Pursuers of Justice

Neil Alger joined the law firm to be an advocate for individuals and their families. He handles a wide range of personal injury litigation including negligence, bad faith, premise liability, motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, and products liability. Neil lives and bases his practice out of Hampton, South Carolina, but he regularly handles cases in all corners of the state.

Following his graduation from the College of Charleston, he attended the Charleston School of Law. While in law school, Neil was selected as a member of the Federal Court Law Review. He later served as the Editor-in-Chief of the law review. Upon graduation, Neil practiced law in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and then went on to be a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Brian M. Gibbons, the Chief/Resident Circuit Judge for the Sixth Judicial Circuit. Following his clerkship, Neil practiced law briefly for a notable business law firm in Horry County, South Carolina.

Chelci was born and raised in Walterboro. She began working at our firm in 2014 while studying at the University of South Carolina. Upon graduating in 2015, Chelci attended the University of South Carolina School of Law. Throughout law school, she continued to clerk for our firm.

Chelci lives and practices in Hampton, handling general litigation including automobile accidents and products liability cases.

Mark David Ball joined the firm in 1989. Mark practices in all areas of law including a special interest in agricultural issues affecting farmers, including defective equipment, seeds and chemicals. In addition to agricultural issues, he has handled hundreds of defective product and personal injuries cases ranging from the simple to complex. During his more than 20 years of practice he has tried a multitude of different types of cases to a jury verdict.

In addition to his obligations and duties to the law firm, Mark has organized and served on several community boards and organizations including the Hampton County Special Needs and Disabilities Board, United Way Board, Hampton County Literacy Board, Friends of Palmetto Hospice, and other community initiatives. Professionally, he served 13 years on the Board of Governors of the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association and as the President during 2006-2007. As a former President, he continues to remain active in issues that affect the rights of injured persons.

William, a Hampton native, primarily represents clients involved in auto and trucking accidents, premises liability, and product liability cases, but also handles other personal injury cases, dram shop, nursing home abuse and neglect, and business litigation cases. In addition to representing clients in South Carolina’s Fourteenth Judicial Circuit (Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, Colleton, and Allendale Counties) he is also associated by other attorneys and hired by clients in cases across South Carolina. He has served as lead counsel on cases throughout South Carolina, and has argued cases before the South Carolina Supreme Court and South Carolina Court of Appeals. He currently serves on the South Carolina Association for Justice Board of Governors as the Circuit Representative for the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit.

William is the author of the Uninsured and Underinsured chapters of The Law of Automobile Insurance in South Carolina (7th Ed. 2015) and presented on the topics of UM/UIM at a South Carolina Bar Association CLE. Super Lawyers named William a Rising Star in the area of Personal Injury General: Plaintiff from 2014 to 2019. He has authored an article that appeared both in national and South Carolina legal publications.

In addition to practicing law, William believes in giving back to the community. In 2020, he helped form and now co-chairs the Hampton County Assistance Fund. The Fund raised through private donations and awarded grants totaling over $250,000.00 to help those impacted by the April 13, 2020 tornado. From 2015-2019, William served on the Board for the Lowcountry Community Action Agency which, among other things, runs the Head Start and Early Head Start programs for Colleton and Hampton counties.

William lives in Hampton with his wife, Kathleen Barnes, an appellate lawyer with the Barnes Law Firm, and their two daughters.

Lee's extensive background in litigation has developed into a statewide practice. Lee is regularly associated by other attorneys and law firms to assist in complex litigation. His practice focuses primarily on nursing home litigation, medical malpractice, defective highway services and defective products, such as automobiles and industrial machinery, that cause injury. Lee has provided trial for attorneys, and regularly lectures on a number of topics including highway and product defects as well as issues related to nursing home abuse and neglect. His statewide effort to assist clients injured by defective road conditions has led to settlements across the state. It has also led to numerous trials. After a week long trial in Orangeburg, the jury determined that the driver of a vehicle that suffered a brain injury after he encountered water on a defective roadway and wrecked had suffered $3,000,000.00 in actual damages. Lee has an extensive practice in nursing home and medical malpractice litigation as well. He has represented families of loved ones injured or killed due to the negligent care of residents at nursing homes across the state. In addition, he has been active on holding doctors, nurses, and hospitals accountable when their negligent conduct caused death or injuries to patients.

In May, Lee and his co-counsel tried a case in Fairfield County against the SC Department of Social Services for the wrongful removal of families children. After a week of trial, the jury retained a verdict for $4 million. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers as one of South Carolina's top attorneys and was recently invited to join The National Trial Lawyers group as one of the top 100 Lawyers in SC.

