Free legal help finder
Tell the finder what your problem is about and it names the free South African services that can actually deal with it, in the order worth trying, with what each one covers and how to reach it.
Open calculator →Legal calculators
Quick, honest estimates built on the current SARS tables, BCEA minimums and court scales. Use them to sanity-check what you are told, then talk to an attorney if the numbers matter.
General
Labour
Retrenchment package calculator
Works out the minimum retrenchment package the Basic Conditions of Employment Act requires: severance pay for each completed year, notice pay and a payout for untaken leave.
Open calculator →Notice period calculator
Works out the minimum notice you or your employer must give when employment ends, based on your months of service under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, and compares it with your contract.
Open calculator →CCMA deadline calculator
Works out every clock in a CCMA case from the date of dismissal: the 30-day referral deadline (90 for an unfair labour practice), whether you now need condonation, the arbitration request window, the Labour Court review period and the compensation cap.
Open calculator →Annual leave calculator
Works out your annual leave under the BCEA: the entitlement for your leave cycle, what has accrued so far, your balance after leave taken and carried over, and the date by which the leave must be taken.
Open calculator →Leave payout calculator
Works out how many days of annual leave you are owed when you leave a job and what the payout should be: leave accrued pro rata this cycle, plus days carried over, less days taken, at your daily rate under the BCEA.
Open calculator →Sick leave calculator
Works out how many paid sick days you have left, over the three-year cycle the Basic Conditions of Employment Act actually uses instead of the calendar year: 30 days on a five-day week, 36 on a six-day week, the slower accrual in your first six months, and the date your cycle resets.
Open calculator →UIF benefit estimator
Estimates how much the Unemployment Insurance Fund will pay you and for how many days: the Schedule 2 income replacement rate on your daily wage, capped at the earnings ceiling, for the credit days you have earned (the first 238 days at that rate, any further days at 20%), or the flat maternity rate.
Open calculator →Overtime and Sunday pay calculator
Works out what your employer owes on top of your salary for overtime, Sunday work and public holidays: your true hourly rate from a monthly salary, overtime at one and a half times, Sundays and public holidays at double, and the hour limits the Basic Conditions of Employment Act sets.
Open calculator →Minimum wage calculator
Works out the national minimum wage for the hours you actually work, by the week and by the month, and shows the shortfall if you are paid less.
Open calculator →BCEA earnings threshold checker
Checks whether you earn above or below the BCEA earnings threshold, which decides whether the limits on hours, overtime pay and Sunday premiums protect you.
Open calculator →Severance tax estimator
Estimates the tax on a retrenchment lump sum under the retirement tax table and shows why a mutual separation payment is taxed as ordinary income instead.
Open calculator →Parental leave planner
Plans parental leave under the scheme the Constitutional Court read into the BCEA in October 2025: four months and ten days shared between two employed parents, with the dates that follow from the due date.
Open calculator →Sunday and public holiday pay calculator
Works out what you are owed for working on a Sunday or a public holiday under sections 16 and 18 of the BCEA, including the full-day floor for a short Sunday shift and the double-day rule for a public holiday.
Open calculator →Working hours compliance checker
Tests a week's roster against the BCEA limits: the 45-hour week, the daily cap, ten hours of overtime, the twelve-hour day, the meal interval and the daily and weekly rest periods.
Open calculator →Probation dismissal checker
Checks whether a dismissal during or at the end of probation meets what the 2025 Code of Good Practice on Dismissal still requires, even under its lower standard for probationers.
Open calculator →Salary deduction checker
Checks whether a deduction from your pay is allowed by section 34 of the BCEA, and works out the one-quarter cap on deductions for loss or damage.
Open calculator →Domestic worker pay and compliance checker
Works out what a household owes a domestic worker: the minimum wage for the days and hours worked, UIF contributions, notice, and the registrations a home must have as an employer.
Open calculator →Family
Child maintenance estimator
Splits a child's reasonable monthly needs between the two parents in proportion to their net incomes, the starting point a Maintenance Court uses, and shows a typical range per child for your income band.
Open calculator →Accrual calculator for divorce
Works out the accrual claim on divorce for a marriage out of community of property with accrual: each spouse's growth after inflation-adjusted commencement values and excluded assets, and the half share of the difference owed to the spouse whose estate grew less.
