Regulations regarding legal practitioners
- We refer to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development’s request dated 27 April 2020, to the Legal Practice Council to address him on inputs on the draft regulations. Whilst we appreciate the urgency in the implementation of the amended regulations, the time afforded to the legal practioners for comment is far too short for a comprehensive analysis of the draft that has been submitted to us for comment and that we hope that you will be open to further comment as to the impracticalities become apparent once put into operation.
- We are the Gauteng Attorneys’ Association and we comprise of the Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto, and the West Rand Attorneys’ Associations.
- We attach our representations made previously, as they remain relevant today, in relation to the manner in which attorneys ought to be regulated by the lock down.
- It should be remembered that attorneys provide essential services not only to government offices that provide essential services (like courts, and the Deeds Offices) but that we also provide other services that are essential and ought to be specifically regarded as essential: Which are dealt with under the following headings:
- CIPC & intellectual property
- Litigation – High Courts & Magistrates’ Courts
- RAF matters
- Criminal matters
- Permits
- Definitions
- Use of audiovisual remand centres
- Fixing of bail by prosecutors
- Safety measures at courts
- “Enforcement officer”.
- Labour law/CCMA, and
Deeds office
We had addressed our concerns regarding the deeds office thoroughly in our previous correspondence dated 17 April 2020, which letter is attached hereto for your convenience.
The draft regulations do not deal with the deeds office in any manner and it is thus assumed that the deeds offices will be a level 4 service and that our conveyancing members will be entitled to service the deeds office in all respects, as highlighted in our attached letter.
The same principles regarding permits will thus apply.
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