Lee was born in Fairfax, SC and grew up in Hampton. After graduating from Wade Hampton High School, he joined the U.S. Army and served as a military policeman in Germany and stateside. After an honorable discharge from the military, he graduated from college and then entered law school. Lee and his wife, Kim, live outside of Brunson, SC along with their two daughters Grace and Sarah and son, Gibbs.

League Boylston Creech is a native of Allendale, SC, and attended college and law school at the University of South Carolina. Following graduation from law school in 2004, League served for two years as law clerk for the Honorable Doyet A. Early, III, resident judge of the Second Judicial Circuit.

League joined the law firm's Hampton office in 2007. League practices primarily in the areas of Social Security and workers' compensation, helping claimants obtain disability benefits and workers injured on the job.

Ronnie Crosby began practicing with the firm in 1994 in its Hampton office after serving as a judicial law clerk for Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Gerald C. Smoak. Mr. Crosby has successfully represented clients at all levels of South Carolina's state and federal courts in cases involving tractor trailer collisions, premises liability, motor vehicle collisions, vehicle rollovers, tire separations, roof crush, defective seat belts, defective boat trailers, highway defects, defamation, defective agricultural seeds, and insurance coverage disputes. His current practice focuses primarily on products liability where he is often associated by other attorneys to serve as co-counsel.

Mr. Crosby has settled or tried to verdict in excess of 250 cases that resulted in recoveries of over one million dollars including numerous cases with recoveries greater than ten million dollars. Ronnie has been a featured speaker at the South Carolina Judicial Conference, the South Carolina Association of Justice Annual Convention and the South Carolina Association of Justice Auto Torts Seminar. He was recognized by Super Lawyers as one of South Carolina's top attorneys and has received the highest rating for both legal and ethical standards by Martindale Hubbell. He has served on the Board of Directors for the South Carolina Association for Justice and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Attorneys Information Exchange Group.

Austin Crosby was born and raised in Hampton and began practicing law with the firm in 2012. Following graduation from Clemson University in 2006, he attended the Charleston School of Law. Upon graduation from law school, Austin served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Doyet A. Early, III, resident judge of the Second Judicial Circuit. The primary focus of his practice is on Automotive Products Liability and Consumer Products litigation which includes defective tires, seatbelts, airbags, and other products that cause harm to consumers. He also handles cases involving motor vehicle accidents, defamation, highway defects, trucking accidents, premises liability, and agricultural cases.

Daniel E. "Danny" Henderson opened the firm's first satellite office in Ridgeland, South Carolina in July 1980. He clerked for the year following graduation for The Honorable Clyde A. Eltzroth, Jr., Resident Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit. What started as a general practice in a rural area has grown to a practice focusing on personal injury, products liability and general litigation.

Danny handles general tort cases including auto and motorcycle wrecks, premises liability, highway defects, as well as products liability cases against manufacturers. Danny also has an active worker's compensation practice and has helped many injured employees receive worker's compensation benefits. No client needing general legal advice is ever turned away regardless of ability to pay or the profitability of the potential case. Danny tries cases in numerous counties in South Carolina. His primary trial practice is in the 14th Circuit compiled of Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper Counties.

Grahame "Grey" Holmes has been practicing law for nearly 20 years. He moved home to practice with the firm in 2003. Grey is the manager of the firm's Walterboro Office. His practice is devoted to representing individuals and the families of individuals who have been injured or killed due to the negligence of another person or entity. Mr. Holmes has tried many cases involving wrongful death, tractor trailer collisions, car wrecks, premises liability, railroad grade crossing collisions, highway defects, automobile versus bicycle collisions, injured railroad workers, medical malpractice, defamation, breach of contract, fraud and environmental cases in South Carolina's state and federal courts. He has obtained multi million dollar verdicts and settlements for his clients.

October 25, 1939 - June 10, 2021.

Randolph was born in Savannah, Georgia, son of the late Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh, Jr. and Gladys Marvin Murdaugh. Randolph grew up in Varnville and graduated from Wade Hampton in 1957 where he was very active in sports. It was here that he began dating his future wife, Libby. He attended the University of South Carolina and graduated in 1961. Randolph then enrolled in the University of South Carolina School of Law and graduated in 1964. After graduating he returned to Hampton to work in his father's Law Firm and became an Assistant Solicitor for the 14th Circuit. Upon the retirement of his father in 1986 he became the Solicitor of the 14th Circuit where he served until the end of 2005. For 87 consecutive years three generations of the Murdaugh family served as Solicitor of the 14th Circuit. This 87 years of service in one office, by the same family, is the longest in the history of the United States. In 2006 he rejoined the law firm which is now Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, P.A.

Randolph was President of the South Carolina Solicitor's Association during 1995-1996, he served on the National District Attorney's Association Board of Directors from 1998 - 2005 and received the Order of the Palmetto (South Carolina's highest civilian honor) from Governor Henry McMaster in 2018. Over his lifetime he achieved many awards including induction into the Wade Hampton Athletic Hall of Fame.

