Legal Articles and Guides

Retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke has described the 12-year delay in dealing with the complaint against Western Cape High Court Judge President John Hlophe as unacceptable, notes a report in The Sunday Independent.

Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe will next week face an inquiry into his fitness to be a judge – 12 years after he allegedly tried to influence two Constitutional Court justices to rule in favour of then ANC president Jacob Zuma.

The double jeopardy rule was the focus of arguments at a virtual sitting of the Western Cape High Court yesterday when the state said if a Dutch arms trafficker is not extradited from SA to the Netherlands where he was previously convicted of war crimes relating to Liberia he could be off the hook in SA.

Civil activist group, the SA First Forum, has asked the Legal Practice Council and the Johannesburg Society of Advocates to investigate the conduct of former President Jacob Zuma’s legal team after his recent, unsanctioned walkout at the State Capture Commission.

A magistrate has taken a tongue-lashing from a judge after she ordered a lawyer to be locked up when the lawyer, who had been in court to defend her client, refused the magistrate's instructions to represent another man being sentenced for assault.

Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s appeal of a decision by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng that Hlophe face a misconduct tribunal will be heard by the Judicial Conduct Committee between 14 and 18 December.

Is Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe above the law? It’s a question raised by the Daily Maverick’s Marianne Thamm, who questions the apparent paralysis of the JSC, which has delayed for more than a decade dealing with myriad serious complaints against him.

Prominent lawyer Barnabas Xulu has scored a small victory in his battle with Eastern Cape High Court Judge John Smith, who has been removed from dealing with his case after it surfaced that he had unlawfully overstepped his jurisdiction when he granted three orders which resulted in Xulu’s assets being frozen by authorities.

The Duma Nokwe Group of Advocates – one of the biggest black advocates groups at the Johannesburg Bar – has demanded that the Bar Council retract a recent resolution on chambers, saying it had racially stigmatised the group and perpetuated the notion that black people were not professional.

If the Cape Bar Council had given Anton Katz an exemption from keeping chambers, other members – including black and women juniors and members suffering financial strain – would have had to pick up the cost, the Bar Council said yesterday in response to Katz resigning from the Cape Bar last week, after nearly 30 years, for ‘personal’ reasons.

In a recent virtual sting carried out by investigative television programme, Carte Blanche, its presenter Derek Watts demonstrated his cross-examination skills when he bust fake advocate Pauline Pretorius, who was masquerading as admitted Advocate Johanna Petronella Jansen van Vuuren.

‘No fool can tell me which lawyer must represent me.’ These were the words from EFF leader Julius Malema outside the Randburg Magistrate's Court yesterday in reaction to criticism on social media that he is employing white lawyers.

The Judicial Conduct Tribunal's probe into a 12-year-old complaint of judicial misconduct against Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe has been postponed yet again, reports TimesLIVE.

The Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda) has struck the name of lawyer Mzwandile Bobotyana from the roll of attorneys after he allegedly defrauded a businessman out of R2.1m in an illicit house sale, according to a TimesLIVE report.

NPA bosses want the agency to be moved from under the umbrella of the Justice Department so it can operate more like a Chapter Nine institution, like the Public Protector or the Auditor-General, to ensure its independence, says a Business Day report.