Home/Practice areas/Modifications
This is a separate page of general information about South Carolina family law. It is not legal advice. Opening this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.
A new request, not a new argument about the old trial
A modification asks the court to change a custody, visitation, child-support, or spousal-support order because life has changed since that order was signed. It is not a second chance to retry the original case on the same facts. The person asking for the change has to show a substantial change of circumstances, and that the requested change is proper under the law that applies to that kind of order.
Some forms of alimony can be modified. Others, including many lump-sum awards, are not built to be reopened. The spousal-support page on this site describes that difference in general terms.
How a modification is started
The party who wants the change files a motion or a new action and serves the other party. Child support that is paid through the clerk, and parenting time that is written into an order, do not change because one parent has decided they should. Until a judge signs a new order, the existing order is the one that can be enforced.
Enforcement and modification are related and separate. A rule to show cause asks why someone should not be held in contempt for disobeying an order. A modification asks the court to write a different order. The enforcement page describes the contempt path.
The Bluffton office
Requests to modify Beaufort County Family Court orders are handled from the Bluffton office. That includes orders involving families who live in Bluffton, on Hilton Head Island, in Beaufort, in Port Royal, and in Okatie.
One office, in Bluffton
This work is handled from the Bluffton office. There is no second office. People in Hilton Head Island and in the city of Beaufort are served from that same office, and their cases are heard in Beaufort County Family Court.