Prevention is better than cure

Too many times we’ve seen businesses failing to take preventative measures to secure the growth of their business. The nature of a business could mean signing off contracts and agreements in the hope of  good deals – little do they know that they could be signing off the lifeblood of their business. With a legal expert in place, he/she can detect the loopholes and save you from such grave mistakes.

Professional business legal input

In the end, you’re a business owner and not an Attorney – which is why you will need the expertise and professional legal input of a legal expert, or someone with a Litigation background. Our family and business consultancy have years of experience in business matters and is highly capable of offering you a fresh legal perspective. We are a family and business legal consultancy that aims to deliver professional, expert legal advice and guidance where necessary. See our estimated cost for our legal business products are as follows:
Ante-nuptial ContractsR 2 100 – 00
Basic Will DraftingR 1 000 – 00
Email Legal Advice (per question)R 299 – 00
Family Trust RegistrationR 7500 – 00
Shariah Will Drafting R 950 – 00
Unopposed Divorces R 9500 – 00
For your convenience, we are also professional legal drafters of Ante-Nuptial Contracts which will cost you to you a total of R2 100 – 00. Furthermore, we have a professional online method in which you can call our offices on 021 424 3487, for an online appointment to be made for you.

Family legal expert – divorce, child custody and child maintenance

Our law offices boasts a professional, client friendly environment with free Wi-Fi for our clients. Our services are of a highly reputable, quality nature in which the legal expert, will be advising and guiding you through the process. We take the well-being of our clients very seriously and always try to prepare the best argument in court. When it comes to professional legal drafting, we strive at providing well thought out, cleverly composed legal documents that best reflects what you require. Our family law website enables easily accessible, thus making navigating through our pages less of a problem and legal information more of a priority. Our professional legal articles contains free, expert legal advice for your convenience. For more information on the family legal services we offer, feel free to call our offices to make an online appointment for you. We have compiled a range of online legal articles that explains the rights of fathers. These online articles contain free, expert legal advice compiled by the legal expert himself: Feel free to call our law offices on 021 424 3487 today, for an online appointment for a professional legal consultation today! The creators of this website had made free, expert legal advice easily accessible for your convenience. For more on your legal options and ideas for your divorce, see the following links:
  1. How to Change your Matrimonial Property Regime
  2. Do your own Unopposed Divorce. No lawyers needed and its Free.
  3. Parental Rights of Divorced Muslim parents after a Talaq or Faskh
  4. Free Online Divorce Assistance Form – DIY Cape Town South Africa
comprising of:
  1. Divorce guide
The free divorce starter toolkit provides you with the necessary tools to attend to the unopposed divorce on your own. The tools include a template Summons, Particulars of Claim and a Notice of Set-Down. Should you wish to have a one on one legal consultation with legal expert himself, then do feel free to call our law offices on 021 424 3486 for an online appointment today.

Prevention is better than cure

Too many times we’ve seen businesses failing to take preventative measures to secure the growth of their business. The nature of a business could mean signing off contracts and agreements in the hope of  good deals – little do they know that they could be signing off the lifeblood of their business. With a legal expert in place, he/she can detect the loopholes and save you from such grave mistakes.

Professional business legal input

In the end, you’re a business owner and not an Attorney – which is why you will need the expertise and professional legal input of a legal expert, or someone with a Litigation background. Our family and business consultancy have years of experience in business matters and is highly capable of offering you a fresh legal perspective.

We are a family and business legal consultancy that aims to deliver professional, expert legal advice and guidance where necessary.

See our estimated cost for our legal business products are as follows:

Ante-nuptial ContractsR 2 100 – 00
Basic Will DraftingR 1 000 – 00
Email Legal Advice (per question)R 299 – 00
Family Trust RegistrationR 7500 – 00
Shariah Will Drafting R 950 – 00
Unopposed Divorces R 9500 – 00

For your convenience, we are also professional legal drafters of Ante-Nuptial Contracts which will cost you to you a total of R2 100 – 00. Furthermore, we have a professional online method in which you can call our offices on 021 424 3487, for an online appointment to be made for you.

Family legal expert – divorce, child custody and child maintenance

Our law offices boasts a professional, client friendly environment with free Wi-Fi for our clients. Our services are of a highly reputable, quality nature in which the legal expert, will be advising and guiding you through the process.

We take the well-being of our clients very seriously and always try to prepare the best argument in court. When it comes to professional legal drafting, we strive at providing well thought out, cleverly composed legal documents that best reflects what you require.

Our family law website enables easily accessible, thus making navigating through our pages less of a problem and legal information more of a priority. Our professional legal articles contains free, expert legal advice for your convenience.

For more information on the family legal services we offer, feel free to call our offices to make an online appointment for you.

