Love and the Law: Cohabiting? Get Your House in Order Now
“All you need is love… and a good lawyer.” (Anonymous) February, with its Valentine’s Day chocolates, roses and declarations of undying love, should be a month for romance, not legal niceties. But in the real world, love and the law are inextricably linked because any relationship’s structure and consequences are inevitably governed by legal principles. […]
Parental Leave: Out With the Old, in With the New
“Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare.” (Ed Asner, actor with a great sense of humour!) A game-changing judgment from our Constitutional Court sets out new rules for parental leave. The joy of becoming parents, and a father’s leave dilemma The birth of a couple’s first child presented them with both a bundle […]
Good News for Grandma: The Law Wants You to Have Access to Your Grandchildren
“Grandparents, like heroes, are as necessary to a child’s growth as vitamins.” (Quoted in the judgment below) One of the greatest tragedies of family fall-outs will always be the effect they have on the children involved. A recent High Court fight over a granny’s attempts to have contact with her two grandchildren in the face […]
Restraint of Trade: Fatal Vagueness Means no Father Christmas to the Rescue
“The legal principles, as I understand them, do not confer on me the powers of Father Christmas. I cannot rescue the un-rescuable.” (Quoted in the judgment below) We all want loyal, competent staff who remain motivated to stay with us in the long term, but the reality is that a degree of employee churn is […]
A New School Year Dawns – Can Unpaid Fees Bar Your Child From Enrolling?
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” (Mark Twain) Our Constitution guarantees everyone rights to education, but that doesn’t mean parents can necessarily pick and choose which schools they send their children to. Nor does it mean that they can expect schools to continue educating their children if they don’t pay the […]
Divorce Diaries: Anti-Dissipation Orders in Action
When you’re going through a divorce it’s common to suspect your ex is selling off assets on the sly or concealing them from you outright. The paranoia is justified: you could leave the marriage with a lot less than your fair share. A recent SCA (Supreme Court of Appeal) battle over an ex-husband’s decision to sell his property without telling his ex-wife raises further concerns. Why did his ex-wife’s “anti-dissipation interdict” fail, and what can you do to avoid the same fate?
Siblings Feuding Over a Business: Can You Get a Domestic Violence Protection Order?
An order in terms of the Domestic Violence Act is a quick, simple and powerful protection for victims of domestic abuse of all kinds.
But is it available to victims who are not only in a domestic relationship with their abuser, but also in a business or commercial relationship with them? It’s an important question, with many South African businesses owned and run by close family members. When disputes arise, they can be particularly bitter, as witnessed by a recent High Court dispute involving siblings, with allegations of sexual, verbal and psychological abuse, threats of murder, and stalking via drone surveillance.
A Valentine’s Day thought for life partners: What is a “Universal Partnership”
“Marriage is the chief cause of divorce” (Groucho Marx) This Valentine’s Day, think about the legal aspects of your romantic relationship. They’re a lot less exciting than the traditional declarations of love backed up by chocolates and flowers, but they’re just as important in ensuring a strong, committed life partnership in which both of you […]
Dementia: Understanding your legal options
Dementia is a widespread medical condition that affects people of all ages but particularly the elderly, and includes conditions like Alzheimer’s. One of the most significant challenges of dementia is the loss of mental capacity, making it difficult for individuals to make crucial decisions, including those related to their legal affairs, finances and care. This […]
Maintenance claims and life partners
More and more couples are opting to live together as permanent life partners rather than enter into a formal marriage. The risk for such couples is that whilst our law is steadily (if slowly and cautiously) extending many of the protections of formal marriage to unmarried life partners, that process is not by any means […]