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

Chapter 1 : Definitions, Application and Purposes of Act

3. Purpose of Act

 

The purpose of this Act is to—

(a) provide a legislative framework for the transformation and restructuring of the legal profession that embraces the values underpinning the Constitution and ensures that the rule of law is upheld;
(b) broaden access to justice by putting in place—
(i) a mechanism to determine fees chargeable by legal practitioners for legal services rendered that are within the reach of the citizenry;
(ii) measures to provide for the rendering of community service by candidate legal practitioners and practising legal practitioners; and
(iii) measures that provide equal opportunities for all aspirant legal practitioners in order to have a legal  profession that broadly reflects the demographics of the Republic;
(c) create a single unified statutory body to regulate the affairs of all legal practitioners and all candidate legal practitioners in pursuit of the goal of an accountable, efficient and independent legal profession;
(d) protect and promote the public interest;
(e) provide for the establishment of an Office of Legal Services Ombud;
(f) provide a fair, effective, efficient and transparent procedure for the resolution of complaints against legal practitioners and candidate legal practitioners; and
(g) create a framework for the—
(i) development and maintenance of appropriate professional and ethical norms and standards for the rendering of legal services by legal practitioners and candidate legal practitioners;
(ii) regulation of the admission and enrolment of legal practitioners; and
(iii) development of adequate training programmes for legal practitioners and candidate legal practitioners.