Legal Practice Act, 2014 (Act No. 28 of 2014)RegulationsRegulations under Section 109(1)(bA) of the Act4B. Rendering of community service by practising legal practitioners |
(1)
| (a) | For purposes of this regulation “community service” means— |
| (i) | the provision of free legal services by a practising legal practitioner through structures as contemplated in section 29(2) of the Act; and |
| (ii) | the provision of legal services at no fee or at a reduced fee to individuals, groups or organisations seeking to secure or protect civil rights, civil liberties or public rights or to charitable, religious, civic, community and educational organisations in matters, in furtherance of the organisational purposes, where the payment of standard legal fees would cause hardship; and |
| (b) | “Pro bono services” means legal services by a practising legal practitioner of a quality equal to that afforded to paying clients, at no fee or expectation of compensation, and principally to benefit poor, underprivileged or marginalised persons or communities or the organisations that assist them. |
| (2) | A practising legal practitioner must render community service for at least 40 hours per annum. |
| (3) | A legal practitioner who starts practising during the course of a calendar year must perform community service for a pro rata number of the applicable annual hours. |
| (4) | The periods of service referred to in subregulations (2) and (3) may be intermittent or continuous. |
| (5) | Any extra hours of community service rendered in a calendar year may be carried forward as credits for the next calender year. |
| (6) | Any pro bono services rendered by a practising legal practitioner will be recognised as community service. |
| (7) | In forma pauperis instructions from a registrar of a Division of the High Court will be regarded as community service. |
| (8) | The time spent on providing supervision to a candidate legal practitioner who is rendering community service is attributable to that legal practitioner's period of community service. |
| (9) | Any lectures or training presented to candidate legal practitioners by legal practitioners, at no charge and with no remuneration, will be regarded as community service. |
| (10) | Professional standards, as provided for in the code of conduct and the rules, will be applicable to community service rendered by a legal practitioner and non-compliance with the provisions of this regulation must be dealt with by the Council in accordance with the rules. |
| (11) | A practising legal practitioner must submit to the Council annually, at a date determined by the Council, one or more certificates, that substantially correspond to Annexure D to these Regulations, signed by the recipients of the community service, confirming that such community services have been rendered. |
[Regulation 4B inserted by section 2(a) and (3) of Notice No. R. 3882, GG49193, dated 25 August 2023 - effective on the date of publication in the Government Gazette (Section (4))]