The parent who wins the prolonged family law dispute is not usually the better parent. They are the parent who could afford to keep litigating. The parent who was willing to weaponise every procedural mechanism available. The parent who understood that delay, attrition, and the financial destruction of the other side are not side effects of the process — they are outcomes that can be engineered.

Courts have been slow to acknowledge this. They treat each application, each postponement, each fresh allegation as a discrete event. They do not step back and name the pattern. They do not call procedural abuse by its name. They do not sanction it. They process it.

And in processing it, they fund it.

Read the full article — a direct challenge to the mechanisms, the participants, and the institutional failures that have turned South African family courts into an arena of attrition.

In 2015, the Constitutional Court abolished the delictual claim for adultery in DE v RH. The judgment was framed as progressive. What it left behind was a primary parent — most frequently a mother — stripped of her only legal remedy against the third party who entered and disrupted her family, with nothing put in its place.

Compounding that vacuum is a belief enforced daily in co-parenting disputes across South Africa: that a new spouse acquires parental authority over their partner's biological children by virtue of marriage alone.

They do not. They never have. Marriage confers zero parental rights over biological children who are not one's own.

The law says nothing. And its silence is being weaponised.

Read the full article to understand what the law actually provides, what it fails to protect, and what must change.

Starting a business in South Africa is not just a commercial decision — it is a legal one. This guide unpacks the critical legal principles that determine liability, compliance, and long-term sustainability, and why proper structuring from the outset is essential.

When conflict does not end with the order, it does not remain between the parents. It becomes a sustained pattern — shaping decisions, communication, and ultimately the child’s daily experience

When conflict no longer remains between the parents, it shifts into the child’s daily experience. This article examines how sustained patterns of conduct reshape parenting after the order — and the impact this has on children.

When conflict becomes the objective, co-parenting gives way to control. This article examines how patterns of conduct persist after a court order — and how children can become the mechanism through which that control is maintained.

Wills and trusts are central to effective estate planning. Understanding the differences between living trusts, testamentary trusts and other structures is essential to protecting assets and ensuring long-term financial security.

Estate planning is not only about distributing assets — it is about ensuring certainty, protecting beneficiaries, and reducing the risk of dispute. This guide outlines the legal framework governing wills in South Africa and why proper planning is essential.

Entrepreneurs often overlook how marriage affects business ownership. Learn how South African matrimonial property regimes influence businesses started during marriage and what legal steps can protect your interests.

In blended households it is not uncommon for a new partner to assume a degree of authority over the children in the home. South African law, however, draws a clear line: parental authority belongs to those who hold legally recognised parental responsibilities and rights.

Can a spouse sue an affair partner in South Africa? Modern divorce law focuses on irretrievable breakdown rather than blame or third-party liability.

South African divorce law does not depend on the consent of both spouses. The decisive legal inquiry is whether the marriage has irretrievably broken down. Where that threshold is met, a court may dissolve the marriage even where one spouse refuses to participate in the proceedings or cannot be located.

This article examines the gendered economic impact of divorce on stay-at-home mothers, highlighting income trajectories, pension outcomes, workforce re-entry challenges, and why proactive legal planning matters for long-term financial security.

This article explains why an antenuptial contract (ANC) is essential in South Africa — especially for couples planning marriage with significant assets or future caregiving roles — and outlines what clauses and legal protections it should include to reduce risk in divorce

An overview of South Africa’s matrimonial property regimes — in community of property, out of community with or without accrual — and their legal and financial implications.

Legal abuse occurs when legal processes are used not for the bona fide resolution of disputes, but as instruments of control, punishment, or exhaustion. In family-law litigation, this dynamic most often arises where there is a significant imbalance of power or financial resources between parties.

Financial abuse is one of the most under-recognised yet pervasive forms of domestic abuse in South Africa.

It rarely presents as overt violence. Instead, it manifests quietly — through control, restriction, manipulation, and deprivation.

Instead, financial abuse often surfaces long before litigation begins and continues well after separation, particularly where children are involved.