Left to cherish his memories is his wife of 60 years, Elizabeth "Libby" Alexander Murdaugh; his daughter, Lynn Murdaugh Goettee (Allen) of Summerville; his sons, Randolph "Randy" Murdaugh , IV (Christy) of Hampton, Richard Alexander "Alex" Murdaugh of Islandton and John Marvin Murdaugh (Liz) of Okatie; grandchildren, Mills Goettee, Trey Goatee, Buster Murdaugh, Reeves Goettee, Mary Elizabeth Murdaugh, Caroline Murdaugh, Mary Marvin Murdaugh, Liza Grace Murdaugh and Randolph Murdaugh, V; sister, Brenda Young (Tommy); sister-in law, Janet Cotter; brother-in-law, Don Alexander (Lisa); and special family member, Barbara Mixson, as well as a number of nieces, nephews and cousins. Mr. Murdaugh was predeceased by his daughter-in-law, Margaret "Maggie" Branstetter Murdaugh; grandson, Paul Terry Murdaugh; and brother-in-law, Arlen Cotter.

Randy Murdaugh is a fourth generation lawyer who has been working with the firm since 1991. Mr. Murdaugh's practice is devoted almost entirely to personal injury litigation.

Over his twenty years of practice, Mr. Murdaugh has successfully represented hundreds of injured railroad workers in F.E.L.A. claims across South Carolina. Randy has served as lead counsel in numerous trials that resulted in substantial verdicts.

Richard Alexander "Alex" Murdaugh was born and raised in Hampton County and is a 1986 Graduate of Wade Hampton High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of South Carolina in 1990, a Juris Doctorate Degree in May 1994 from the University of South Carolina School of Law and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in November 1994.

Alex represents injured persons in all areas of personal injury law, including trucking cases, products liability and wrongful death. He also serves as a part-time Prosecutor for the 14th Judicial Circuit.

Steven D."Steve" Murdaugh joined the law firm's Walterboro Office in 2009. In addition to holding a Juris Doctor degree, Steve is also licensed as a Certified Public Accountant. Prior to joining the law firm, Steve managed and operated a full service Accounting firm in Walterboro for approximately 15 years. Steve graduated from the Charleston School of Law in December of 2008 and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 2009. Steve received his undergraduate degree from The Citadel in 1988. After fulfilling his commitment to the U.S. Army, Steve worked for the Office of the South Carolina State Auditor in Columbia, S.C. for approximately three years and has since worked in Public Accounting until joining the law firm.

Since joining the firm Steve has practiced in the area of personal injury including automobile accidents, premise liability cases and workers compensation claims as well as business litigation issues.

Steve is a native of Colleton County having been raised in Islandton, S.C. Steve and his wife Valerie reside in Walterboro, S.C. along with their four sons, Matthew, Brian, Jesse and Andrew.

John E. Parker joined the firm in 1973. He has served as president of the firm since 1994. His practice is limited to civil litigation. He has tried to a jury verdict over 150 civil trials. He has handled over 50 appeals which have resulted in published opinions. The majority of the cases he handles involves issues of product liability, defamation, trucking, insurance bad faith, railroads, and personal injury from automobile collisions. He has tried cases resulting in substantial jury verdicts in each of these areas of law.

He has been listed in "Best Lawyers in America" for a number of years. He has also been listed in "Super Lawyers" since it was first published. In 2008 he was selected by "Super Lawyers" as one of the top 25 lawyers in South Carolina. He has an AV rating from Martindale Hubbell. He was recognized in 2010 as one of seventeen lawyers in South Carolina to be profiled in Lawyers Weekly as a recipient of its Leadership in Law Award.

He has served on the Board of the South Carolina Trial Lawyers, USC Law School Alumni Board, Hampton County School Board, and Hampton County Economic Development Commission. He has been involved in legislative efforts to promote laws which treat South Carolinians fairly in the judicial system. Because of his work on behalf of injured persons, in 2004 he was awarded the Founder's Award by the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association.

In addition to his practice, he authored a chapter in the South Carolina Practice Manual, and in South Carolina Damages. He has also on a regular basis been a speaker at seminars sponsored by the SC Bar and the SC Association of Justice. He has also been selected as a speaker at the annual convention of the American Trial Lawyers Association, and at the International Symposium, on Railroad Highway Grade Crossing Research and Safety.

Jay attended the College of Charleston, graduating in 2000. He attended the University of California Irvine School of Law where he worked for an Environmental Law Clinic and did pro bono work with the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Jay lives and practices in Hampton, handling general litigation including automobile accidents, premises liability, and defamation cases.