LEGAL PRACTICE ACT: FIDELITY FUND-FOCUSED AMENDMENT BILL READY FOR CABINET APPROVAL

LEGAL PRACTICE ACT: FIDELITY FUND-FOCUSED AMENDMENT BILL READY FOR CABINET APPROVAL

• 28 April 2026
• Justice & Constitutional Development
• SA Legal Academy

A draft Legal Practice Amendment Bill apparently ready for submission to Cabinet for pre-tabling approval includes several provisions with implications for the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund. Addressing a recent Fidelity Fund conference, Justice & Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi revealed that, in its present form, the proposed new piece of legislation seeks to:

• provide for:
  • ‘more appropriations in a year, as the need arises’
  • reimbursement when a trust fund is ‘lost due to negligence’, and for
  • practising attorneys to serve on the board
• require claimants to report trust fund theft to the South African Police Service and to ‘lodge criminal complaints’
• expressly exclude the Fidelity Fund from liability for transactions in cryptocurrency, and to
• prioritise the reimbursement of persons suffering pecuniary loss resulting from trust fund mismanagement.

With the intention of facilitating transformation, the draft Bill also seeks to link Legal Practice Council elections to the election of a Fidelity Fund board.

Concerns about non-compliance with the Act’s trust fund-related interest requirements are likely to be addressed by way of amendments to the regulations.

• Minister’s speech
• Act, updated (SAFLII)

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