Open calculator →Maintenance arrears calculator
Works out exactly what is owed under a maintenance order, instalment by instalment, with payments applied to the oldest months first and interest running on each unpaid instalment from the day it fell due, so you can take a schedule to the maintenance officer.
Open calculator →Child age and legal capacity checker
From a date of birth, shows what a child can lawfully do, consent to and be held responsible for now, and the dates each capacity arrives: criminal capacity, medical consent, a will, a learner's licence, majority.
Open calculator →Divorce route and cost estimator
Shows which route your divorce is likely to take, which court, what must happen about children and property, and a realistic cost and time range for uncontested, mediated and contested divorces.
Open calculator →Child travel document checker
Shows exactly which documents a child needs to travel through a South African port of entry, from who they are travelling with and their nationality, with the contested points flagged.
Open calculator →Property & tenancy
Property transfer cost calculator
Estimates what you will pay on top of the purchase price when you buy a home: SARS transfer duty, the transfer attorney's fee with VAT, deeds office fees, typical disbursements and, if you have a bond, the bond registration costs.
Open calculator →Rental deposit refund calculator
Works out what your landlord must refund when you move out: the deposit plus the interest it earned, which deductions can stand after the joint inspections, and whether the refund is due 7, 14 or 21 days after you leave under the Rental Housing Act.
Open calculator →Rent escalation calculator
Works out what a lease really costs once the annual escalation compounds: the rent in each year of the term, the total over the whole lease, the true average monthly rent, what a renewal would start from, and the cash you need to move in.
Open calculator →Eviction lawfulness and process checker
Checks whether an eviction is lawful, which Act governs it, and what a landlord still has to do before anyone can be removed from a home. Covers the court order requirement, the 14-day notice, sections 4(6) and 4(7) of the PIE Act, and what to do about a lock-out.
Open calculator →Rates clearance and occupational rent estimator
Estimates what the municipality will ask for before it issues a rates clearance certificate, and the pro-rata occupational rent between occupation and registration.
Open calculator →Sectional title levy calculator
Works out your share of a sectional title scheme's levies from your participation quota, including the reserve fund contribution the regulations require and your share of a special levy.
Open calculator →Property transfer timeline estimator
A realistic range of weeks from signing the sale to registration in the deeds office, built from the stages that apply to your transfer.
Open calculator →Debt & credit
Prescription checker
Works out the date on which a debt, account or legal claim prescribes, meaning it can no longer be enforced, using the periods in the Prescription Act, the Road Accident Fund Act and the rules for claims against the state.
Open calculator →Small Claims Court checker
Checks whether your claim can go to the Small Claims Court, where there is no court fee, no attorney and no costs order against you. Covers the R30 000 limit, who may sue, the excluded claim types and the 14-day letter of demand.
Open calculator →Debt interest and in duplum calculator
Works out the interest on an overdue debt and shows where the in duplum rule stops it, because arrear interest may never grow past the capital you still owe. Also flags the stricter National Credit Act cap on a credit agreement in default.
Open calculator →Debt relief options checker
Answer a few questions about your income, debts and assets and see which formal debt relief routes are open to you and which are not: debt review, an administration order, sequestration, debt intervention, prescription or negotiating directly with creditors.
Open calculator →Court and litigation cost estimator
Gives a rough cost band for suing someone or collecting a debt in the District, Regional or High Court, based on the size of the claim, whether it will be defended, and how many times the sheriff must try to serve the summons.
Open calculator →Administration order checker
Checks whether your debts fit under the R50 000 limit for an administration order, what the administrator's 12.5% takes from each payment, and how long the order would run.
Open calculator →Credit record removal checker
Works out when a judgment, default listing, enquiry or payment history must come off your credit record, including the seven-day duty once a judgment is paid.
Open calculator →Emoluments attachment order checker
Works out the most that can lawfully be taken from your salary under emoluments attachment orders: 25% of basic salary across all orders together, and the room left under the cap.
Open calculator →Claims & compensation
RAF claim range indicator
Gives a broad, heavily qualified indication of what Road Accident Fund general damages plus past medical expenses look like for four injury levels, the maximum contingency fee on that figure, and your deadline to lodge the claim.
