PAIA Manual

1. About this manual

Roodt & Co Attorneys (registration number 2021/817824/21) is a private body under PAIA. This manual is prepared under section 51 of PAIA. It also contains the information about the processing of personal information that section 51 requires under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

This manual is available on this website, at our offices at 61 Thomas Edison Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria 0081 for public inspection during normal business hours, to anyone who asks for it (a reasonable fee may be charged), and to the Information Regulator on request.

2. Contact details of the head of the firm

Name

Roodt & Co Attorneys

Head of the private body

Kristoff Roodt

Street and postal address

61 Thomas Edison Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria 0081

Telephone

012 001 4160

Email

info@roodtlaw.com

3. The Information Regulator's guide

The Information Regulator has published a guide on how to use PAIA. It explains your rights and how to exercise them. You can get the guide, and the forms mentioned below, from the Information Regulator's PAIA page.

The Information Regulator's offices are at Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191.

4. Records available without a request

The information published on this website, including our Legal Insights articles, our Privacy Policy and our Website Terms, is available to anyone without a request.

5. Records kept under other legislation

We keep records that the law requires of us, to the extent each law applies to the firm. These include records under the Companies Act 71 of 2008, the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, and employment, tax and similar legislation.

6. Subjects and categories of records we hold

• Client matters. Instructions, correspondence, court and tribunal documents, opinions, and documents about properties, municipal accounts and applications, together with related accounts and invoices.
• Firm administration and finance. Company records, accounting and trust account records, tax records, banking and insurance records.
• People. Records about our attorneys and staff, such as employment contracts and payroll records.
• Website and enquiries. Contact form submissions, emails and call notes from people who contact us, and website analytics data.
• Compliance. Policies and the records we keep to meet our legal and professional obligations, including client identification records.

Not every record can be released. PAIA lists grounds on which access may be refused, including protection of the privacy of another person, commercial and confidential information of third parties, and records that are privileged from production in legal proceedings. Client files are confidential and protected by legal professional privilege.

7. How we process personal information

This section gives the information that section 51 of PAIA requires under POPIA. More detail is in our Privacy Policy.

Purpose of processing. To respond to enquiries and provide legal services, to run the firm and this website, to keep the website secure, and to meet our legal and professional obligations.

People whose information we process. Website visitors and people who contact us, clients and prospective clients, our attorneys and staff, suppliers and service providers, and other people whose details appear in a client matter, such as other parties, witnesses and officials.

Information we process. Names and contact details, identity and property details, account and financial details, information about a client matter, employment details for our people, and website usage data.

Who we may give it to. Courts, tribunals, municipalities and other authorities where a matter requires it, counsel, experts and other service providers we use, including Duda, Google and Mapbox for this website, and regulators or other bodies where the law requires it.

Transfers outside South Africa. Some of our website service providers, such as Duda, Google and Mapbox, may store or process information in other countries. We rely on the POPIA rules for transfers outside South Africa.

Security. We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal information. These include limiting access to client files and firm systems to the people who need them, using passwords and secure systems, and the duties of confidentiality that our attorneys and staff owe.

8. How to request access to a record

To request access to a record, complete the prescribed request form (Form 2, available from the Information Regulator's PAIA page) and send it to the head of the firm at the contact details in section 2. On the form you must:

• give enough detail to identify you and the record you want;
• say which right you are trying to exercise or protect, and why you need the record for it;
• say how you would like to receive access; and
• if you are asking on behalf of someone else, include proof that you may do so.

A request fee, and further fees for searching for and copying records, may be payable as set by the PAIA regulations. The fee schedule is on the Information Regulator's website.

We will decide on your request within 30 days of receiving it. That period can be extended once, by up to a further 30 days, in the cases PAIA allows. If we refuse a request, we will give our reasons and the grounds in PAIA we rely on.

9. If your request is refused

You may complain to the Information Regulator at PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, or apply to a court for relief.

10. Keeping this manual up to date

We update this manual regularly. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.