Justin McBride Financial and Legal Services

05/04/2017

Hi , I no longer do this work as I am employed as an attorney full time. Thank you for your support. you can contact me for advice, but if you need an attorney, I will not be available.

07/01/2017

Why do we think of saving as depriving ourselves, when we should be thinking of saving as being able to do more for ourselves?

I had the horror of being retrenched, and the lean months (3 years) that came from that experience. But we survived without much alteration to our lifestyle. This was due to our savings and we still have our bigger investments.

But again, that sounds like no fun, as if we were hoarding our money and not enjoying it. only using it in emergencies. Which is far from the truth, we were making sure that we had the money to enjoy ourselves as we needed to. When we wanted to redo our kitchen, we had the money there, we did not have to take a loan and pay the creditor triple or quadruple the amount we loaned. The same occurred when we bought the Opel, we could pay for it cash. Savings of R300plus thousand rand.

When Charmaine saw a special on Ipads, she could use her bank, not her credit card, and bought two for cash. We went on helicopter rides, trips to Knysna and Limpopo, resort vacations at the end of every year, we out out at least once a weak (before the retrenchment). We enjoyed our money, without having to owe money to creditors. which started an uplifting cycle, instead of a destructive cycle.

We could pay cash, so we paid no monies monthly in interest. The next month, we had more money available from our income, as none of it, (except for the bond) was paid in the form of interest to outsiders. We therefore were able to have more money available for our enjoyment, as well as having more money being available to be invested for special projects, the children's university education, our retirement, (and don't get me started on retirement and the way most people seem to completely disregard the need to plan for it. Are you covered for retirement, or are you just going to be burden on the rest of your family when you are no longer able to provide the same income? see, I got started on it...) , our eventual holiday home on the beach to which we are going to retire.

All of which we would not be able to do if we did not make the effort to enjoy our monies properly, investing it and not living hand to mouth. (And by hand to mouth I do not mean poor people, I know people that earn far more than Charmaine and I combined, but as soon as the money comes in, it is used for accounts, creditors and a lavish lifestyle). Choosing consciously to plan for our finances and goals, we were able to enjoy our monies far more, even during tough times like retrenchments and starting a business aiming to help those that are lacking financial resources and therefore unable to pay me to the level that I earned before.

You should seriously consider doing the same, and you don't have to do it alone. Speak to a registered financial adviser, like myself, who should offer his or her advice for free, and shop around if you have to.

And please, make sure that you invest the money, and not in just a savings account at the bank. Money in a savings account at the bank normally earns less than 6% per annum is not a real savings, as you are actually losing buying power every year. Inflation is at about 7%, therefore, if you put in R100 in a savings account now, and next year you get less than 7% growth, your money would have lost value in that time.

An easily understood example is that the buying power of R 100.00 from January 2010 would be worth R 143.75 in November 2016.
Or put differently the buying power of, R 100.00 in November 2016 is equivalent to the buying power of R 69.57 from January 2010.
Total increase (6 years): 43.8% needed for the buying power to stay the same for the years.
Annual increase needed is 6.2%. This is considering the various inflation levels since January 2010.

These inflation were less than our current inflation of 6.87% as at November 2016.

Therefore the R100 you had under your mattress in 2010 is only worth R69.57 today. You did not save R100, you lost R30.43.

And inflation is under the actual cost of living increases, for example, if we look at the price of petrol, if we increased it at inflation from 1991, it would be only R6.70 per litre (it was R2.32 a liter back then). Bread would be R6.68. Inflation is way below the actual costs. http://www.inflationcalc.co.za/

You don't have to be a financial genius to get a financial plan, and you don't have to do it alone.

You have various options, most of them free, where you can consult with financial advisers from different financial houses to help you plot your financial stepping stones to achieving your financial goals. You don't have to be tied to one point of view, although the adviser should be someone you trust and in whose ability you have confidence (the two are not the same).

I will leave you with one more final concept. Compounded interest or growth. If invested, that R100 under your pillow will grow every month, and it will have the growth added to its worth. then the whole package will grow, not just the capital you originally invested. The longer you give it grow, the more money it makes.