Open calculator →Can I return it? Consumer rights checker
Checks whether you can return goods or cancel a purchase and by when: the six-month quality warranty with repair, replacement or refund at your choice, the cooling-off periods on direct marketing and distance selling, the three-month rule after a failed repair, and unsolicited goods.
Open calculator →Fixed-term contract cancellation calculator
Works out the date your 20 business days' notice to cancel a gym, cellphone, security or other fixed-term contract takes effect under the Consumer Protection Act, how much of the term is left, and why the supplier cannot simply bill you the whole balance as a penalty.
Open calculator →Claim deadline planner
Shows the notice and summons deadlines for your damages claim side by side: the state's six-month notice, the RAF's lodgement and summons periods, three-year prescription and the extension for a child.
Open calculator →Contingency fee cap calculator
Works out the most your attorney may take under a no-win-no-fee agreement: the lower of double the normal fee and 25% of the award, with VAT and disbursements shown separately.
Open calculator →Wills & estates
Executor's fees and estate duty calculator
Shows what a deceased estate pays before the heirs receive anything: the executor's regulated fee of 3.5% plus VAT, the Master's fee tariff, and estate duty at 20% after the R3.5 million abatement and the deduction for property left to a spouse.
Open calculator →Intestate succession calculator
Works out who inherits when someone dies without a will: the spouse's child share or guaranteed minimum, whichever is greater, the children's shares, and what happens where there is no spouse and no children, under the Intestate Succession Act.
Open calculator →Will validity checker
Checks a will against the signing formalities in section 2(1)(a) of the Wills Act: signing at the end, signing every page, two competent witnesses present at the same time, and the commissioner of oaths certificate a will signed by mark needs.
Open calculator →Usufruct and bare dominium calculator
Values a usufruct and the bare dominium left behind using the 12% yield and the life expectancy tables prescribed under the Estate Duty Act.
Open calculator →Small estate checker (section 18(3))
Checks whether a deceased estate qualifies as a small estate under section 18(3), with letters of authority and no formal account, or needs letters of executorship and the full process.
Open calculator →Estate winding-up timeline estimator
A realistic range of months to wind up a deceased estate, from the stages that apply: letters, the creditor notice, the account, the Master, property, estate duty and disputes.
Open calculator →Donations tax calculator
Works out donations tax on a gift: the R150 000 annual exemption for individuals from 1 March 2026, the 20% rate, and the 25% rate above R30 million of cumulative donations.
Open calculator →Criminal
Criminal record expungement checker
Works out the earliest date you can apply to have a South African criminal record expunged, and flags the situations where the ordinary route does not apply at all: the sex offenders and child protection registers, a later prison sentence, and diversion.
Open calculator →Bail checker
Works out who can grant bail before a first court appearance, how the 48-hour rule works, and whether the State must justify keeping someone in custody or the accused must justify their release.
Open calculator →Admission of guilt record checker
Finds out whether paying the fine in your hand creates a criminal record: a section 56 or 57 admission of guilt does, a section 341 spot fine and an AARTO notice do not, and what to do if a record is already there.
Open calculator →Immigration
Permanent residence and citizenship timeline
Works out the earliest date you can apply for permanent residence after five years on the spousal or work-visa route, and the earliest date after that you can apply for South African citizenship by naturalisation. Home Affairs processing time is not included.
Open calculator →Visa overstay consequence checker
Works out what an overstay will cost you: the length of the ban as an undesirable person, the date it runs to, and the ten working days you have to appeal.
Open calculator →Visa category finder
Finds which South African visa category to read about from your purpose, including a points estimate for the work visas, the business visa capital test, the remote work income floor and the retired person income.
Open calculator →Retired person visa income checker
Checks whether your pension, annuities and income from assets meet the prescribed monthly amount for a retired person visa, per applicant, with a buffer for the exchange rate.
Open calculator →Small business & POPIA
POPIA compliance checker for small businesses
Turns ten yes-or-no answers about how your business handles personal information into the list of POPIA obligations you have actually triggered, from Information Officer registration and a PAIA manual to marketing consent and operator agreements, with a to-do list in order.
Open calculator →VAT registration checker
Checks whether your business must register for VAT, may register voluntarily, or is below both thresholds, and works out the 21 business days you have to apply once liable.