We have compiled a range of online legal articles that explains the rights of fathers. These online articles contain free, expert legal advice compiled by the legal expert himself:

Feel free to call our law offices on 021 424 3487 today, for an online appointment for a professional legal consultation today!

The creators of this website had made free, expert legal advice easily accessible for your convenience. For more on your legal options and ideas for your divorce, see the following links:

  1. How to Change your Matrimonial Property Regime
  2. Do your own Unopposed Divorce. No lawyers needed and its Free.
  3. Parental Rights of Divorced Muslim parents after a Talaq or Faskh
  4. Free Online Divorce Assistance Form – DIY Cape Town South Africa

comprising of:

  1. Divorce guide

The free divorce starter toolkit provides you with the necessary tools to attend to the unopposed divorce on your own. The tools include a template Summons, Particulars of Claim and a Notice of Set-Down.

Should you wish to have a one on one legal consultation with legal expert himself, then do feel free to call our law offices on 021 424 3486 for an online appointment today.

Related Post

Do you own Divorce (DIY) No lawyers needed!

advice-child-maintenance-child-custody-divorce

If you want to get divorced from your spouse, I strongly advise that your approach a legal practitioner, or an attorney to attend to it on your behalf. This I would implore even more under the following circumstances:
  • There will be a dispute over care and visitation rights over the child/children
  • One of the parties will be applying for forfeiture of patrimonial benefits from a marriage in community of property;
  • The joint estate is huge or complicated; or
  • The other party will be making use of legal representation.
If, however, you would like to know the general procedures on how to go about a divorce, they are listed summarily below. There are many rules that regulate divorce processes and the summary below does exclude certain of them. These include exceptions, strikeouts, compelling compliance, service addresses etc. Other matters incidental to divorce proceedings, e.g. interim arrangements, pending the divorce regarding maintenance for you or your children and care and contact regarding children are not dealt with. Therefore, please consult a legal practitioner or the divorce court throughout your divorce process should you decide to do the divorce yourself.

Summons and Particulars of Claim

A summons needs to be drafted which will be issued by the divorce court to commence the divorce process. It should have on it the details of the court you will be issuing divorce, details of the parties, e.g. names, occupation, and address etc. Every High Court in the area where you live has the authority to attend to a divorce. There are however specialized divorce courts that may attend to a divorce as well. You should then draft particulars of claim, outlining relevant matters concerning the marriage, children, reasons for wanting a divorce and what do you want the court to grant you in a divorce order. These particulars of claim you attach to the summons. Here is an example of a summons and particulars of claim for a divorce for a couple married in community of property with no children getting a divorce in the High Court in Cape Town.

Summons

IN THE HIGH COURT OF South Africa CASE NO.: (Western Cape High Court, Cape Town) In the matter between: John Smith (Plaintiff) And Jane Smith (Defendant) To the Sheriff or his/her Deputy INFORM Jane Smith (hereinafter referred to as the defendant an adult female, self-employed as a singer currently residing at 12 Club Road, Waterfront, Western Cape and whose full and further particulars are unknown, That: John Smith (hereafter referred to as the plaintiff), an adult male self-employed painter residing at Garden Road, Cape Town, Western Cape, Hereby institutes an action against her in which action the Plaintiff claims the relief and on the grounds set out in the particulars annexed hereto marked A. INFORM the Defendant further that if she disputes the claim and wishes to defend the action she shall (a) within 10 (TEN) days after the service upon her of this Summons, file with the Registrar of this Court at Kieron Street, Cape Town a notice of her intention to defend, and serve a copy thereof on the Plaintiff, on which notice shall be given an address (not being a post office or poste restante) referred to in Rule 19(3) for the service upon the Defendant of all notices and documents in the action; and (b) thereafter, and within 21 (TWENTY-ONE) court days after the filing and serving such notice of intention to defend as aforesaid, file with the Registrar and serve upon the Plaintiff a Plea, Exception, Notice to strike out, with or without a counterclaim. INFORM the Defendant further that if she fails to file and serve notice as aforesaid, judgment as claimed may be given against her without further notice to her, or if having filed and served such notice, she fails to plead, except, make application to strike out or counterclaim, judgment may be given against her. INFORM the Defendant also that if she does not intend to defend the action, she will inform the Registrar in writing to enable the Registrar to, on request in writing from Plaintiff, immediately set the matter down for hearing. AND IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER serve on the Defendant a copy of this Summons and return same with whatsoever you have done thereupon. DATED AT CAPE TOWN ON THIS ____ THE DAY OF _________2018.   ……………………………………………………………… REGISTRAR OF THE HIGH COURT   ……………………………………………………………… Plaintiff in Person __________________________  

Particulars of Claim “A”

  (A) Parties Plaintiff is John Smith, an adult male Bus Driver, residing at no. 5 Truck Apartments, Cape Town, Western Cape. The defendant is Jane Smith (born Smit) an adult female, employed as a hairdresser, residing at Hectic House, 2 Main Road, Strand, Western Cape.  