A practical example is two twenty year old guys preparing for retirement, A starts investing him money at age twenty, B at age thirty (we will consider that they will have the same wages and life experiences). A stops investing at age 30 and leaves the money to continue to grow. B starts at age 30. According to the actuaries A, (even though he would be contributing for fewer years, ie, only 10 years as compared to the 30 years B will be contributing), would have more money due to the length of time of his investment. Which is why younger people should be encouraged to save now, rather than later, though its never to late to start.

See the article below that shows how, with a little planning, you can save on day to day bills. If you want more details, drop me a line and we can meet and discuss it. As a registered financial planner for Liberty, I have a detailed understanding of life's financial pitfalls and how to prepare for them. And I am backed by the liberty team, which includes actuaries, accountants, investment specialists, etc...

http://yourlife.liberty.co.za/newsletter/2016-03/article-5.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mar16_eng

08/11/2016

An article by Neil Daya, a debt counselor that I trust implicitly. You can call and discuss your need with him, for free, just mention my name.

Debt and Marriage
As debt counsellors, we frequently encounter married couples who are unaware of the ways in which their individual debts affect their spouse. It is also important for people who are planning marriage to have this information. Rather than re-doing something of which someone else has already done an excellent job, I would rather credit Geraldine Macpherson for her comprehensive and easy-to-read article as it appeared in the Liberty newsletter, and encourage interested readers to read the article here :
http://yourlife.liberty.co.za/newsletter/2016-03/article-3.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mar16_eng
(readers should be able to copy and paste this link into their web-browsers to go straight to the article).
For anyone who has wanted to know :
(a) the implications of being married in Community of Property (COP) or ANC (with an ante-nuptial contract) ;
(b) how your individual debts affect you once you’re married, and
(c) what happens to your debts and estate when one spouse dies,
we highly recommend reading this article. It also gives useful advice on budgeting and how to work with your finances once you’re married.

BY Neil Daya

A marriage contract is not just about divorce; it also defines what happens to your finances while you are married. Who is on the line for those bills?

26/02/2016

25/01/2016

Legal Advice When You Need It As You Need

http://justingmcbride72.wix.com/mcbridelegal

You may ask, "Why should I choose Mc Bride Consulting over an attorney, surely the attorney has studied extensively, obtained a LLB degree and is dedicated to the law? Would I not receive better service from a big firm that is registered with the Law Society? Why should I look at the services of a legal adviser?"

These are excellent questions and the answer is found in the nature of the service that is needed.

First, it should be noted that I am an attorney of the High Court, although I do not operate as such in Mc Bride Consulting. However, I have been an attorney at large firms, handling files of tens of millions of Rands. I also still act as a consultant attorney for law firms, handling court appearances, legal opinions and general attorney work.

An attorney's primary role is to represent a client in Court proceedings, to that effect, the law states that only an attorney may represent a party in most legal proceedings (certain legal proceedings like reconciliation in the CCMA do not allow representation by an attorney). An attorney has been taught the technicalities of the proper procedure to bring your case to court and to argue it in court. The attorney also charges per hour for this privilege and court matters tend to drag for a long time, mostly leaving you with tens of thousands of Rands fees to pay to your attorney even if you are successful in your matter.

The attorney has also been educated in various legal matters and can provide technical and legal expertise in drawing up many different forms of contracts or documents required by legislation such as Wills, tax forms, company registrations, etc...

The catch is, they will charge you for every hour that they work on the matter, and often the reward you receive is made negligible by the fees that you have to pay, sometimes, the fees outweigh the payment you receive, even when successful. Further, if the matter is a formality where they already have the format of the document, they would still charge the time it would have taken to draft that document from scratch. Such basic documents are called proforma documents and merely have to be tweaked for the client’s needs, however, they will charge you per 100 words or an estimated time it would have taken from scratch.

The rub of the matter is that the more time the attorney takes to properly do your matter, the more fees will be charged. I represented a client that had won his matter in the Labour Court, been awarded the maximum amount, and his lawyers fees left him with less than R4000, and he had intended on retiring on the award which was in excess of R240 000. I have also seen contigency fee agreements, the so called no win no fee arrangement, that are drafted in such a way that they would financially cripple the poor client if they attorney did not win a certain amount, ie, if the client was awarded less than R100 000, then the attorney would charge exhorbinat fees, often more than the R100 000 award. If the award was higher than R100 000, only then would the attorney consent to be chargedmerely 25% of the award. However, the contract is couched in legal jargon that is not explained and the clients often find that they have very little of the judgement monies awarded to them and often the attorneys fees are more than the award and they are placed in debt after being successful with their matter.

