The Legal Aid Clinic is situated at the Old Lckhof School, 44 Banhoek Road, Stellenbosch
Office hours: 08h00 until 16h30

The Legal Aid Clinic of the University of Stellenbosch provides free legal assistance and representation to indigent persons. It began operations in 1988. In 1996 the University Legal Aid Clinic formed an association with the Legal Aid Board. The two clinics now share office space on the University of Stellenbosch campus. The two clinics are independently funded and the LAB is in no way connected with the University.

The Legal Aid Clinic services clients from Stellenbosch, Paarl, Kraaifontein, Franschhoek, Pniel, Strand and Somerset West. It is presently a general civil practice office, accepting most types of civil. All criminal work is referred to the LAB. The clinic handles a large number of cases relating to labour and divorce matters as well as family violence.

The Director, Kruger van der Walt, who has 23 years of experience in private practice and two years with the Legal Aid Board, joined the clinic in January 1999. Duties of the Director include the administration and management of the clinic, civil court work, supervision of students, lecturing on practical legal training in the compulsory modules, Legal Skills 411. He is also a member of eleven community-orientated committees.

33 students currently work as assistants at the clinic under the guidance of the Director as part of the accredited elective module, Civil Procedure 471. Students are required to serve at the clinic for a minimum of one and a half hours per week. Each student has a register of matters handled and on average will deal with approximately 100 files per year.

The Director supervises the students informally on a continuous basis. Once a month the Director holds a workshop on different legal issues that are relevant to the students' cases.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

The clinic is currently involved in training of Paralegals, which are held at the University, on behalf of the Lawyers for Human Rights. The Paralegals are given a certificate at the end of the course and legal subjects such as Family Law and Constitutional Law form part of the course.