Bbrief
Business Advertising in Johannesburg

Home to BusinessBrief magazine, BBrief.co.za is an online business magazine portal where business decision makers can access all resources in South Africa that effect their decision making.

Many occupations such as Accounting, Architecture, Engineering, Financial Planning, Human Resources, Law, Marketing and Teaching dictate that membership of their Professional Body is required in order to practice in that field. Professional Bodies thereafter require their members to maintain and improve their professional competence, keep abreast of new technology and practices as well as comply with professional regulatory requirements. In particular, there is an increasing demand for clerical, administrative and standard services provided by professionals to be automated and available on mass via the web at a reduced rate. The constant advancements of technology are making available day-to-day legal contracts online, through portals providing legal contracts at a lower price than if prepared by an attorney ordinarily. However, there will always remain a need for specialised drafting services to be provided by attorneys in a traditional way. Having properly drafted and compliant agreements is a challenge facing small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups, due largely to the high cost of attorney fees in drafting such agreements and documentation. The rise of online legal platforms is increasingly providing a partial solution to this challenge. These platforms can provide a company with legal documentation. Some are also becoming more interactive, enabling inclusion of specific situations and requirements in the drafting process. It is also obviously important that the agreements be kept up to date to cater for changes to the law occurring from time to time. An attorney may only be able to provide this service in a traditional way. Compliance with regulatory and statutory provisions is also essential. A good example is suretyships within credit applications. These suretyships should always include clauses making provision for business rescue and must be compliant with and anticipate the requirements of the National Credit Act. Another example is shareholder agreements where it is essential that the content is updated in terms of the new Companies Act and that a memorandum of incorporation is prepared together with the shareholders’ agreement. Certain of these platforms can integrate with other databases and service providers. An example would be the integration with credit bureaus and platforms, such as the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), whereby the correct information regarding an individual or company can be automatically populated from these founding databases, thus negating the risk of typos and incorrect information.