Very often, you do not need the services of an attorney, it is merely your ignorance of the law that prevents you from resolving the own issue or insisting on your rights. Even more often, you will need to double check that the information people give to verify if it complies with the law, or that the representations that the person is making is in line with the documents you have received. Or to put it more vulgarly, whether or not you are being screwed by the documents you are required to sign. You need to double check that the documents you are signing is the same as the promises made by the person when you meet, because if it is not, you will be held by the contract rather then the oral agreement you had made.

You need to know what your obligations are and how you can ensure that you can comply with your obligations and to ensure that the other person will comply with their obligations to you. The consequences of not complying with your obligation could result in the contract being cancelled and you forfeiting monies paid as well as being held liable for damages suffered by the other party.

Or you might need to draw up a contract yourself to enforce the agreement between yourself and another party. Often, people enter into handshake deals and then seek legal advice only when it all falls apart. I am sure that you have heard many horror stories about people renovating their homes, purchasing a motor vehicle, going into partnerships, or employing someone to provide a service only to have it turn out into a complete mess and then they have huge difficulties in getting their due because the obligations of each party was not spelled out in a contract. It never ceases to amaze me that someone would be willing to invest many thousands of Rands into a new venture, be it renovations or a business, without making sure that there are contracts governing the new venture or not making sure that someone with legal knowledge has looked over the contract and advised of the pitfalls and items that should be added to the contracts. People are willing to risk many thousands of Rands for the sake of saving a few Rands in not getting legal advice.

However, if they were to consult an attorney, the attorney generally would charge an hourly rate for the consultation and then an hourly rate for the drafting or the perusal (studying) of the contract. Irrespective of how simple or complicated your needs are, you would be charged on that same hourly rate, however, if your needs are more complicated, those hours may increase.

If you consulted with us, we would charge for the consultation and, if drafting of documents, be in a contract or a will or other legal document, is required and such document is straightforward, and the majority of legal documents are straightforward if you have legal knowledge, we would supply that document (tweaked) to you for the price of the consultation. This would also apply to perusing a contract and advising you of the traps therein and how to protect your interests, drafting your will, advising you the meaning of any legal documents you receive etc...

We would have no interest in prolonging the matter to gain more fees, as we would not be paid extra fees for dragging out a matter.

Whereas most attorneys charge between R1000 and R2500 per hour, a consultation with the documentation would be charged from R275 to R1000, depending on your income. We would also tweak the documents according to your needs and specifications.

Further, in many occasions litigation between the parties need not be entered into and there are many alternatives where you can seek a solution without the expense of a court trial. Certain examples include housing situations, where the Rental Tribunal can be approached, or Consumer Protection, where you would approach the Consumer Protector, or insurance matters, where you would approach the relevant ombudsman.

However, most people do not know which avenues are available to them and know they cannot afford the services of the attorneys, who would mostly likely advise them to proceed to court. Which would be costly, but would also mean that both attorneys would be paid a lot of money, whereas the other avenues can be done without attorneys, although the client would need to be instructed on their legal rights this can be done with a consultation and follow up consultations with any new issues arising. We are also willing to draft the correspondence to the relevant bodies.

In short, instead of paying an attorney to run your matter, and the likelihood that it would proceed to litigation and incur many expenses, you can find out your legal rights and all avenues available to you. With the fact that I am an admitted attorney of the High Court, you will not be settling for lesser quality advice and after being advised of your legal position, you can then properly assess your options and decide your next move, at a fraction of the costs of approaching an attorneys firm.

If it is found in the consultation that you need an attorney, I can also negotiate a discounted fee from our associates.

Further, many times you would just need to find what your legal rights are, so that you can know if your rights are being abused and what avenues you can take to protect yourself. A consultation with Mc Bride Consulting will provide you not only with a broad understanding of your legal rights, but also a detailed plan as to whom you should approach, which documents you need and the legal argument to present to protect your interest, whether it is applying for a protection order, drawing up a will, collecting rent, forcing repairs from your land lord, preventing your neighbours tree roots breaking your property, drawing up a contract to prevent the renovators doing a poor job and demanding payment for it, or getting your money back or repairs for an item you bought.

