Legal guides

What these guides are

Each guide on this page answers one question that a real person asked, in the words they asked it. Not a summary of an Act. Not an article about an area of law. One question, one answer, written so that somebody with no legal training can read it once and know what to do next.

They are written in house by the LawMatch editorial team from the South African statutes, the published rules of the courts and tribunals, and the guidance the CCMA, the Master of the High Court, the Information Regulator and the ombud schemes put out themselves. They are written for the person with the problem, not for the person charging for the answer.

Say the important part first. The content on this site has been reviewed by Shephard Dube, who holds an LLB but is not an admitted attorney. Where an admitted attorney has reviewed a guide, that attorney is named on it, with their Legal Practice Council number, so you can check them. No guide carries such a name yet, and a review of general information is not advice on your facts in any event. LawMatch is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Read the guides as good general information that helps you ask better questions, and get a person involved when the stakes are real.

Start from your problem, not from a legal category

Most people do not know which area of law their problem sits in, and there is no reason they should. A landlord who has locked you out feels like a police matter. A debt collector phoning your office feels like harassment. A retrenchment that was really a dismissal feels like bad luck. Sorting your problem into the right box is a legal skill, and needing that skill before you can get help is exactly the barrier this site exists to remove.

So do not start by picking an area of law. Start by writing down what actually happened, in order, with dates. Who did what, on what day, and what you want to happen now. Then find the sentence below that comes closest to your situation. Getting to the right area is most of the work, because the forum, the deadline and the free route all follow from it, and all three are easy to get wrong at the start and impossible to fix at the end.

If your problem seems to sit in two areas, it probably does. A divorce with a house and a bond in it is family law and property law at the same time. Read both. Nothing stops you.

Find your problem in one of ten areas

Work. Anything about a job. Being dismissed, being retrenched, a disciplinary hearing, a contract changed without your agreement, unpaid leave or overtime, a restraint of trade blocking a new job, and claiming from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. If you have been dismissed, read how to refer an unfair dismissal to the CCMA today. The clock is short and it starts on the day you were dismissed.

Family. Divorce, what happens to the house and the pension, care and contact with children, child maintenance and arrears, protection orders where there is abuse, unmarried fathers, parenting plans and antenuptial contracts. Start with what to do if maintenance is not being paid if money for a child has stopped.

Where you live. Renting and buying. Deposits, rent increases, repairs, a landlord entering or cutting services, breaking a lease early, eviction from either side, transfer costs, and body corporate levies. If somebody is trying to remove you from your home, read can a landlord evict me without a court order first.

Debt and credit. Money you owe. Debt review, sequestration, a summons or a judgment, an order attaching your salary, repossession, debt collectors, section 129 notices, and wrong listings on your credit record. Old debts often cannot be enforced at all, which is why how to check if a debt has prescribed is the first thing to read when a collector calls about something ancient.

Claims and compensation. Harm somebody else caused. Road Accident Fund claims, injuries at a shop or from a dog, medical negligence, rejected insurance claims, defamation, and your rights as a consumer when goods or a contract go wrong.

Wills and estates. Writing a will while you can, and winding up an estate after a death. Reporting the estate to the Master, executors and their fees, who inherits when there is no will, contested wills, and the house or bank account nobody can touch. Start with how to write a valid will in South Africa if you are planning rather than grieving.

Criminal. Being arrested, your rights at the police station, bail, how a trial runs, laying a charge, diversion for a first offence, missing a court date, and clearing an old record.

Immigration. Visas of every kind, renewals, changing status, appealing a Home Affairs refusal, permanent residence, citizenship, asylum, and what your rights are if you are detained.

Traffic and AARTO. Fines, disputing them, demerit points, warrants for unpaid fines, drinking and driving, reckless and negligent driving, an impounded car, an expired licence, and what to do at the scene of an accident.

Small business and POPIA. Running something small. Registering a company, contracts with customers and suppliers, hiring your first employee, chasing an unpaid invoice, partner disputes, protecting a name, and every duty the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 puts on you.

How a guide is built, and why in that order

Every guide follows the same shape, because the shape is the point.

The direct answer comes first. Yes or no, or the one sentence that settles it, in the opening lines. You should never have to read nine paragraphs of background to find out whether you have a case. If the honest answer is that it depends, the guide says what it depends on straight away.

Then the steps. What to do, in order, with the words you actually say and the office you actually walk into.

Then a worked example. A named person with dates and figures, so you can see the rule move. The example is always labelled as illustrative. It is not somebody's real matter and no outcome in it is promised to you.

Then what to do this week. The two or three things that are worth doing before anything else, usually because a deadline is running.

Then the documents to gather. A list you can work through, because the single biggest saving in any legal matter is arriving with the file already in order.

Then the deadlines. Set out plainly, with the date each clock starts running from, since that is where people lose good cases.

Then the common mistakes. What people do that quietly destroys their position: sending an angry letter, signing an acknowledgement of debt, waiting for an internal appeal while the referral period runs out.

Then the free route, before the paid one. Every guide tells you what the CCMA, an ombud, a tribunal, the Maintenance Court, the Small Claims Court or Legal Aid South Africa can do for nothing before it discusses an attorney. That order is deliberate and it never changes.

The rules every guide follows

Plain English throughout. Where a Latin or technical term is unavoidable it is explained in the same sentence. Acts are named in full the first time they appear, so you can look them up yourself rather than take our word for anything.

No invented authority. We do not put a section number in a guide unless it is real, and we do not name a case unless it exists and says what we say it says. Where a rule comes from common law rather than a statute, the guide says so instead of inventing a section.

Figures that change are flagged as changing. Thresholds set by ministerial notice, rates that move with the repo rate, and tables that are updated after the Budget are marked as moving and you are told to confirm the current one. Every worked example is labelled illustrative. No guide promises you an outcome, because nobody can.

How the guides fit with the rest of the site

A guide explains the rule. A calculator runs the arithmetic for your dates and amounts and shows its working, so start with the guide and take the number from the calculators. A template gives you the document, so once you know what to send, the templates have the letter, the checklist or the affidavit. The cost pages tell you what the paid route runs to, before you commit to it.

Use them in that order. Understand the rule, check the number, put it in writing, then decide whether to pay anybody.

When a guide is not enough

Stop reading and get a person when any of this is true. You have been served with court papers. A deadline is days away. A child, your home or your liberty is at stake. The other side already has an attorney. The amount would change your life. Or you have read the guide twice and still cannot see where your facts fit.

Free first, always. 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. Ombud schemes, the Maintenance Court and the Rental Housing Tribunal cost nothing, and the Small Claims Court checker tells you whether a money claim fits there. The free legal help page lists all of it in one place.