Lawyers’ fees under the spotlight

Attorney at Lawyers for Human Rights, Osmond Mngomezulu, says counsellors who have established themselves and have years of experience charge high amounts of money to represent their clients in court.

Mngomezulu says clients are told which advocate has won cases and based on that, they decide whether they are going to employ that advocate to represent them.  He was speaking on SAfm's Forum @8 on a discussion whether "Is justice ONLY for the rich and privileged?

In the same programme, Attorney in the Basic Services Programme at CALS, Kirsten Whitworth says, "I don’t believe that the fees charged by counsellors are necessary relative to skills. You will have some counsellors who will be prepared to charge lower fees for particular cases."

Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC says, "There is a structure in terms whereof those who are representing state organs like police are paid at the rate which the state attorney negotiates with the lawyers involved and that is at the different rate than the rate at which the legal aid board is prepared to pay those people who have been hired by institutions who received their funding from the legal aid board."

On Wednesday, Constitutional Court Judge, Justice Edwin Cameron, said rich people get better access when it comes to representation in courts. He said: "If you are poor, you go to legal resource centres or section 27.  The majority of people don’t have representation."