By Nomfundo Jele

The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) notes that Proxi Smart has approached the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal the judgment by the High Court and the subsequent dismissal of its application for leave to appeal by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

The SCA dismissed the application for leave to appeal in the matter of Proxi Smart Services (Pty) Ltd v Law Society of South Africa and Others 2018 (5) SA 644 (GP) on 7 May on the basis that there is no reasonable prospect of success in an appeal and there is no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard.

Proxi Smart Services (Pty) Ltd applied to the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria for declaratory relief concerning the lawfulness of its business model for performing the administrative and related services pertaining to property transfers that it contended was not by law reserved for conveyancers or legal practitioners.

The LSSA contended that the applicant’s attempt at creating a distinction between ‘reserved work’ and ‘non-reserved work’ had no basis in law, and that the full conveyancing process is regarded as professional work performed by conveyancers.

The matter was first heard on 6 and 7 February 2018 and, in the judgment delivered on 16 May 2018, the court held that the applicant had not made a case for the relief it sought and dismissed the application with costs.

In December 2018, the applicant was denied leave to appeal by the Gauteng Division of the High Court. It then filed an application for leave to appeal with the SCA on 15 January.

View all the Proxi Smart matter documents on the LSSA website.

Nomfundo Jele, Communications Officer, Law Society of South Africa, nomfundom@lssa.org.za