Initial Appointments
R4000 for an hour with Douglas (an advocate) and if you have an attorney then whatever you agree with your attorney, to be paid separately. If you are in financial trouble, we can sometimes arrange a lower amount.
We will then give you in depth advice about what your situation is and what you should do.
Unlike most legal professionals where you can run out of money just before the key moment and you never really know what you will pay, we like to give you a clear estimate (all legal professionals should these days). This is for as long as the matter takes through all stages (appeals etc) which can sometimes be a year or two.
It does not include appearances in court by advocates (or attorneys).
Often we can keep matters out of court however. [1] Usually an attorney firm when asked to quote on litigation with a bank in the High Court will say put down R100,000 as a deposit and we will take it from there, and it can be R200,000. And that is for attorneys that don’t necessarily specialise as we do. We do have cases at this level if they are very unique and we have to draft everything from scratch.
If you can afford to pay it in one payment then we reduce the amount . (If you pay some and within a month pay the balance, you can also get this deal), but we realise most people can’t pay the full amount upfront so unlike most firms we take a deposit and so much per month.
This includes drafting your papers (which is usually at least one set of papers but can be up to 5 or 6 sets of papers in some cases) and answering your questions by email. It also includes your contribution to all the legal research that goes into your papers (and also those of others) which is considerable. It also includes corresponding with the bank and negotiating deals with them.
Telephone and email questions, if you are not on a monthly package or if you are badly behind with payments, are charged per hour we spend on them, minimum 15 minutes at R3000 per hour for Douglas, They are included in your package up to double the amount your package covers and then we will charge extra for email advice, chasing emails and updates. With 90% of people, we don’t charge but if you send a lot of emails, it’s a possibility. Most people don’t ever get to that point especially now as many of the answers to questions are on one of our websites. Try and keep your questions concise and you will be unlikely ever to be charged for communications.
It includes face to face or telephone consultations initially to work on your papers but not update initial consultations or (obviously) further consultations about other matters.
Appearances in court are charged at the advocates cost (we don’t charge you anything further). A normal cost to appear in court R25,000. It is not always necessary to send Douglas or another experienced advocate,. In this case, it may be less. . We can explain more fully when the time comes.
If you have a joint income below a certain amount gross you can apply to pay over a longer period (we will need to see bank statements and pay slips etc for that). The amount you actually pay will be more in that circumstance, so its better to pay over a shorter period if you can manage that.