When you use Mc Bride Consulting you will know the fees upfront, you will be able to fit it in your budget, and you will confident in the steps you need to take to have your issue addressed by the relevant authorities.

Author Justin Mc Bride (BA LLB)UCT
Founder of Mc Bride Consultants

Legal advice, Cape Town Attorney, Lawyer, employment law, dismissal, rental housing, tenant

21/01/2016

What can I do about Debt?
It saddens me to note how many people are in financial trouble nowadays. People unable to pay their bills, worried about losing their homes, losing their possessions, unable to pay school fees, etc...
There is continuous harassment from debt collectors, on the occasions that there is no harassment, just the thought of the letters of demand and sense of mounting debt causes the stress levels to spike dramatically.
It's particularly sad because South Africa has some of the most proactive legislation in the world that is in favour of the man in the street. We have the Consumer Protection Act, debt relief legislation, the National Credit Act or NCA) act, etc, to protect the debtor from unscrupulous people.
Most of us just do not know what legislation can apply to our situation nor how we can enforce our rights.
There is also the problem that the practitioners in certain areas, such as debt relief, Administration orders, etc have given the various fields a very bad reputation.
We have all heard the horror stories, creditors going unpaid, no feedback from the administrators, unable to get your balances, and having to do all the work yourself to repay the creditors while the administrator / counsellor just pockets the administration fee. People are sceptical about the field and therefore tend to regard the whole field, and those that practice in that field, as a scam populated with scam artists.
And this may be true in many cases. You don't know who to trust.
However, the benefits of Debt Relief (Debt Review) are too numerous to ignore.
If you go under debt review you can get the following immediate benefits when the debt counsellor:
• Contacts your creditors to advise them of your application, and stop further harassment
• Ensures that your assets (homes, cars, furniture and even your salary) are protected from legal action
• Get your monthly repayment instalments reduced with all of your creditors
• Re-negotiates the interest being charged on your outstanding debt
• Consolidate all debt and arrears, so that you only make one affordable monthly payment
You may ask the question how does this addresses the issue of all the horror stories and that fact that the field has such a poor reputation. Well, the simple answer is that you need to know who is honest and will look out for your best interest. I know someone that fits those criteria in the Debt Review industry and I recommend to him to you.
I have known Neil Daya more than 25 years. He has always been honest and upfront, and as you can see from his website, http://creditbalancingservices.co.za/, he has carried forward this quality to his profession. He will look after your best interest first, before he looks after his own and he will not lie to you. .
My personal recommendation may not be enough for you, so let’s look at what Credit Balancing Services (CBS) has to offer.
First of all, he offers free advice, over the phone. Yes, FREE no obligation advice to you. In this telephone call you can explain your issues and they will advise what options you have available. A service open to the public at no charge.
They also offer a free initial consultation, which will include a free assessment of your financial position and whether or not CBS can assist you. This assessment generally takes about two hours. If they cannot assist you, then there is no charge, even though they are entitled under the National Credit Act to charge for the assessment. However, in their minds, charging you when they are unable to provide a service is against their morals, so they don’t do it. You cannot get more fair that that.
If they can assist you, they will advise how, what procedure gets followed, and most importantly, how they charge their fees. Upfront and full disclosure.
Again, there will be no demand to take the offer or you lose an incentive, you are free to go home, think about it, consult with a friend, etc... There is no pressure applied, they are there to help, not force you to sign with them.
The fees they charge are according to the National Credit Regulator Guidelines and therefore not more than what government recommends should be charged. Again, you can not get any more fair than that.
He will also account to you every month, letting you know the status of your debts, as well as committing to respond to all queries and keep the lines of communication to the creditors open.
He will also protect you by advising you on your legal rights so that you can avoid exploitation.
In all, what he offers shows no ulterior motive nor does it allow him to circumvents his service to you, if he keep him to his word, you will always know what is happening and need to do no running around yourself. (He will keep you informed and follow up on all queries and concerns, to ensure your peace of mind).
In a field which has a poor reputation, you should point to people that you can trust, so I would recommend CBS to you. If you want to know more, you can see their website http://creditbalancingservices.co.za/
Or contact them directly.
Telephone: 087 809 0914
Mobile/Whatsapp: 082 9222 884
Email: [email protected]
Business Address:
Unit Y
First Floor
Cavendish Close
3 Warwick Street
Claremont
7708
Southern Suburbs
Cape Town

If you found this helpful please like or share it, so that more people can benefit from it.

