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Legal Practice Act, 2014 (Act No. 28 of 2014)

Rules

Final Rules as per section 95(1), 95(3) and 109(2) of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014

Part IX

Law Clinics

 

36. Establishment of law clinics

[section 95(1)(zD) and (zF) read with section 34(8)(a)]

 

36.1 The Council may grant recognition on an annual basis to an entity as a law clinic if it is satisfied that the entity complies with the following requirements:
36.1.1 if it complies with the provisions of section 34(8)(a) of the Act;
36.1.2 if it is properly constituted, organised and controlled to the satisfaction of the Council;
36.1.3 if it provides legal services to the public;
36.1.4 if the legal services provided by the clinic are rendered free of charge, direct or indirect, to the recipient of those services; provided that—
36.1.4.1 the clinic may recover from the recipient of its services any amounts actually disbursed by the clinic on behalf of the recipient;
36.1.4.2 where the clinic acts for a successful litigant in litigation it will be entitled to take cession from that litigant of an order for costs awarded in favour of the litigant, and to recover those costs for its own account;
36.1.5 the services may be rendered only to persons who, in the opinion of the Council, would not otherwise be able to afford them, or, with the prior written approval of the Council, services rendered in the public interest; and the Council may from time to time issue guidelines for the assistance of clinics in determining to whom services may be rendered;
36.1.6 the clinic may not undertake work in connection with the administration or liquidation or distribution of the estate of any deceased or insolvent person, mentally ill person or any person under any other legal disability, or the liquidation of a company, nor in relation to the transfer or mortgaging of immovable property, nor in relation to the lodging or processing of claims under the Road Accident Fund Act, 1996, or such other work as the Council may from time to time determine;
36.1.7 the name under which the clinic is to carry on its activities, and the letterheads and other stationery of the clinic will require the prior approval of the Council; and
36.1.8 legal practitioners in the employ of the clinic may be remunerated only by way of salary payable by the clinic or by the organisation to which it is attached.

 

37. Engagement of candidate legal practitioners by law clinics

[section 95(1)(zE) read with section 34(8)(b)(iv)]

 

37.1 If a legal practitioner in the full time employment of a law clinic wishes to engage a candidate legal practitioner for purposes of practical vocational training he or she may do so only if:
37.1.1 the candidate legal practitioner is to be under his or her direct personal supervision or under the direct personal supervision of another legal practitioner who is a member of the professional staff of the clinic;
37.1.2 the clinic is open for business during normal business hours for not less than eleven months in any year;
37.1.3 the clinic has proper office systems, including telephones, information technology facilities, files and filing procedures, a diary system and at least elementary library facilities;
37.1.4 the clinic has a proper accounting system and accounting procedures;
37.1.5 the clinic handles a reasonably wide range of work to give the candidate legal practitioner exposure to the kind of problems that a newly qualified legal practitioner would expect to encounter and be able to handle competently during his or her first year of practice. The Council shall have the right to direct the clinic to require the candidate legal practitioner to attend a training course approved by the Council in areas of practice which, in the opinion of the Council, are not adequately dealt with by the clinic;

provided that no such legal practitioner shall be entitled to engage more than six candidate legal practitioners at any one time.