We are so excited to announce that after nearly 10 months of being out of the office, our Managing Partner, Megan Harrington-Johnson (aka. “Mighty Mack’s Mom”), is back in the office and back to work full time! Mackenzie, who has been fighting cancer for the past 10 months is doing so well after undergoing a Bone Marrow Transplant in January, that her doctors have given Megan and her partner Bronson the all-clear to return to their offices!

We have missed Megan a lot – especially her OCD (!) and are so chuffed that she has come back just in time for the move to our new offices so that we can be sure that all pictures have been hung symmetrically!;) We are delighted at Mackenzie’s progress and we asked Megs to give us a brief breakdown of what she has been through with Mackenzie over the past year and also to provide an update as to her progress. This is what she had to say:

Where parties have lived together for an extended period in a manner that resembles a marriage, but have not formally concluded a marriage, it is often referred to as a “common law marriage”. This term however is incorrect, as no such marriage exists in South African law. In fact, the correct term applied to this situation is “cohabitation”, however this does not by itself give rise to legal rights and obligations between the parties.

Condition precedent clauses are a frequent feature in certain commercial agreements. They set out typically the events that must take place before the parties are obligated to perform. These clauses are commonly accepted as being fundamental to the enforceability of any such agreement but the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (“SCA”) findings In Noel Patrick McGrane v Cape Royale The Residence[1] reveal important factors that ought be examined in the consideration of their enforceability.

In an ever-changing digital world, most people have some form of online presence – from email, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, to online banking and shopping. This dependence on computers and the internet, accelerated by the impact of the COVID-19, has left individuals, organisations and even nations increasingly at risk of being victims of cybercrime, as criminals are provided an online means to commit a diverse range of crimes from locations around the globe.

In recent years, there has been an undeniable trend that many families have chosen to emigrate from South Africa for a variety of reasons ranging from the increase in crime, to wanting a more stable political framework to superior access to education, job opportunities and healthcare.

A pressing question in law is whether unborn children have legal rights or not. This question often comes about in delictual cases where an unborn child has been harmed and is subsequently born with complications resulting from the harm. The issue that arises is then whether the harm that the child endured while still a foetus is a valid ground to claim for damages.