Weekly Report

Student was allocated to work in the office of the messenger and clerk of the firm.

The objectives were:

1. Professional interface with clients as the face of the organisation, receiving and
making calls
2. Receiving and dispatch of court process and other correspondences.
3. Learning how to prepare for the daily dispatch of work
4. Issuing and serving of court process
5. Pagination of records
6. Compiling and taxing of bills of costs, deeds and company searches.

The first thing that the student was tasked with was pagination. Pagination is one of the
duties of legal clerks and court messengers. Mr Bvurire explained that Rule 58(2) (d) of High
Court Rules Act of Zimbabwe governs pagination of files.lt is a practice that has been used
by courts for centuries. Pagination assists the court to easily access the pleadings during
trial proceedings. Pagination works hand in hand with indexing. Pagination also allows legal
practitioners to coherently follow their arguments when presenting their cases in civil trials.
By paginating court bundles it ensures that the evidence is presented in a manner that is
structured. Failure to do pagination renders the legal practitioner being awarded costs de
bonis propiis which is a punishment of failure to conform to the rule. The costs de bonis
propiis are awarded to show the seriousness of the courts in demonstrating their displeasure
when indexing and pagination rules are not adhered to. Of importance what this process of
pagination involves is basically getting the court file in order and properly bound so that
before the case the Magistrate or Judge can read the file like it is a book.

At the clerk of court student was assigned to do pagination. The supervisor together with
student typed an index first which was later given to the student to use whilst paginating. The
index is similar to the index of a textbook it sets out what is in each chapter of the book in
this case a file.

The index looks like the following table below:

INDEX

 Statistics Form page 1

 Summons and particulars of claim pp 2-13
  Notice of intention to defend pp 14-15
 Demand for plea pp 16 -17
 Defendants Plea and Counterclaim pp 18 -22

The pagination process also involves marking a page number using a pencil at the top right
corner of each page which tallies with the index.

NOTICE OF TAXATION AND BILL OF COSTS

Student had the opportunity to draft notice of taxation and bill of costs which would be taxed
at the Magistrates courts .The student was taught how to do this by Mr Amos Bvurire who
indicated that parties on notice of taxation will be cited as plaintiff and defendant as they
appear on other documents such as summons. Hence when drafting a bill of costs parties
are cited as they appear a specified date or time .The bill of costs commences when the
legal practitioner takes all instructions and attendances from client .It is divided into two ie
Higher Scale (Attorney client scale) is regulated by Law Society Tariffs and Party to Party
which is uses Statutory instrument and it applies when the matter is dismissed with costs .A
bill of cost is a memorandum produced by the winning party. lt involves the process for
payment of legal costs which comes after a matter has been heard and concluded in court .It
describes the legal costs of the case .The successful party gives the loosing part the bill of
costs so that their legal bills will be covered. Legal costs are not paid until the case has been
concluded. When the losing party receives bill of costs they will negotiate a lump sum
settlement with the winning party. The benefits of negotiating a lump sum is that it ensures
future costs will be covered and limits the possibility for additional litigation and related costs.
Student was also advised that if loosing party decides to contest the bill of costs they would
need to file a Notice of Dispute.

The following Formulae and Table examples shows How the Bill of Costs is
calculated:

1 Unit =5 minutes NB: (Units are division of time)

If the legal practitioner attends to client for 60 minutes (1 hour) the calculation will be

60minutes÷5minutes= 20 units, 75 minutes ÷ 5mins = 15 units

The legal practitioners work is not put in disbursements .Clerks, assistants is put in
disbursements because they do not have units.

Table 1
Bill of costs: Fees disbursements due to MMM Legal Practitioners done by Jeremiah
Bamu party to party scale

Scale=1 Unit

1 unit = 15 minutes

4 units = 60 minutes

DATE INSTRUCTIONS TIME UNITS TOTAL(AMT)

19/12/2 Attending to client with instructions 75mins 15 150.00

2 Attending to peruse Urgent Chamber 45mins 9 90.00
application
Preparation for court 30mins 6 60.00
Travelling to court 15mins 3 30.00
Attending court before Kwenda J 45mins 9 90.00
Travelling back to office 15mins 3 30.00

Attending to clients with detailed 60mins 12 120.00

20/12/2 instructions
2 Perusing documents brought by clients 30mins 6 60.00

Attending to draft opposite affidavit 45mins 9 900.00

Attending to proof reading 15mins 3 30.00
21/12/2
2 Attending to printing 32pX7
Attending to photocopy70pX7
Attending to binding
23/12/2 Causing Clients to sign before
2 Commissioner of Oaths 20mins 6 60.00

Attending to research in preparation of 180min 36 360.00

High Court s
Drafting HC 24 240.00
120min
26/12/2 s
2
Student had the opportunity to go to the High Court to file an urgent chamber
application. The supervisor briefed the student on what an urgent chamber
application was. An urgent chamber application is an extraordinary remedy where a
party seeks to gain advantage over other litigants by jumping the queue. It must
have a certificate of urgency prepared by the Legal practitioner who the happened to
be the senior partner at the law firm Mr Jeremiah Bamu. This can only be granted by
a judge after considering all the relevant factors and concluding that the matter
cannot wait. It is operated by rule 60(6) of the High Court Rules. First when filing for
an urgent chamber application one has to pass by the clerk of court, submit the files
and be given a case number. Thereafter you go to the registry office for case
registration. One will then proceed to go to the accounts office for payment of the
required fees for the urgent chamber application. A receipt will be then be issued,
original copy of it you leave it at the high court clerk office and take the rest. The
client will then be given a quotation of the urgent chamber application.

Serving Process

Student had the chance to go out and deliver court papers to their respective
destinations. The locations included various law firms, companies and organisations.
The supervisor emphasized the importance of time in serving court papers. Some
professional ethics that were taught to student allow the way for example the
importance of greeting and smiling to people when serving court papers.

Places visited included: Reason

Magistrate Court Rotten Row To serve the State with some

response papers.

Labour Court of Zimbabwe to update the law firm online portal for
JSC ICEMS.
High Court of Zimbabwe To inquire why our case was not on
court roll.

Cranborne Post Office Serve three tenants renting at post

office with some eviction notices.

Bherebende Legal Practitioners Serve the other law with our

client’s response.