Courts remain open, but lawyers still in the dark

Legal practitioners around the country say they have been left in the lurch ahead of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Office of the Chief Justice today announced that the courts would remain open “to a limited extent” throughout the duration of the upcoming three-week forced stay-at-home, but lawyers and advocates say they still do not know how they will be expected to operate during this period and beyond.

“Broadly, the courts will, as an essential service, remain open for the filing of papers and hearing of urgent applications, bail applications and appeals or matters relating to violations of liberty, domestic violence, maintenance and matters involving children,” the office’s spokesperson, Nathi Mncube, said in a statement released this morning.

“The Chief Justice has already delegated the authority to make customised directives to all heads of superior and lower / magistrate courts,” he said. “This will enable courts to remain open and operational to a limited extent as determined by the head of each court after consultation with their colleagues at that court”.

But Gauteng-based Tracey Lomax said yesterday that the legal fraternity needed “more decisive leadership from the Chief Justice.

“We need clarity on a number of issues and my worry is if there is none, the courts will be needlessly overcrowded by way of urgent applications during the Covid-19 lockdown and clogged up by people raising issues like prescription, after,” she said.

Lomax said she had received different directives from different courts around the province – some of which could lead to major problems down the line.

“I’ve got a directive from Krugersdorp, for instance, saying matters will be postponed to 6 May,” she said and questioned how the court would manage an influx of cases on that day.

Lomax said one of the most important issues that required clarity was whether or not children of separated parents could be handed over during the lockdown.

“Do we really want to be having urgent applications during a crisis because parents won’t hand their children over, simply because they don’t know if they can?” she said.

Lomax also said the system needed to start making increased use of emails and electronic communications.

Meanwhile a Durban-based advocate, who asked that his identity be withheld, said on Werdnesday that he had “no idea what was going on”.

“In KwaZulu-Natal, we received a circular that essentially said it was business as usual, but that if you wanted to adjourn matters you could, but that trials would not proceed,” he said.

“Then we received an email from Pietermaritzburg that said appeals and reviews must still be heard and an accused cannot simply have his matter removed from the roll. About two hours after that, a circular came out saying nothing would proceed unless it was a bail application, an urgent matter or a matter involving children, and that all cases should be considered removed from the court roll”.

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