14/01/2016

Are you getting Married?

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS!

Finding a person that you can happily spend the rest of your life with is an amazing achievement and one that is bound to give you great joy.

If you are getting married and you do not think that you have found the person that you can happily spend the rest of your life with, may I respectfully ask that you reconsider the marriage.

Irrespective of which category you find yourself, you should consider an Antenuptial Contract (ANC). I would actually advise that it is extremely irresponsible to get married without an Antenuptial agreement.

Most people avoid an antenuptial contract as they believe that to ask for one is displaying a lack of trust in the marriage, that you want protection in case it ends in divorce, or that you are not willing to share everything in one shared estate as is the case with the default community of property marriage. Or that each person will own their individual assets and will not be required to help out the other person in their time of need.

This is simply not true, an ANC has various options. These, or community of property, will determine the Matrimonial Property Regime (which is legal speak as to the rules that will apply to your assets when you get married). Irrespective of which Matrimonial Property Regime you choose, there is still a reciprocal duty of care between spouses, that is recognised and enforceable by law. (This means that spouses must take care of each other, and if one does not when the other is in need, the spouse that needs care can take the other to court to enforce his / her need for care).

Community of property means that you have a shared estate (you both own all assets and debts for both spouses, save for some exceptions that are deemed to be separate from the joint estate), ie, for the purposes of most transactions and the law in general, you are treated as one person. If your spouse is sued and found liable, then the shared estate is liable for that debt. For example, if you have a car that you use, and it does not fall in the exceptions to the shared estate, despite the fact that you consider it to be yours, it will be considered to be part of the joint estate. And can be sold to settle the debt. So an ANC can protect assets of a spouse from creditors of the other spouse.

If you chose a straight Antenuptial, then your estates are separate and will continue to be so after marriage. So if one spouse stayed home and assisted with the admin work and children so that the other could go off and make money she would be entitled to nothing from his estate if they get divorced and after divorce, will not be entitled to be cared for.

ANC with accrual is a compromise between the straight ANC and Community of property. You have protection of your assets, and both spouses can set their value before they were married and only the value created while in the marriage would then be divided 50/50. Win - Win and it is my personal choice, and the one I chose when I got married.

Therefore I recommend an ANC with Accrual to safeguard your assets.

I can draft an antenuptial agreement and advise you with regards to the various options that you and your soon to be spouse will have to take into consideration when deciding your Matrimonial Regime.

The procedure to complete an AnteNupitial Contract (ANC) is not long and can be done in one day but it is best not to leave that late.


The ANC needs to be signed by the parties in the presence of two witnesses and attested by a Notary Public before the marriage takes place. It must then be registered at the Deeds Office within three months after the date of its ex*****on (this registration can take place after the wedding day, it just needs to be signed anytime before you take your vows).

However, you will need to sign the documentation in front of a Notary, which is a specialized attorney and which I am not.

I can do everything else and you can sign in front of a Notary and they can only charge for that consultation. My costs for that would be a consultation and the documentation will be provided without any further fees, and you would have to pay for any distributions. I charge fees depending on your earnings as outlined in http://justingmcbride72.wix.com/mcbridelegal #!fees/c4l6

However, it would be better for you to have it all done in one place, I am sure that I can get one of my colleagues who are Notaries to give you a deal that would be greatly discounted from R3000.

A Typical attorneys fees is as follows.
fee for the antenuptial contract is normally R2 972.95. The cost is amount is made up of a 30 minute consultation (R600.00 plus VAT), a fee for drafting of the contract (R750.00 plus VAT) and a fee for attending at the Deeds Office three times to lodge the documents, hand them in for registration, and execute them (R1 000.00 plus VAT), postage and petties (R117.50 plus VAT) and the Deeds Office fee for processing the contract (R160.00).
taken from http://www.hwdattorneys.co.za/antenuptial-contracts/

However, it would be better for you to have it all done in one place, I am sure that I can get one of my colleagues who are Notaries to give you a deal that would greatly discounted from R3000.

