Advocates blame congested roll for double briefing

Beeld reports that Stroh conceded that accusations of overreaching and double briefing against 13 Pretoria advocates were serious, but insisted that they had not been dishonest. The General Council of the Bar has asked that the advocates be struck from the roll after the Pretoria Society of Advocates found 12 of the 13 guilty of irregularities in connection with RAF-related cases. Stroh said the 'prevailing feeling' was that the one case a day rule should be relaxed. Judge William de Villiers asked why the advocates hadn't complained about the congested court roll to the Bar Council. And Judge Kees van Dijkhorst added that the Bar could have given permission for double briefings in these instances as long as the advocates marked the cases correctly - whether it was for a settlement or trial. De Villiers commented that it was wrong to charge an entire day's tariff when an advocate had spent only two hours on reaching a settlement with the RAF. Full Beeld report