ProBono.Org connects people who cannot afford a lawyer with attorneys who take cases free of charge. It is not a law firm itself and does not represent you directly: it runs legal clinics and refers matters to attorneys on its panel, which is why the route in is a clinic rather than a consultation.
Offices
- Johannesburg: 011 339 6080, [email protected], 1st Floor West Wing, Women Jail, Constitution Hill, 1 Kotze Street, Braamfontein. Fax 086 512 2222
- Durban: 031 301 6178, [email protected], Unit 310, 3rd Floor, Cowey Park, 91-123 Problem Mkhize Road, Morningside, 4000
- Cape Town: 087 470 0721, [email protected], JDN House, 26A Shortmarket Street, Cape Town, 8001. Fax 086 665 6740
- Donations, media and press enquiries: 011 339 6080, [email protected]
- The Durban office uses the same mailbox for both projects and clinics
How you actually get help
- Help is given through legal clinics run in each city, and through referral to an attorney on the ProBono.Org panel
- There is a means test. ProBono.Org publishes it, and assistance is aimed at people who genuinely cannot afford private fees
- It also offers mediation, which for family and neighbour disputes is often faster and cheaper than litigation
- Phone the office for your city first to ask which clinic covers your kind of problem and when it sits. Arriving at the wrong clinic day wastes a trip
What to bring
- Your identity document, and proof of income or of receiving a grant, since the means test decides whether you qualify
- Every document about the matter: contracts, letters of demand, court papers with their case numbers, payslips, lease agreements
- Note any deadline on the papers. A summons or a notice of motion has a time limit measured in days, and a missed deadline can cost you the case regardless of its merits
- A short written timeline of what happened, with dates. It makes a first consultation far more productive
If ProBono.Org is not the right door
- Legal Aid South Africa is the state body and takes criminal matters as well as civil: 0800 110 110, free from a landline
- Every provincial Law Society and the Legal Practice Council handle complaints about an attorney conduct or fees
- For a discrimination or rights matter, the South African Human Rights Commission is on 011 877 3600
Sources
- ProBono.Org official contact page, for all three office telephone numbers, fax numbers, mailboxes and street addresses, and for the donations and media contact route
- ProBono.Org official website navigation, for the legal clinics, mediation and means test services and the attorney panel model
- Legal Aid South Africa and South African Human Rights Commission published contact numbers