In keeping with the increasing costs of providing legal expenses insurance, our insurance benefits and premiums will increase effective from 1 July 2022.

In the early months of 2021 and just over a year after the COVID-19 pandemic had started, the South African government secured millions of vaccine doses from several pharmaceutical manufacturers. As part of the terms of the agreement between governments and the manufacturers, governments were required to exempt the manufacturers, at least partly, from liability and potential lawsuits in the case of any severe side effects the vaccination may cause. In South Africa, this led to the establishment of the COVID-19 Vaccine Injury No-Fault Compensation Scheme (“Scheme”).

When a person is found guilty of committing a criminal offence (“offence”) by a court of law, s/he will be punished (“sentenced”). A sentence might require such a person to go to jail or to pay a fine, depending on the circumstances. Most people might even call for the proverbial key to be thrown away. In many cases, not everyone will agree with a sentence given by a court, however, there are guidelines that the Courts must follow when handing down a sentence. This article intends to shed some light on how sentencing works, the types of sentences that can be given and so on.