Public to get reprieve from high court fees
THE public may soon get a reprieve from exorbitant legal fees when a new initiative to offer litigants the option of court-endorsed mediation to resolve disputes comes into effect.
The initiative is expected to drastically reduce the cost of accessing the country ’ s judiciary and help South Africans avoid expensive lawyers.
Acting Judge Cassim Sardiwalla, the chairman of Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha ’ s mediation advisory committee, told Sowetan yesterday that court-annexed mediation would be quick and cost effective, with disputes resolved within a month.
It can take up to three years to get a high court date.
Sardiwalla said the initiative could change the lives of communities and not just individuals and is a historical event in the country ’ s judiciary.
“The country has been waiting for this for many years,” Sardiwalla said.
Each party in court-annexed mediation will pay half of the costs at Legal Aid rates.
Legal Aid fees range between R1 200 and R3 848 for a four-hour trial day depending on seniority and whether the matter is at a magistrate ’ s, regional or high court.
In President Jacob Zuma ’ s corruption trial, one junior counsel charged between R15 000 and R18 000 a day while another was paid a daily rate of R21 000.
Zuma ’ s senior counsel, Kemp J Kemp, charged between R24 000 and R36 000 a day.
Other silks are known to charge daily rates of between R40 000 and R60 000.
Sardiwalla said civil courts are extremely slow and litigation is too expensive, even in magistrate ’ s courts.
However, court-annexed mediation was not targeting court backlogs but at improving the social fibre.
“’I m confident of success. This offers a simple, uncomplicated method of resolving disputes, ” Sardiwalla said.
Mediators in court- annexed mediation need not be lawyers but can be experts from other fields.
Sardiwalla said the initiative could mediate family, traditional and commercial disputes.
Masutha will launch the project in Mahikeng next Monday and it will be piloted across 12 courts in North West and Gauteng.
Law Society of SA cochairman Max Boqwana said they welcomed the new initiative and called on attorneys and advocates to support it and educate litigants about it.
“We have a challenge of backlogs and congestion of court rolls and some disputes are not complicated,” said Boqwana.