Asked by Madelein on 20-07-2020 17:51:12
Question posted in the General Law category relating to Gauteng

I am currently in living in the US. I got admitted to the Roll of Advocates in Gauteng at some point in 1995 (I cannot remember the exact date or court.)

I now need proof of this in order to take the NY STATE BAR exam.

I need an attorney in South Africa who can assist me with getting this proof from the Court.

(I tried contacting the Department of Justice and they said the only way is to approach the Court for a copy of the record.)

I am eager to hear of an Attorney who can assist me in this.

Thanks,

Madelein

Posted by Att. Patrick on 22-07-2020 10:17:45

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

The only way that an attorney could assist you is by going to the Court (I'm 100% sure that it would be either the Johannesburg High Court or the Pretoria High Court - both in Gauteng) and asking the Registrar to inspect the Court file pertaining to your application for admission as an advocate. The issue here is that the attorney will need to know the case number of the file, otherwise how will he/she be able to request it. So, if you don't have that case number, requesting the file is going to be almost impossible - especially when the case goes back some 25 years. The file may have already been achieved away off-site.

Surely you would have retained a copy of the Court Order which was granted in 1995 formally admitting you as an advocate? I mean, this is a very important document and basically entitles you to practice.

Otherwise, have you tried contacting the Johannesburg Bar of Advocates and finding out from them whether they have a copy of the Court Order, or the Court application which was launched, or any records on their system. They are supposed to maintain a list of all practicing advocates in Gauteng and I'm almost 100% sure that somewhere in "your file" there will be a copy of the Court Order, or some correspondence which mentions the original case number. 

If you can request that information from them, that will then put you in good standing to get the original from Court. 

I can't refer you to a specific lawyer, but I can direct you to www.southafricanlawyer.co.za, where you can find a list of qualified lawyers in your area who will be able to assist you further!

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.

We moved around so much and this document got lost somewhere in between. I don't have a reference number.
Thanks for your advice.