Open calculator →B-BBEE level checker
Finds out whether your business is an exempt micro enterprise, a qualifying small enterprise or a generic enterprise, which B-BBEE level follows automatically, and whether a sworn affidavit is enough.
Open calculator →CIPC annual return deadline and fee calculator
Works out when your company or close corporation must file its CIPC annual return, what it costs on time and late, and whether anything is blocking the filing.
Open calculator →Employee cost calculator
Works out what an employee really costs: salary plus the employer's UIF, skills development levy, COIDA assessment and any benefit contributions, by the month and by the year.
Open calculator →Traffic & AARTO
Traffic fine checker
Works out which of the two traffic fine systems applies to your notice, where you are in the AARTO 32-day cycle, what you can still do about it, and whether demerit points are actually in force.
Open calculator →AARTO deadline calculator
Works out the dates that follow an AARTO infringement notice: when it counts as served, the 32 days for the discount or a representation, the courtesy letter and the enforcement order.
Open calculator →What these tools are for
Somebody has given you a number. A severance offer, a deposit refund, a debt collector's balance, a quote for transfer costs, a maintenance amount. You have no way of knowing whether it is right, and the person who gave it to you has every reason for you to accept it.
That is what these calculators are for. They are not there to replace an attorney. They are there so that you walk into the conversation already knowing roughly what the answer should look like, and knowing which question to ask if it does not.
They all have one thing in common, and it is the thing that matters. They show their working. Every tool sets out the steps it took, names the rule it applied at each step, and prints the figures it fed in. You are never handed a single number and told to trust it. You can follow the arithmetic line by line, disagree with a step, change an input and watch what moves. A tool that only gives you an answer is asking for the same faith as the person who quoted you in the first place.
How to read a result
A result has three parts. The headline is the short answer. The lines below it are the working, one step at a time, each with a note saying where that step comes from. The warnings underneath are the part most people skip and should not, because that is where the exceptions live: the rule that does not apply to your kind of employee, the cap that is more generous than the one shown, the threshold nobody has confirmed.
Every figure a calculator takes from a rate table names its source and the date that source took effect. So a transfer duty bracket says which SARS table it came from and when that table started. A conveyancing fee point says it follows a published guideline and is illustrative rather than binding. When you see a source and a date, check whether the date is still current before you rely on the number. Tables move, mostly after the Budget or at the start of a year, and a figure that was right last season may not be right today.
Where a tool cannot be precise, it says so instead of pretending. A range is printed as a range. An illustrative fee is labelled illustrative. A step that depends on facts nobody can see from a form is written as a question for you rather than an answer for you.
Why some numbers are deliberately missing
A few figures are left out on purpose, and the tools tell you so rather than quietly guessing.
The prescribed rate of interest. Where a contract sets no interest rate, the rate that applies comes from the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975. It is the repo rate plus 3.5 percentage points, and it changes whenever the repo rate changes. This site therefore publishes no figure for it. The debt interest and in duplum calculator and the maintenance arrears calculator both ask you to enter the rate that applied during your own period, because a debt running across several years may have run at several different rates. Storing one number would be wrong for almost everybody who used it.
The spouse's guaranteed minimum share. When somebody dies without a will, a surviving spouse takes a child's share or a guaranteed minimum, whichever is greater. The Act does not fix that minimum. The Minister fixes it by notice and it changes. The intestate succession calculator therefore makes it an editable input and tells you to confirm the current figure with the Master's office before anyone relies on the split.
The same honesty applies to the debt limit for an administration order, the earnings threshold above which the overtime rules stop applying, and the small estate limit. All are set by notice, all move, and the tools point you at the office that knows rather than printing a number that may have expired.
The calculators, grouped by the question they answer
Your job has ended, or your pay is wrong. Retrenchment package calculator for the minimum severance, notice pay and leave payout on retrenchment. Notice period calculator for how much notice either side owes. Leave payout calculator for annual leave you have not taken. Sick leave calculator for what is left in the three year cycle the law actually uses. Overtime and Sunday pay calculator for overtime, Sunday work and public holidays. UIF benefit estimator for what the Unemployment Insurance Fund pays and for how long. CCMA deadline calculator for every clock running from the date of dismissal, which is the first tool to open if you have just lost a job.
