It’s important to note that legal practitioners are regulated by a council known as the Legal Practice Council (“LPC”). The LPC is tasked with ensuring that all legal practitioners comply with their legislative requirements as set out in terms of the Legal Practice Act of 28 of 2014 (“LPA”) along with its code of conduct and Rules.

Section 3 of the LPA lays out the purpose of the Act, and provides for a procedure for the resolution of complaints. It states that any member of the profession, client, or any interested party can report any misconduct on the part of the legal practitioner or candidate legal practitioner. The LPA aims to ensure that the complaint process is fair, effective, efficient and transparent.

The complaint procedure is relatively straightforward. Firstly, one must download the complaints form from the LPC website and select the applicable province. Secondly, one must complete the complaint form, upload it onto the portal, and submit it.  The LPC’s legal officer then receives the complaint, and a file is opened. The legal practitioner will then receive correspondence and be notified that a file has been opened, providing the practitioner an opportunity to respond to the complaint. At this point, the complainant is also given an opportunity to reply to the response made by the legal practitioner. This is in accordance with the audi alteram partem (“listen to the other side”) rule, as both parties have the opportunity to be heard and to state their defence without the doors being shut on them.

The complaint and all responses received are then forwarded to the investigation committee (“IC”), which is an independent panel made up of two practitioners. The IC is tasked with considering the complaint, and has the opportunity to request any additional information that it might deem necessary to assess the complaint. Once they have investigated the complaint, they will make a determination on whether to dismiss the complaint or refer it for an inquiry before a disciplinary committee (“DC”), which is also an independent panel composed of three practitioners. If the matter is referred to the DC, the DC will be tasked with hearing viva voca evidence as well as any bundles of documentation secured from the IC. The DC will make a ruling, which may be in the form of a fine, warning, or recommendation for the legal practitioner to be struck off the roll.

Whilst the council acts as a watchdog for the aggrieved complainant, the reality of the complaints process is that the complainants will not receive monetary relief directly from the practitioner at this stage in the process. Any monetary orders in the form of a fine will be made for the benefit of the council and received by the council.

In many instances, the aggrieved complainant misunderstands the complaint process and is often misguided by what the complaint process seeks to achieve, as well as the meaning of the finding made by the DC.  In most cases, the complainant will still need to seek legal assistance to secure a monetary judgment against the legal practitioner after the practitioner has been found guilty of misconduct through this complaint process.