(B) Marriage

Plaintiff and Defendant (hereafter referred to together as “the Parties”) married each other on 10 August 2003 at Pretoria, in community of property and the marriage still subsists. Kindly find attached hereto a copy of the marriage certificate marked “MC”. The Parties are domiciled within the area of jurisdiction of this honourable court. There are no children born out of the marriage.  

(C) Irretrievable breakdown

The marriage between the Parties has irretrievably broken down and there are no reasonable prospects of the restoration of a normal marital relationship between them in that: Defendant left the common home approximately 2 years ago; There is no love and affection, understanding and communication between the parties; The Parties are incompatible and continue arguing; and Plaintiff has a gambling problem.  

(D) Prayer

WHEREFORE Plaintiff prays for Judgement against Defendant in the following terms:   A decree of divorce; Each party retain the property in his or her possession as his or her sole property; Cost if this action is opposed; and Further and/ or alternative relief.   DATED AT CAPE TOWN ON THIS THE ______ DAY OF______ 2018.   _____________________________ Per: John Smith (Plaintiff in Person)   Service Address     Once you have your summons and particulars of claim in order, make three (3) copies of your set of documents and have it issued at court.

Issuing & Service of Summons

Once you are at the court, go to the clerk of the court and have your documents issued. The clerk will sign the summons and provide a case number and write it on the summons. You should then take the original and a copy (both must be signed and stamped by the clerk of the court) and take it to the sheriff which serves documents where your spouse works of lives. You can ask the clerk of the court for that details. The extra—copy of the summons & particulars of claim you keep for your file and records.

Notice of intention to defend

Once the sheriff has served the documents, your spouse has a defined period to inform your whether he or she will be defending the divorce. This information is outlined in the summons as shown above.

Plea to particulars of claim

Once you received notice of your spouse’s intention to defend the divorce, about a months later, your spouse or their attorney will serve and file a plea. The plea will outline which parts of your particulars of claim your spouse agrees (or disagree) with which would give a direction of what to prove in court.

Counter Claim

Your spouse might want to file a counterclaim. In the same way, which you outlined your case as to what you want from the court and the reasons therefore in your particulars of claim, your spouse can file on your as well a counterclaim.   A counterclaim might still be filed if your spouse agrees to a divorce, by maybe wants care of the children, but in your particulars of claim, you asked for care. You should then within 10 (ten) days plead to the counterclaim the same manner in which your spouse pleaded to your particulars of claim.

Obtaining a Trial date

Once you received the plea, without a counterclaim, or have pleaded to your spouse’s counterclaim, you should then approach the clerk of the court for a trial date. This you or your spouse may do.

Discovery

While you waiting for a trial date, and way before the trial, you may ask or may be asked to provide, under oath, a schedule of books and documents in your possession and under your control relating to the divorce. This could be policy documents, deeds etc, and which you or your spouse might want to make use of at trial. Once you received this schedule you may inspect and request copies of the documents.

Divorce day / Trial

If your spouse does not defend the divorce within the time period, go back to court and ask for an unopposed divorce date and attend to your divorce on that date. If, however, your divorce is defended, a trial will ensure. During the trial, each party will prove his or her case. Witnesses will be called and at the end, the Magistrate or Judge will deliver the verdict. Best of luck, and please, don’t take my word, contact a legal practitioner should you decide to get divorced.  

Sharing is Caring

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This and other articles and posts found on this website are written by Adv. Muhammad Abduroaf to assist people with various family law related issues they may have. If you find any of our articles, free resources and posts interesting, or possibly useful to others, please like and share it on Social Media by clicking on the icons below. For more interesting articles and information on Family Law, view our articles and Q&A page. If you have a family law related legal issue and you want someone to answer or reply to it, feel free to post it on our Family Law Blog. Therefore, kindly like and share. Should you require any other legal services and advice, not related to family law, visit Private Legal.

Appealing a Maintenance Court Decision or Judgment

In its very nature, maintenance matters are complicated and never straight forward. For starters, it deals with the income and expenditure of both parents and the needs of the child. It is not easy for a maintenance court to determine with a high degree of certainty what the true income of a self-employed parent is. The same applies to the true expenses of a parent.
advice-child-maintenance-child-custody-divorce

Manipulating the maintenance system

It is very easy for a parent to manipulate documentation or only present information which he or she believes would be in their favor. For example, if a parent earns extra income by selling clothing, he or she may decide not to disclose that information to the maintenance Court.  By doing so, the Maintenance Court will determine the maintenance of the child based on the incorrect facts presented. This could become more problematic when one parent knows of the other parent’s additional income but cannot prove it. If the parties have legal representatives, this issue of improper disclosure is limited to a certain extent. For example, lawyers would be in a good position to do their own investigations and verify certain relevant information.

