Young AFSA Webinar – Session 3 (Video)

When facing a legal matter, one of the biggest concerns for many South Africans is the cost of hiring a lawyer. Legal fees can be expensive, especially in personal injury or medical negligence cases. This is where contingency fee agreements come into play.

If you have ever sued someone or been sued, you will no doubt have asked your attorney, "How do I know that they won't destroy the evidence that is vital to me proving my case?".

The Supreme Court of Appeal examines whether a pension fund can successfully rescind a default judgment when its absence from proceedings resulted from internal administrative failures. The case explores the boundaries between procedural error and voluntary default, testing whether gross negligence in responding to legal process can be excused by the strength of a potential defence.

A significant jurisdictional change has taken effect in South Africa's Gauteng Division of the High Court, ending the concurrent jurisdiction between Johannesburg and Pretoria seats that existed since 2018. Each seat now has defined geographical boundaries based on magisterial districts, requiring practitioners to carefully determine proper jurisdiction when instituting proceedings.

A South African Labour Court has stayed disciplinary proceedings after discovering that the chairperson's ruling relied on AI-generated, fictitious case citations. The judgment examines whether blind reliance on artificial intelligence tools constitutes a failure to apply independent legal reasoning, and what consequences flow from submitting fabricated authorities to courts and tribunals.

A recent Gauteng High Court judgment confirms that mandatory court-annexed mediation cannot be avoided simply because parties are hostile toward each other or believe the process will be futile. The court ordered an uncooperative defendant to participate in mediation, establishing that only exceptional circumstances will excuse parties from the process introduced by the Directive and Protocol.

Litigation proceedings in itself is an acrimonious procedure and Parties to the proceedings try to have it finalized as soon as possible, alternatively, they try to drag out the proceedings to cause undue delays for various reasons.

International Arbitration Comparative Guide for the jurisdiction of South Africa, check out our comparative guides section to compare across multiple countries

Dependent children have the right to claim for loss of support from the Road Accident Fund, provided their parent passed away in or from a motor vehicle collision which was not their fault.

The South African civil litigation process forms two main branches: application and action proceedings.