Our mailing address is: May River Family Law Solutions; P.O. Box 333; Bluffton, South Carolina; 29910-0333. For UPS and FedEx, please use: May River Family Law Solutions; 25 Thurmond Way, Unit 333; Bluffton, SC 29910-0333. Please do not require signature, proof of delivery, or any other means if you are a current or prospective client.

The firm’s local telephone number is 1-843-474-0614 (You Must Dial the “1” First) and our toll-free number is 1-800-996-0683.

The firm’s fax number is 1-843-944-0165.

For client convenience, we accept payment via cash, bank checks (ex: cashier checks, official bank checks), money orders, Discover, American Express, Visa, and Mastercard. Credit card and debit card transactions, as well as eChecks, are processed via LawPay.

We practice almost exclusively in South Carolina’s Family Courts (we also handle appeals, including Fair Hearings challenging DSS Central Registry and database registry entries before the “DSS Administrative Court”). The firm’s practice areas are therefore limited almost exclusively to DSS Defense and DSS Appeals, as well as Family Law (Divorce, Equitable Property Division, Custody and Visitation, Alimony, and related issues), and Juvenile Defense. Dustin Lee also routinely serves as a Guardian ad Litem in contested Family Court custody cases, and Dustin is a certified South Carolina Family Court Mediator. We also routinely help with expungements of South Carolina public records, including those involving juvenile issues. Please see the respective practice area links or read more on our website to gain a better idea of what these areas encompass.

The best way is to contact the firm via telephone at 1-843-474-0614 (You Must Dial the “1” First) and ask to setup/schedule an initial consultation. All consultations are by appointment only. If you call on the weekend or after hours such that no one is available to take your call immediately, please leave a message including your name and telephone number. Please be prepared to give your full name, and the name or names of any person “adverse” to you (i.e. – especially in a family law matter, the person who would be on the other side of the case). This information is used to perform a “conflicts check” in accordance with applicable rules and law.

No. Paralegals, legal assistants, and receptionists are not attorneys. Only licensed attorneys are permitted to give legal advice. If you ask a paralegal, legal assistant, or receptionist for legal advice, the employee will likely inform you of this policy. This is in place to comply with applicable rules and law, and is ultimately for client (and potential new client) protection.

As a general policy, the firm does not take “walk-in” clients – we are by appointment only. This is for numerous reasons. Your problem is important to you, and we need to be able to give your matter the attention it deserves. Family law and divorce matters, inclusive of DSS defense and juvenile defense, are often Court intensive, meaning that often an attorney will be in Court on an unrelated matter, so there may literally be no one in the office who can give you legal advice (i.e. – a licensed South Carolina Family Law attorney). Furthermore, attorneys must focus their attention on one (1) client matter at a time, such that if a client is meeting with an attorney, that attorney will not stop working with that client due to a walk-in. Consultations also may take well over one (1) hour, such that time simply does not often permit a consultation with a walk-in, especially in light of the time-deadlines and Court schedules that are already in place. While we certainly appreciate the urgency of some legal matters, it is best to schedule an appointment by contacting the firm via telephone at 1-843-474-0614 so that a conflicts check can be performed and a consultation may be scheduled that allows you the time you deserve to explain the problem you are facing. Do not be discouraged though – same day and after-hours appointments are often available.

This firm cannot guarantee or promise any particular result in any legal matters. All cases are extremely fact specific, and the law may treat even the “seemingly slightest detail” far differently. The law itself often changes due to new statutes and cases from Courts, including new interpretations of existing laws. While the firm can work hard towards achieving your desired result, there are no guaranteed results and firm attorneys and personnel cannot promise any particular result or outcome.

Law is a broad field with seemingly countless areas of practice. Instead of trying to handle all matters for all people and entities, the firm made a decision to limit its practice areas. Though there are some differences in comparison, some doctors limit their practice areas to certain body parts or areas of medicine, such as feet, eyes, heart, etc. The firm has taken a similar approach.

In a word, “No.” At the time of this writing, South Carolina does not allow an attorney to become a “specialist” in family law, DSS defense, juvenile defense, nor Family Law Mediations. As with many things in the legal world, words often have a specific meaning. One may become a specialist in areas such as “Estate Planning and Probate Law,” at the time of this writing; however, Family Law, DSS defense, juvenile defense, nor Family Law Mediations have been made into specialties in South Carolina. To maintain good standing with the South Carolina Bar and to be able to practice in South Carolina, attorneys must complete a certain amount of “Continuing Legal Education” (CLEs) on an annual basis. The CLEs we attend are almost always related to family law, Guardian ad Litem best practices, criminal law (to assist with our juvenile defense practice), and legal ethics. For example, Dustin Lee, Esquire, has attended CLEs on divorce, custody, complex family law matters, evidence issues, ethics updates, and those addressing purely criminal law. This is all in an effort to stay at the front of what is happening in our limited areas of practice in an effort to better serve our clients.

Consults are confidential meetings between an attorney at the firm and the potential or current actual client. The best practice is for the meeting to be one-on-one. The firm strives to protect the Attorney-Client privilege in all meetings with clients and potential clients. The Attorney-Client privilege is an issue that will be discussed in detail in an Initial Consult. The “other party” is pretty much a universal “no”. The ethical rules allow us some degree of flexibility dealing with other individuals who you may want to accompany you that we may need to discuss on a case-by-case basis.

While a mediator may have served as a Judge at some level in the past (example: Dustin Lee used to be a Bluffton Municipal Judge – his term and role is complete and he no longer serves in this capacity), or may serve as a part-time Judge in a non-Family Court role (ex: the mediator may be a current part-time Magistrate or Municipal Judge), the Family Court Mediator does not act as a Judge or decision maker in “your case” (to be clear, the mediator will not be making a binding decision or ruling, but will instead help to facilitate a discussion to try to help the parties reach a decision by and between themselves).

This question likely needs to be addressed to each individual licensed attorney at the firm, but it is an extremely important question when seeking an attorney in Family Law, DSS defense, or juvenile defense, which are all Court intensive. Dustin Lee has argued as lead counsel (the person with primary responsibility for the case actually standing up and asking questions, making arguments, etc.) in front of Municipal Courts, Magistrate Courts, Family Courts, the Master-in-Equity, and Circuit Court Judges in General Sessions Court, and has taken cases to “decision” or “verdict” in both jury and non-jury trials (there are no juries in Family Court in South Carolina). Dustin Lee has worked on legal briefs that have gone to appeal in Circuit Court (from Magistrate Court rulings), the South Carolina Court of Appeals, and the South Carolina Supreme Court, though he was not “lead counsel” on all of these matters. Many appellate courts in South Carolina do not actually “hear” oral arguments in all cases, instead deciding based purely on the record and legal briefs of the parties.

Please see the specific attorney information as to which Courts a particular attorney may practice in. For example, Dustin Lee, Esquire, is licensed to practice in all South Carolina state courts, but he could not walk into a North Carolina state or Georgia state courtroom and argue your case as lead counsel, as he has not been admitted to the respective bars of these two (2) states.