer should not make scheduling decisions with the
motive of limiting opposing counsel’s opportunity to prepare or
respond.

3.14 When scheduling hearings and other adjudicative proceedings,
a lawyer should request an amount of time that is truly
calculated to permit full and fair presentation of the matter to be
adjudicated and to permit equal response by the lawyer’s adversary.

3.21 When there has been pretrial disclosure of trial exhibits, a
lawyer should make a reasonable good-faith effort to identify
those exhibits that the lawyer believes will be proffered into
evidence.

3.24 A lawyer should abstain from conduct calculated to detract
or divert the fact-finder’s attention from the relevant facts or
otherwise cause it to reach a decision on an impermissible basis.

4. Principle: A lawyer should not knowingly misstate or improperly
distort any fact or opinion.

4.1 A lawyer should not knowingly misstate, distort or improperly
exaggerate any fact or opinion in a deceitful or deceptive
manner for an improper purpose.

4.4 A lawyer should not knowingly draft a document or through
silence permit a document to be drafted in a manner that permits
the lawyer, the lawyer’s client or a third party to take advantage
of a term or provision or of the absence of a term or provision
to the disadvantage of the adversary in such a manner as the
lawyers knows or believes that the adversary neither anticipates
nor contemplates.

5.2 A lawyer should not invoke a rule for the sole purpose of
creating undue delay or obtaining unfair advantage.