Family Court Contact Details

There is no single national family court in South Africa and no central family court number. Family matters are handled at magistrate courts, and the Department of Justice lower courts directory publishes exactly one dedicated Family Court telephone number, at Johannesburg.

Official contact channels

• Johannesburg Family Court: 011 639 0301
• Johannesburg Magistrate Court switchboard: 011 491 5000

Services and responsibilities

Different family matters go to different courts. Maintenance, domestic violence protection orders and childrens court matters are handled at the magistrate court for the area. Divorce is not heard by an ordinary magistrate court: it goes to a regional court or the High Court, depending on the case.

Office and address information

Because family work is a service of local courts rather than a separate institution, the address you need is that of the magistrate court covering your area. The Johannesburg court, which publishes the dedicated line above, is at 26 Fox Street, Johannesburg, 2000.

Applications and escalation

For an urgent protection order outside office hours, several courts publish a domestic violence after hours number, and where none exists the nearest police station can reach the standby magistrate. A complaint about how a court office handled a family matter goes to the Department of Justice rather than to the magistrate, who is judicially independent.

Sources

• justice.gov.za/contact/lowercourts_full.html, the Department of Justice lower courts directory, read 2 September 2026.