Therefore, as much as I would like to, I can not recommend doing your ANC and then sending you to someone else, though I will discuss the pro's and con's if you are just looking for advice and help you to draft it.

It would be best if you did it all under one roof, including the signing with the Notary.

If you are interested in having an antenuptial contract, let me know, and I can find someone that will do it for a fair and decent price.

You will not have to worry about the quality of the work as an ANC is pretty straightforward. It would help if you are aware of the various types of Matrimonial property regimes and what they offer. You and your fiance can go over it and discuss it, so that when you meet with the Notary you can advise what you require.

My own personal suggestion is an ANC with accrual, so that whatever is made in the marriage gets split equally between the parties, but at the same time your personal assets remain protected from what happens in the other person's estate, ie, if s/he gets sued they can only go after what your spouse owns, not what you own.

I hope that this assists. Let me know if you want me to look for a deal for you, no charge.

Only for the Cape Town area, I do not have many Notary Colleagues in other areas.

Regards

Justin McBride
McBride Consulting

Legal advice, Cape Town Attorney, Lawyer, employment law, dismissal, rental housing, tenant

08/01/2016

http://justingmcbride72.wix.com/mcbridelegal

08/01/2016

Legal Counsel When You Need It As You Need

http://justingmcbride72.wix.com/mcbridelegal

You may ask, "Why should I choose Mc Bride Consulting over an attorney, surely the attorney has studied extensively, obtained a LLB degree and is dedicated to the law? Would I not receive better service from a big firm that is registered with the Law Society? Why should I look at the services of a legal adviser?"

These are excellent questions and the answer is found in the nature of the service that is needed.

First, it should be noted that I am an attorney of the High Court, although I do not operate as such in Mc Bride Consulting. However, I have been an attorney at large firms, handling files of tens of millions of Rands. I also still act as a consultant attorney for law firms, handling court appearances, legal opinions and general attorney work.

An attorney's primary role is to represent a client in Court proceedings, to that effect, the law states that only an attorney may represent a party in most legal proceedings (certain legal proceedings like reconciliation in the CCMA do not allow representation by an attorney). An attorney has been taught the technicalities of the proper procedure to bring your case to court and to argue it in court. The attorney also charges per hour for this privilege and court matters tend to drag for a long time, mostly leaving you with tens of thousands of Rands fees to pay to your attorney even if you are successful in your matter.

The attorney has also been educated in various legal matters and can provide technical and legal expertise in drawing up many different forms of contracts or documents required by legislation such as Wills, tax forms, company registrations, etc...

The catch is, they will charge you for every hour that they work on the matter, and often the reward you receive is made negligible by the fees that you have to pay, sometimes, the fees outweigh the payment you receive, even when successful. Further, if the matter is a formality where they already have the format of the document, they would still charge the time it would have taken to draft that document from scratch. Such basic documents are called proforma documents and merely have to be tweaked for the client’s needs, however, they will charge you per 100 words or an estimated time it would have taken from scratch.

The rub of the matter is that the more time the attorney takes to properly do your matter, the more fees will be charged. I represented a client that had won his matter in the Labour Court, been awarded the maximum amount, and his lawyers fees left him with less than R4000, and he had intended on retiring on the award which was in excess of R240 000. I have also seen contigency fee agreements, the so called no win no fee arrangement, that are drafted in such a way that they would financially cripple the poor client if they attorney did not win a certain amount, ie, if the client was awarded less than R100 000, then the attorney would charge exhorbinat fees, often more than the R100 000 award. If the award was higher than R100 000, only then would the attorney consent to be chargedmerely 25% of the award. However, the contract is couched in legal jargon that is not explained and the clients often find that they have very little of the judgement monies awarded to them and often the attorneys fees are more than the award and they are placed in debt after being successful with their matter.

