People facing evictions and foreclosures got a reprieve this week from the South Carolina Supreme Court – another example of how Covid-19 is changing the legal system.

Chief Justice Donald Beatty ordered an extended postponement of court proceedings on evictions and foreclosures until May 15, but stressed that this does not mean people can avoid paying rent. If they fail to pay rent, an eviction may proceed once the postponement has passed.

One exemption to this order is property that falls under the federal CARES Act, which protects those people who live in rental properties or homes with “federal assistance or federally related financing.” That includes the following: “public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, rural housing programs, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program.”

As a law firm that specializes in a range of practices from white collar crime to DUI defense to juvenile offenses, we typically do not delve into this part of the South Carolina legal world. However, we do agree with the change since so many of the legal resources in the court should be focused on adjudicating criminal cases and getting non-violent offenders out of jails in order to prevent overcrowding.