Delia Jay
Durban attorney Delia Jay recently concluded a very interesting family law matter. When the client came to us at the pro bono desk, she had been turned away by everyone and told there was nothing that anyone could do to help her get divorced. She needed to get divorced as she had a new partner with whom she had had a child. The client’s husband was a Nigerian and he left South Africa 15 years ago. Despite client’s efforts, he could not be located.
Delia contacted a tracing agent to do a search for the husband, but he could not be found. In the end, Delia had to make an application for substituted service to get an interim order on affidavit stating that she could advertise in Canada, where client had last received a phone call from her husband in 2002. The order was granted and Delia personally raised the money to advertise in the Toronto Star, which was about R10 000 because of the poor exchange rate. ($ 1000 Canadian dollars). Delia advertised and the court finally agreed to set the matter down.
There were many delays, largely because dealing with the Durban Regional Magistrate’s Court, trying to get documents issued and a court date granted were very challenging. At times Delia felt like she was on a lone crusade and wanted to give up. It was also time consuming, as being a sole practitioner she had to attend to everything herself, including indexing and paginating, and making sure her file didn’t get lost. The magistrate eventually heard the matter on 10 April 2018 and granted the divorce. Delia feels a great deal of satisfaction in having finally achieved a happy result for the client so that she can move on with her life and her family.
Chrysi Kripotos
Chrysi Kripotos is an attorney practising in her own firm in Johannesburg. She is a conveyancer who has been in practice for 34 years.
The ProBono.Org Deeds Office help desk opened its doors at the Deeds Office in Johannesburg in June 2017. Chrysi has been part of the help desk since then. Chrysi says that she loves helping people who cannot afford legal services and that attending the help desk is the highlight of her week.
Chrysi has assisted clients with property transfers, donations, correction of names in the title deed, transfers from deceased estates, drafting of wills as well as section 17, 45 and 93 registrations.
Chrysi gets really frustrated when she is unable to assist clients. She feels that the help desk needs more qualified attorneys to assist with clients’ problems due to the number of people seeking help and that more days should be allocated in order to assist the indigent.
Some of the challenges include consulting with clients who coerce their elderly parents to make transfers in their favour. The consulting attorney has to ask the relevant questions in order to determine whether the transfer is in good faith and that the elderly parents are aware of the legal implications. Another challenge often encountered is the transfer of property from household permits to a title deed in terms of the Conversion of Certain Rights into Leasehold or Ownership Act. This has resulted in many clients seeking legal assistance at the help desk in order to reverse property transfers. Many of these transfers have divided families and it is unfortunate that many people still do not know about an Act that affects their lives so profoundly.
Portia Tsele, our latest Johannesburg intern
We welcomed Portia to the team in May and she is working with the Housing, Refugee and Community Advice Office unit.
She has an LLB from UNISA and is working towards an LLM in Property Law with the same university. She began her journey with ProBono.Org as a volunteer. Her reason for studying law was to give her the opportunity to help people. Working at ProBono.Org as a legal intern extends the reach of her charitable nature and enables her to assist the vulnerable and indigent members of our society.
Outside of work she is a member of the Catholic Women’s League and engages in their social welfare activities such as child adoption.
Portia hopes that her continued passion for assisting the marginalised and vulnerable in society helps her to make a meaningful contribution to the legal fraternity.