Money you owe, or money owed to you. Prescription checker for whether a debt or a claim is already too old to enforce. Debt interest and in duplum calculator for the interest on an overdue debt and the point where the common law stops it growing. Debt relief options checker for which formal routes out of debt are actually open to you. Small Claims Court checker for whether your claim can go to the court where there is no fee, no attorney and no costs order against you. Court and litigation cost estimator for cost bands in the District, Regional and High Courts.
Family, children and separation. Child maintenance estimator for how a child's monthly needs split between two parents in proportion to income. Maintenance arrears calculator for what is owed under an existing order, instalment by instalment. Accrual calculator for divorce for the accrual claim where a marriage is out of community of property with accrual.
Where you live. Property transfer cost calculator for transfer duty, conveyancing, deeds office and bond registration costs when you buy. Rental deposit refund calculator for what your landlord must pay back, with interest, and by when. Rent escalation calculator for what a lease really costs once the annual increase compounds over the term.
After a death. Intestate succession calculator for who inherits when there is no will. Executor's fees and estate duty calculator for what an estate pays out before the heirs receive anything.
Something happened to you, or something you bought went wrong. RAF claim range indicator for a broad indication of a Road Accident Fund claim and your deadline to lodge. Can I return it? Consumer rights checker for whether you can return goods or cancel a purchase, and by when. Fixed-term contract cancellation calculator for getting out of a gym, cellphone or security contract, when the notice takes effect and what a penalty may cover.
A record, a visa, a business. Criminal record expungement checker for the earliest date you can apply to clear a record. Permanent residence and citizenship timeline for the earliest dates you can apply on the spousal or work visa route. POPIA compliance checker for small businesses for which duties under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 your business has actually triggered.
Where to get help for nothing. Free legal help finder takes your problem and shows which free services can deal with it, in the order worth trying. Open this one before you pay anybody.
What an automated tool cannot do
Be clear about the limits, because they are real and they are not small.
It cannot check your inputs. If you type the wrong start date, the wrong salary or the wrong estate value, it will do faultless arithmetic on a wrong number and hand you a confident result. Every figure that comes out is only as good as the one you put in. Check your inputs against a payslip, a bank statement or the contract itself before you believe the answer.
It cannot weigh whether conduct was reasonable. Most legal outcomes turn on judgement rather than sums. Whether a dismissal was fair, whether a deduction from a deposit is justified, whether a delay is excusable, whether a penalty is reasonable in the circumstances. No form can score that. The tools calculate what is calculable and stop.
It cannot see your documents. The clause in your lease that changes the answer, the settlement agreement you signed and forgot, the letter that interrupted prescription, the wording of the court order. All of it is invisible to a calculator and all of it can turn a result upside down.
It does not know the exceptions that apply to you. Senior managers, employees below a certain number of hours, juristic customers, and people covered by a bargaining council agreement rather than the general rule are all treated differently. The warnings on each result flag the common exclusions, but a warning is a prompt to check, not a finding about you.
A surprising result is a reason to get advice, not to act
If a calculator tells you something you did not expect, that is useful information and it is not an instruction. It usually means one of three things: you have misunderstood the rule, the tool has not been told something important, or you are genuinely owed far more or far less than you were told.
All three are worth an hour of somebody's time. None of them is a reason to send a demand for a figure you cannot explain, to refuse a settlement, or to accept one. Take the printed working with you. A result that shows its steps is a very good starting point for a conversation with an adviser, because you can point at the line you disagree with.
And free comes first. Legal Aid South Africa is on 0800 110 110 for people who pass its means test. The CCMA is on 0861 16 16 16 for anything about a job. The ombud schemes, the Maintenance Court and the Rental Housing Tribunal cost you nothing. The free legal help page lists them all.
Read this before you rely on any number here
The content on this site has been reviewed by Shephard Dube, who holds an LLB. He is not an admitted attorney, and reviewing what a page says about the law is not the same as checking the number a tool has produced for you. LawMatch is not a law firm, does not give legal advice, and a calculator result is not legal advice. These tools are general information built from published statutes, rates and tariffs, to help you sanity check what you have been told and to help you ask better questions. The guides explain the rules the calculators apply, and the cost pages tell you what the paid route runs to. Where the number matters, have it checked by somebody who can see your documents.
Not legal advice. LawMatch is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Information is general and may not apply to your situation.