Unreasonable and unfair increased costs imposed on legal practitioners by regulatory bodies.
South Africa - LSSA
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) is cognisant that the Legal Practice Council (LPC) and the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund (LPFF) are the two regulators in South Africa that regulate the legal profession in the public interest.
The LSSA appreciates, understands and respects the statutory functions enjoined to these two bodies in terms of the Legal Practice Act (LPA).
The LSSA’s constitution enshrines the rule of law as one of the key principles which the LSSA is committed to uphold and protect. The LSSA notes the regulatory function is based on the principle of the rule of law and cannot be exercised in a vacuum without consideration of the practitioners which the LPC and the LPFF are enjoined to regulate.
The LSSA is therefore concerned that recent proposals by the regulatory bodies has the potential to negatively impact on legal practitioners and may threaten access to and entry to the legal profession, as an unintended consequence of their proposals, viz.
The LPC in publishing rules that were placed in the recent Government gazette, that set levels of prescribed fees that in the view of the LSSA, as the representative body of the legal profession, is of serious concern in that:
LSSA
Breaches in data security - rights and responsibilities
South Africa - Tech4Law
If the discussion around data security wasn’t pertinent enough, the data breach, or hack, against the digital infrastructure of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) on 28 October 2019, has undoubtedly brought the discussion to the fore. A group of hackers gained access to the cities online client-facing platform and demanded four Bitcoin, failing which they would release all the private data to which they had access. South African law as it relates to data security and Cyber Law has been woefully inadequate for the longest time.
The legal framework which consists of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECT) and parts of the Common Law has been bolstered with the very recent finalisation of the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPI) in December 2018 as well as much needed amendments to the ECT. A new version of the Cyber Crimes Bill, passed by the National Assembly in November 2018, provides a more robust set of measures than the original 2015 Bill but is yet to be enacted.
Tech4Law
City of Cape Town calls on residents to assist with development priorities
South Africa - Property360
The WCPDF urges all members who either own or have clients that own strategic land holdings within Cape Town’s municipal boundaries to read the attached notice from the City of Cape Town.
From November 11 to December 5, the City of Cape Town will be embarking on a comprehensive public engagement process across the metro during which its teams will explain the process regarding the review of the Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs) for the eight planning districts across Cape Town.
The review of the district SDFs will be based on the Baseline and Analysis Report (BaAR) for each district and will highlight the challenges, needs and opportunities on a local planning level.
“We understand that the BaAR documents will be available on the City’s website by 11 November 2019 and members of the public are requested to provide their comments by 31 January 2020.”
Property360
How To Measure Your Call Handling
UK - TodaysConveyancer
In the first of a two part blog, Sarah Brocklebank of The Move Exchange invites you to consider how effective your firm’s call handling is.
Do you have different call routes for existing customers and new customers? How do you ensure your call handling is positively affecting your client’s and prospect’s behaviours? And do you have a measure of success that you can continue to benchmark your business and staff against?
Do you routinely call your own office? Are your staff polite and courteous? Do you have a measure of how effective your staff are when answering the phone?
Call handling is a dying art, with businesses increasingly reliant on email for communications.
TodaysConveyancer
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