Courts of record within their respective jurisdictions shall have power to declare rights, status and other legal relations whether or not further relief is or could be claimed. No action or proceeding shall be open to objection on the ground that a declaratory judgment or decree is prayed for. The declaration may be either affirmative or negative in form and effect. Such declarations shall have the force and effect of a final judgment or decree.
S.C. Code Ann. § 15-53-20
Courts of record may declare rights, status and other legal relations
Known as the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act
The act spans §§ 15–15 (14 sections).
Applied in 15 court decisions — leading case Plum Creek Development Co. v. City of Conway (1999)
Most recently applied in Jowers v. S.C. Dep't of Health & Envtl. Control (May 2018)
1962 Code SECTION 10-2002; 1952 Code SECTION 10-2002; 1948 (45) 2014.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Carolina Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.