Lawyers eye big bonus after false arrest horror
‘Mistaken identity’, amputation — and the nightmare goes on
● Sinovuyo Godlo dreamt of opening a B&B after losing a leg and successfully suing the minister of police for R7.8-million in damages.
But after waiting more than a decade he is back in court fighting his former lawyers, who he says are trying to steal his money. He has accused them of charging fees amounting to more than 60% of his award.
Mistaken for being a rapist in 2006, Godlo — from Matatiele, KwaZuluNatal — was shot before being arrested, then detained without treatment. His “rotten leg” had to be amputated, and after 64 days in prison he was released when police conceded it was a case of “mistaken identity”.
When Judge Thoba Poyo Dlwati granted the compensation order in the High Court in Pietermaritzburg last year, 34-year-old Godlo thought the nightmare was behind him. But a new one was just beginning.
Now Godlo is seeking judicial clarity on what lawyers are allowed to claim under contingency-fee agreements, where they bear litigation costs in return for a slice of any eventual award.
The Contingency Fees Act says legal practitioners cannot demand payment which exceeds 25% of the total award, but a junior advocate and two attorneys have collectively claimed far more than that.
Attorney Lubabalo Mfingwana of Kokstad claimed 25% (R1.95-million), attorney Mzothule Mjoli of Durban claimed 15% (R1.17-million) and Advocate Armstrong Kwitshana claimed R1.45-million. Between them, that accounts for R4.57-million of Godlo’s damages.
The senior advocate involved, Peter Rowan, had at that time not even finalised his relatively modest bill of R384 000.
Last year Godlo approached a new attorney, David Shaw, who with Rowan’s assistance secured an order in the High Court in Durban directing that the money — which was in Mfingwana’s trust account — be paid to Shaw with a full breakdown of fee claims.
Godlo is returning to court with an application in which he claims the contingency agreements he signed are unlawful and accusing Mfingwana of flouting the previous court order because he withheld R1.8-million and did not pay any interest earned.
Godlo said the three lawyers, who are opposing the application, belatedly provided their accounts, but some made no “mathematical sense” and others lacked detail.
He is seeking an order that the 25% should be a “collective limit” for all legal practitioners. He also wants the three men to be investigated by their professional bodies.
“I am the person who has suffered. I am the person who has limited job prospects for the rest of my life without a leg, not the legal practitioners who have simply seen me as a means to make excessive fees,” he said.
In a supporting affidavit, Rowan agrees the intention behind the act needs clarity.
“It is clear that the respondents have conspicuously and deliberately ignored the advice given and flouted the requests made,
I am the person who has limited job prospects for the rest of my life without a leg
seemingly with a view to surreptitiously claiming exorbitant amounts from an innocent indigent victim who had quite obviously, as was clear from the first consultation I had with him and his family, placed his entire faith and belief in them,” he said.
The KwaZulu-Natal Law Society is investigating and Society of Advocates of KwaZulu-Natal chairman Gardner van Niekerk said the society was “seriously concerned” about the allegations and was also investigating.
Daya Sewjee, representing the three lawyers, said they would file affidavits in response to Godlo’s allegations that their fees were “unlawful and immoral”.