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Legal News

Courts will soon close for the end of the year. They only open again in January 2023.

Debt review is a legal process and all debt review applications eventually go either to a court or to the National Consumer Tribunal (NCT).

A Debt Counsellor gets information from both the consumer applying for help and the credit providers who are expecting repayment and then makes a realistic repayment proposal to a Magistrates Court.

It is the Magistrates Court that makes an order both declaring that the consumer is “over indebted” (so qualifies for debt review) and restructures the consumer’s debts to a more manageable monthly amount.

Courts Close Soon

You may wonder when all the Magistrates and lawyers will be having holidays this year.

We asked well known Attorney, Mr Justin Van Der Linde (of Van Der Linde Attorneys) and he let us know that the  ‘courts will be in recess from 15 December 2022 and will open on 9 January 2023. No debt review applications will be heard during this time‘.

‘courts will be in recess from 15 December 2022 and will open on 9 January 2023’

Consumers who have just started their debt review journey should also keep this in mind as it will impact on those who sign up during the end of the year. They should only expect to get court orders officially restructuring their debts early in 2023.

‘most credit providers already adjust repayment plans once they have negotiated a little with the Debt Counsellor’

This should not negatively impact on their debt review too much as most credit providers already adjust repayment plans once they have negotiated a little with the Debt Counsellor (before things even go to court).