Very often, you do not need the services of an attorney, it is merely your ignorance of the law that prevents you from resolving the own issue or insisting on your rights. Even more often, you will need to double check that the information people give to verify if it complies with the law, or that the representations that the person is making is in line with the documents you have received. Or to put it more vulgarly, whether or not you are being screwed by the documents you are required to sign. You need to double check that the documents you are signing is the same as the promises made by the person when you meet, because if it is not, you will be held by the contract rather then the oral agreement you had made.

You need to know what your obligations are and how you can ensure that you can comply with your obligations and to ensure that the other person will comply with their obligations to you. The consequences of not complying with your obligation could result in the contract being cancelled and you forfeiting monies paid as well as being held liable for damages suffered by the other party.

Or you might need to draw up a contract yourself to enforce the agreement between yourself and another party. Often, people enter into handshake deals and then seek legal advice only when it all falls apart. I am sure that you have heard many horror stories about people renovating their homes, purchasing a motor vehicle, going into partnerships, or employing someone to provide a service only to have it turn out into a complete mess and then they have huge difficulties in getting their due because the obligations of each party was not spelled out in a contract. It never ceases to amaze me that someone would be willing to invest many thousands of Rands into a new venture, be it renovations or a business, without making sure that there are contracts governing the new venture or not making sure that someone with legal knowledge has looked over the contract and advised of the pitfalls and items that should be added to the contracts. People are willing to risk many thousands of Rands for the sake of saving a few Rands in not getting legal advice.

However, if they were to consult an attorney, the attorney generally would charge an hourly rate for the consultation and then an hourly rate for the drafting or the perusal (studying) of the contract. Irrespective of how simple or complicated your needs are, you would be charged on that same hourly rate, however, if your needs are more complicated, those hours may increase.

If you consulted with us, we would charge for the consultation and, if drafting of documents, be in a contract or a will or other legal document, is required and such document is straightforward, and the majority of legal documents are straightforward if you have legal knowledge, we would supply that document (tweaked) to you for the price of the consultation. This would also apply to perusing a contract and advising you of the traps therein and how to protect your interests, drafting your will, advising you the meaning of any legal documents you receive etc...

We would have no interest in prolonging the matter to gain more fees, as we would not be paid extra fees for dragging out a matter.

Whereas most attorneys charge between R1000 and R2500 per hour, a consultation with the documentation would be charged from R275 to R1000, depending on your income. We would also tweak the documents according to your needs and specifications.

Further, in many occasions litigation between the parties need not be entered into and there are many alternatives where you can seek a solution without the expense of a court trial. Certain examples include housing situations, where the Rental Tribunal can be approached, or Consumer Protection, where you would approach the Consumer Protector, or insurance matters, where you would approach the relevant ombudsman.

However, most people do not know which avenues are available to them and know they cannot afford the services of the attorneys, who would mostly likely advise them to proceed to court. Which would be costly, but would also mean that both attorneys would be paid a lot of money, whereas the other avenues can be done without attorneys, although the client would need to be instructed on their legal rights this can be done with a consultation and follow up consultations with any new issues arising. We are also willing to draft the correspondence to the relevant bodies.

In short, instead of paying an attorney to run your matter, and the likelihood that it would proceed to litigation and incur many expenses, you can find out your legal rights and all avenues available to you. With the fact that I am an admitted attorney of the High Court, you will not be settling for lesser quality advice and after being advised of your legal position, you can then properly assess your options and decide your next move, at a fraction of the costs of approaching an attorneys firm.

If it is found in the consultation that you need an attorney, I can also negotiate a discounted fee from our associates.

Further, many times you would just need to find what your legal rights are, so that you can know if your rights are being abused and what avenues you can take to protect yourself. A consultation with Mc Bride Consulting will provide you not only with a broad understanding of your legal rights, but also a detailed plan as to whom you should approach, which documents you need and the legal argument to present to protect your interest, whether it is applying for a protection order, drawing up a will, collecting rent, forcing repairs from your land lord, preventing your neighbours tree roots breaking your property, drawing up a contract to prevent the renovators doing a poor job and demanding payment for it, or getting your money back or repairs for an item you bought.

When you use Mc Bride Consulting you will know the fees upfront, you will be able to fit it in your budget, and you will confident in the steps you need to take to have your issue addressed by the relevant authorities.

Author Justin Mc Bride (BA LLB)UCT
Founder of Mc Bride Consultants