Its the Law Society of the Northern Provinces AGM on Saturday and I understand it will be well attended. The meetings have become more boisterous in recent years and I think this one will set new standards when it comes to that!
I can tell you one thing I took part in last year and am back for this year - the Golf Day on Friday. It really is great and you can see the Law Society shirts stretched all over the Lost City course all day. Luckily I have a morning tee off time so at about 1pm tomorrow my game will be over.
The lastest word on the RAF? Various rumors that the regulations will be ready next week. Obviously then they will still have to be legislated.

Amongst the things I love are magazines and technology.  Now if you like those things you often have to be patient in South Africa - sometimes, as with the Blackberry it can take years for something to come to SA and then in the case of the new Nokia E61 its more up to date.  I have figured out e-mail etc on the rather decent phone but I am so used to predictive text that I struggle when given a QWERTY keyboard designed for mice.

The one field where our magazines, try as hard as they do, can just not compete is with the top international business magazines.  I get quite a few must my favourite, which is not stocked in SA as far as I can see is Business Week.  One has to follow business carefully to see where the trends will next emerge.  As for reading books - I struggle more with those - but currently reading Bob Woodward's State of Denial : Bush at War (Part III) which reportedly gives him lots of stick.  So far its a tour de Rumsfeld and his war plans.  I follow the best selling lists in the US quite closely and it seems that books achieve prominence there as much as 6 months ahead of SA although with music the gap can be closer to 2 to 6 weeks.  I guess in many ways I am also a history buff and I do follow American politics fairly closely - and am not a Bush fan.  The Democrats are up now, but they usually contrive a loss by Presidential elections....

There is so much to write on weekends that I invariably forget most of it - in time to save myself from a  keyboard injury!  Attorneys have been sending me articles on the Law Society of England allowing referral fees, others referring me to some recent cases.  More on this in the future.

What I thought to raise today though was the President's annual report with specific reference to any complaints one receives about either services or fees.  Ronald Bobroff, the former President (Mohammed Husain was voted in at the AGM) writes:

Members whose matters are to come before wither of these two Committees are encouraged to enquire as to the make up of the Committee and to object if the Committee in question is inappropriately comprised.

Earlier he states, along the same lines, "It is absurd that a conveyancer should sit in judgment on a medical negligence matter...."

Drug addict inmates in England sue the Government because their incarceration makes them go cold turkey and they get paid out for their discomfort.  For some reason personal injury attorneys in South Africa are very conservative - with prisons like ours there should be thousands and thousands of cases - and helping improve our prisons etc at the same time.

Today was a Law Society appearances day for me - when attorneys in terms of Rule 101 have the opportunity to present their case as to why they should not be struck off.  Its a draining day and it began at 9am in Pretoria and ended just after 6pm.  There are increasing number of attorneys who simply don't file their trust audits etc on time and with the Law Society getting tougher, and numbers of admitted attorneys increasing, the number of those with problems will no doubt, sadly, increase.  The cases before us are generally serious - but the best way to get the Law Society attention is still to put your return in late - or not at all.

The BBC covered SA's passing of the Civil Union Bill today with the announcement that we are coming to terms with what it means to be a "liberal democracy".

If you are interested in the bill you can find it here

I can't say I am overly excited when I see the heads of arguments in the hit and run case.  It might well go the way of Plaintiff's but on reading the heads I would not be sure it won't be without tears.  One can't help but feel that the profession should have joined in on this one and led evidence, how for example, at the Rosebank Police Station in the middle of Johannesburg you can't even force the Police to take hit and run affidavits most of the time.

The Defendant attorneys, who incidentally are based in Rosebank also, denied that this is in fact the case.  I guess when you defend matters perhaps it is the fraud you see and when you represent client's its the shocking real experiences of clients turned away, even attorneys ignored etc.

Attorneys always ask what is happening with the Constitutional Case with regard to the Road Accident Fund proposals.  While the JAA may join such a fight - and certainly has done the intial work, its a task beyond our capacity in financial terms.

Ronald Bobroff, on behalf of the Law Society of South Africa is briefing Counsel in this regard and while a number of opinions have been very favourable, Ronald has not yet decided on Counsel to represent the LSSA.

In a recent judgment, which the Court itself referred to the Constitutional Court, the East London High Court held that Section 23(1) of the Road Accident Fund Act is inconsistent with the Constitution.  This is the 3 year time period and the facts in this case are special - with the claimant being blind, just for starters.  The Fund initially offered to pay his claim, even though lodged late, if he were to prove he was blind.  That offer was not however carried through.  The case, which the Constitutional Court will hear shortly is Vusumzi Mdeyide vs Road Accident Fund.

The Judge in his summary says that Section 23(1) is inconsistent with the Constitution "in so far as it does not make provision for the knowledge of the debtor and of the facts from which the debt arises, infringes upon the the rights of the plaintiff of access to Courts....."

Friday was the last Law Society meeting for the year - and it is bringing to a close the meeting season of November!  I still have the Racing Association meeting this week and our AGM, but without doubt being involved in the Law Society is time consuming.  I have calculated for ordinary councillors you would have to give 21 working days a year to the Law Society - or effectively one month of your time!

That really is huge and puts into perspective the 3 days or so for Gauteng Law Council and pretty much the same amount of time for the JAA - about 6 meetings each with each one lasting 3 or 4 hours.

Make sure you sign up proper fee agreements to prevent "confusion" by clients which will never co-incide with what suits you!

Yesterday was my final meeting for thje meeting season as I call November.  The Racing Association owns about 39% of Phumelela and is thus a major role player in horse racing.  On of my fellow Directors, Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste is a business genius and often has amazing quotes - yesterday I particularly liked this (slightly amended version):

If you are patient enough and you are the hunter with the gun and bullet the prey will come along. You dont need to be anxious, patience will provide results.

The accurate version was more like "the deer will come along" but I prefer the less violent approach above!