ProBono.Org

ProBono.Org was started in 2006 as a clearing house – still the only one in the country - to engage lawyers to take on the cases of people who could not afford to pay for their services. 2026 marks our 20^th anniversary! Our purpose is to make real the right of access to justice as enshrined in Section 34 of the Bill of Rights which states: “Everyone has the right to have any dispute that can be resolved by the application of law decided in a fair public hearing before a court or, where appropriate, another independent and impartial tribunal or forum.” We focus on civil law, i.e. not criminal matters, and we run a number of legal clinics at our offices as well as help desks at courts and other sites such as the Master’s Offices and the Deeds Offices.  We have three offices – in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town - where we are able to assist up to 10,000 people a year with a small staff of 17.  Many people also walk into our offices for legal assistance. Our panel of pro bono attorneys has grown over the years to over 700 and through them we are able to provide legal assistance worth many millions of Rand per year to indigent and marginalised clients.  Our legal clinics and help desks provide assistance in the areas of labour law, family law, child law, housing, deceased estates, police brutality and refugee law, and we provide support to a number of community advice offices run by paralegals.. We also provide legal empowerment workshops for communities on aspects of the law that affect their lives, and also train legal professionals and candidate attorneys on areas of the law that they may not be familiar with or in areas that are difficult, e.g. refugee law, so that they are equipped to help the clients that request our services. ProBono.Org is entirely dependent on donors to fund our operations and we are most grateful to our many donors over the years who have contributed to our ability to assist those most in need of our services.