Inputs you need for Damages Allocation in South Carolina

Inputs you will need

Damages allocation in South Carolina (US-SC) starts with having the right numbers and the right timing. DocketMath’s damages-allocation calculator is designed around inputs that let the tool apply a consistent allocation workflow. Before you run it, gather the items below and keep one jurisdiction-wide constraint in mind: South Carolina’s general statute of limitations (SOL) is 3 years under GS 15-1.

Use this checklist to collect what the calculator needs:

• Claim basis / damages categories you want allocated
  (e.g., separate buckets you’ll assign to distinct time periods or damages types inside your spreadsheet)
• Total claimed damages (or category totals) you intend to allocate
• Dates for the damages window

  • Earliest date damages accrued (or first date you’re claiming)
  • Latest date damages accrued (or cutoff date)
• Payment timeline data (only if your allocation depends on when amounts were incurred/paid)

  • Any known payment dates
  • Any known amounts tied to those dates
• Any adjustments that change “net” exposure

  • Credits, offsets, refunds, or recoveries you plan to subtract from gross amounts
• Requested filing/incident date(s) needed for SOL timing alignment

  • Date of incident/occurrence (if relevant to your worksheet)
  • Filing date (or date you plan to compare against the SOL)
• Consistency check fields

  • Currency/units (make sure everything is in dollars, not thousands, unless you intend that)
  • Confirm whether totals already include or exclude taxes, interest, or fees—then keep that treatment consistent across categories

If you don’t have every item, prioritize the dates and the total damages first—those inputs most commonly drive the calculator’s allocation splits.

Where to find each input

To keep your workflow jurisdiction-aware (US-SC) without guessing, source each input from a specific place in your case file or your damages spreadsheet.

1) Total claimed damages and category totals

• Where: Pleadings draft, settlement demand spreadsheet, or a damages computation worksheet
• What to extract:

  • Total amount per damages bucket you want allocated
  • Subtotals you can later map to time segments

2) Earliest and latest damages dates

• Where: Spreadsheet tabs that calculate damages by period (monthly/quarterly) or by “from/to” dates
• What to extract:

  • The earliest accrual date you’re claiming
  • The cutoff date you’re using

3) SOL timing dates (South Carolina baseline)

South Carolina has a general SOL period of 3 years under GS 15-1. When a claim-type-specific period is not applied for this workflow, use the general/default period as the baseline timing rule.

• Where:

  • Incident/occurrence date from your event timeline
  • Filing date from the case docket (or your planned filing date)
• What to extract:

  • The date you will compare against “3 years” to determine whether portions fall inside or outside the default SOL window

Statute reference: GS 15-1 (3-year general SOL).
Source: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_15/GS_15-1.html

4) Payment or credit timeline (only if your allocation depends on it)

• Where: Accounting records, invoices, remittance statements, or a payment-history tab
• What to extract:

  • Dates for each payment/credit used in the model
  • Amounts tied to those dates

5) Adjustments (offsets, credits, refunds)

• Where: Settlement terms, accounting reconciliations, or a “netting” section in your damages worksheet
• What to extract:

  • Each adjustment amount
  • How it impacts totals (e.g., subtract from gross, cap certain components, or reclassify)

Run it

After you collect the inputs, run DocketMath’s damages-allocation tool to generate an allocation you can review and refine.

Step-by-step workflow

1. Open DocketMath damages-allocation

   • Go to: /tools/damages-allocation

2. Enter damages totals by category

   • Input category totals that match how you want the allocation segmented.
   • If you only have one overall total, start with a single bucket and expand into sub-buckets later (if you can support them with dates).

3. Enter the damages window dates

   • Provide:

     • Earliest accrual date
     • Latest accrual date
   • These dates typically determine how much of the total lands in each time segment used by the calculator.

4. Apply South Carolina’s default SOL timing check (baseline)

   • 3 years under GS 15-1 is the baseline period for SOL alignment in this workflow.
   • Because no claim-type-specific sub-rule was found for this workflow, treat the 3-year general/default SOL as the timing rule.

   Statute reference for internal notes:

   • GS 15-1 (general SOL period: 3 years)
     Source: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_15/GS_15-1.html

5. Add payment dates and adjustments (if applicable)

   • Include credits, offsets, or known payments if your model is sensitive to when amounts were incurred or how net exposure is calculated.

6. Review the output

   • Confirm the allocation:

     • Splits damages into time buckets the way you intended
     • Applies SOL filtering (if included in the workflow) using the 3-year baseline
     • Reduces or reallocates categories properly when credits/offsets are present

How outputs typically change when inputs change

Use these “sanity checks” when reviewing results:

• If you move the earliest accrual date later

  • Less of the claim may fall outside the 3-year baseline, so more total damages may appear in SOL-included buckets.
• If you change the filing/compare date

  • The portion treated as inside vs. outside the SOL window can shift across the time segments.
• If you add a credit/offset

  • Net exposure drops in the relevant category/bucket, which can also affect proportional allocation across time segments (depending on how your categories are structured).

Gentle reminder: This is not legal advice. SOL and damages modeling can be fact-specific, and you should confirm the assumptions used in your DocketMath run with a qualified professional if needed.

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