Improper disclosure of expenses

Then there is the issue of the expenses of the child. The court requires a proper outline of all the monthly, daily and yearly expenditure of the child. Without all the relevant information before it, the court is not in a proper position to make a fair decision regarding child maintenance.  This is so as the amount of maintenance a parent should pay is directly determined by what is the child’s monthly expenditure. For example, if a parent earns a million rand a month, his or her maintenance contributions can be no more than what the child actually cost per month.

Intentionally inflating expenses

It often happens that a parent cannot, or do not provide a true reflection as to what the child actually cost. Amounts are inflated, and there is no way that the court or the other parent can really question those amounts. Let’s say the mother is taking the father to the Maintenance Court but the father only sees the child once a month.  The father, in this case, would not be able to confirm or verify whether or not the child actually eats as much as the mother makes it out to be. And many times, parents come to court with an attitude of “let me claim more and the court will give me less.”

Unhappy with the maintenance magistrate’s decision

advice-child-maintenance-child-custody-divorceLet’s say a maintenance enquiry was held by a maintenance magistrate, and a decision was handed down. Should both parents be happy with the decision of the magistrate, their lives can continue and the party who should pay maintenance should comply with the order. However, it often happens that one parent is not happy with the maintenance order. We often get queries where parents want to know what they can do when the maintenance Court did not find in their favor. Sometimes parents feel that the Maintenance Court was one-sided. In such a case he or she wants the decision of the magistrate to be relooked at. In order for this to happen, the Parent should appeal the decision of the magistrate.

Appealing a maintenance Court decision

The purpose of this article is not to explain the technical procedure of appealing a magistrate’s judgment.  The procedure is a bit complicated and we suggest you make use of a legal practitioner to assist you should you wish to appeal a decision.  However, what we want to bring home is that it is possible for the decision of a Maintenance Court to be relooked at by a higher Court and provide you with some insight as to what happens. The higher Court, in this case, will be the High Court.  If you reside in Cape Town, it is the Western Cape High Court.

What happens at the Appeal Court?

Let’s say all the court rules and procedures were complied with and the matter is now before the Appeal Court. The Appeal Court will comprise of two judges. They would have read through the entire court record in the Magistrate’s Court before the matter is heard. Taking it one step back, all proceedings in the magistrate’s court is digitally recorded. So, when you decide to appeal a decision of the magistrate’s court the recordings are sent to an authorised typist, who would type out the entire Court record. You cannot type out the record yourself.

advice-child-maintenance-child-custody-divorceHeads of Argument

Now before you argue your case at the Appeal Court you would want the judges to first know what your arguments are.  At the same time, you would like to know what the other lawyer’s arguments are. In this regard, you would file heads of argument a few weeks before the appeal hearing date. Basically, you will outline what points you will be focusing on, and what law you will be relying on.

You need to convince the Appeal Court there was an error

Your purpose at the appeal is to try to convince the judges that the magistrate erred in his or her decision. In other words, made a mistake.  In relation to a maintenance Court matter, you may even wish to convince the court that the maintenance officer did not follow the procedures outlined in the Maintenance Act or he or she did not properly investigate the maintenance complaint.  For example, the maintenance officer just took the father’s word when he said he was unemployed. Or the mother’s word when she said she earns no additional income.

Incorrect maintenance investigation

Had the maintenance officer done some further investigations by requesting relevant information, or instructing the maintenance investigator, the true facts would have been before the Maintenance Court. In other words, the magistrate would have made a different decision. Now, this would apply to a maintenance Court where the provisions in-place in the Maintenance Act was not followed. If this happened, you may appeal.

The magistrate’s reasons for his or her decision

The High Court judges would have the magistrate’s reasons for his decision before them. In other words, the magistrate would provide a document to the appeals court where he or she explains why he or she made a certain decision in the Maintenance Court matter.  He or she may, for example, say that based upon the evidence presented, the father earned an amount which does not justify him paying more than what he is currently paying.  Or the maintenance magistrate might say that based upon all the evidence presented, he could not find any information that will justify an amount greater than what the father is currently paying. The appeal Court would look at all these reasons and the evidence that was presented at court. It would listen to the arguments of the legal representatives and determine whether or not the magistrate made an error in judgment.

The appeals court’s decision

advice-child-maintenance-child-custody-divorceIf it is decided that the magistrate made an error in judgment, the court would in those circumstances change the order or refer the matter back to the maintenance court for a proper enquiry.  If the court decides that the magistrate was correct in its judgment, it will dismiss the appeal. So in short if you are dissatisfied with a maintenance magistrates court decision, you have full right to appeal it.      

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