Code of conduct for legal practitioners set down

04 Apr 2019

The code of conduct for legal practitioners is in place.

The Legal Practice Council published the final code in Government Gazette 42337 in terms of the Legal Practice Act.

It applies to all legal practitioners (attorneys and advocates) as well as all candidate legal practitioners and juristic entities.

The draft code was published for comment in December 2018.

General provisions focus on harassment and sexual harassment, approaches and publicity, specialization and expertise, integrity in performance of professional services and disputes about fees in non-litigious matters.

In Gazette 42364, the Legal Practice Council published a correction notice confirming that the code was published with an incorrect heading in that the notice referred to the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope instead of the Legal Practice Council.

In Gazette 42338, the justice and constitutional development department published amendments to Regulation 27 of the Legal Aid South Africa Act Regulations.

Regulation 27 deals with qualifying for legal aid and means test.

In Notice 499, the department has declared immigration officers to be peace officers in terms of certain listed offences.

The declaration was made in terms of Section 334 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

In a separate matter, the department has announced, in gazette 42366, the tabling in parliament of amendments to the Legal Aid Manual.

The amendments refer to the reimbursement of Judicare practitioners by Legal Aid SA.

The amendments come into effect 60 days after the date of publication.

(This article is provided for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. For more information on the topic, please contact the author/s or the relevant provider.)