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Telephone Legal consultation in Zimbabwe?

The traditional form of legal consultation in Zimbabwe has generally been the walk-in or office legal consultation. Prior to the Independence of the Republic of Zimbabwe on 18 April 1980, telephone legal consultations in Zimbabwe were generally frowned upon. In Ex Parte Du Preez 1964 (2) SA 227 (SR) 229 it was held that:

“A consultation held in the course of a long-distance telephone call to the petitioner while he or she is in some foreign country is not a compliance with the Rules.”

However, with the significant change of culture post-Independence and with the advancement of modern technology most law firms and clients now prefer to conduct a telephone legal consultation. Prince Kanokanga, The Law of Costs in Zimbabwe: Text, Cases and Materials (Durban 2021) at 252 defined a legal consultation as follows:

“The initial meeting between a client and a legal practitioner is known as a consultation. The consultation consists in a legal practitioner being advised of a particular matter requiring legal advice or assistance. 

It is usually at this consultation, or follow up consultation, that all facts which would assist the legal practitioner in conducting the case of behalf of client are established. This process involves collating the facts and extracting the relevant from the irrelevant and presenting the whole of the evidence in pleadings for the court or a tribunal in a concise, logical and intelligible form.”

Telephone consultations in Zimbabwe have the benefit of giving the parties sufficient time to prepare for the meeting and for the consulting party to collect and or share documents which may be required by the Conveyancer, Notary Public or Legal Practitioner for the consultation. The modern trend in Zimbabwe has been to have a phone consultation on WhatsApp. There are however other social media platforms and online platforms which allow individuals and business to still have a telephone legal consultation in Zimbabwe.