The Definitive Guide to Divorce and Maintenance

Hi there, I am Advocate Douglas Shaw and as an advocate I have dealt with a lot of divorces. I also get invited to a lot of dinner parties and meetings for coffee when my friends, and people I know kind of vaguely decide to get divorced. People are worried about how it all works. 

 People when they get divorced not only have to deal with all the emotional issues but also with suddenly having to get to grips with a whole lot of complicated legal issues. These issues can lead to the loss or gain of the division of property and may make a big difference to the amount of maintenance you receive or pay. For most people experiencing divorce, this is all extremely stressful. 

If that’s you, you need to invest in this course (or in one of the mini courses -see below). Whether you’re the man or the woman, rich or poor or what community you come from, this course will give you the knowledge and skills to be on top of your divorce. It will reduce your stress levels because you will be in control because you will know what is going on.

Legal professionals are not cheap. So better to educate yourself first before you deal with them. Then you will get the best out of them because you will ask the right questions, not just the basics. Some of my friends talk to me about their divorces because they want to check if their lawyer is doing the right thing for them. This course will help you understand what is going on.  Able to settle.

An advocate in this field will generally charge about R2500 an hour for a consultation. Some charge a lot more. For less than the cost of   two hours of consultation (R5000), you will get ultimately more than five times the amount of consultation. Compare this price to the legal fees you will pay if you don’t know what you are doing, and the gains in maintenance and property division you might receive by becoming knowledgeable in this area. 

I will tell you how to work out what maintenance you will get or pay. I will show you the process: filling summons, Rule 43s, trials and so on. I will also show you how and why to avoid the whole process by agreeing up front with your former spouse. That alone could save you hundreds of thousands of rands. Think of what you could both spend that money on instead. 

 I will take you through the Divorce Act and you will get a copy of it of your own.   We also discuss the key cases that affect divorce law so you can make sure they are quoted where relevant in your heads of argument. I will also take you through the various documents: Summons, Parenting Plan , Agreements, etc. I will give you examples of these documents too.   Plus key strategic insights and tips about what you should do in various common situations and how to be aware of tricks the other side might play.  We will discuss what actually happens in court if you end up actually going to court.   

I will tell you how long things take, what things cost and what the implications will be. The practical know-how as well as the law.  Think of how long it would take and how much it would cost to try and find out all this information on your own. You could always get an advocate to take you through it step by step at R2500 an hour 😊 

In addition to my own knowledge and insights, you will also get video interviews with other legal professionals who are experienced in various aspects of this area.  We also have interviews with people like yourself who have gone through divorces and get their insights and perspectives.  We also aim to have a few interviews with other disciplines like psychologists who specialise in divorce and others who can offer help with various aspects of the process in non-legal ways.  How to deal with children during divorce. 

And best of all its all done in my beautiful Scottish accent which is a pleasure to listen to. 

Depending on the time that you buy this course, you may get it for a discount from the two-hour consultation price. This is because we intend to augment the course based on the feedback and questions asked by our first few groups of students.  If you buy early you will also get access to this new material as we add videos and resources that people like you ask for. As we do this we will increase the price.  Initially, there will be about 7 hours of content. That is R17,500 at advocacy rates and we aim to build it to 12 hours ultimately or R30,000 worth of content. 

Or looking at it another way, an extra R2000 in maintenance is R240,000 over 10 years.  Whether you are receiving or paying, that’s a lot of money compared to the price of this course. Or in terms of the division of property, it could be an extra R200,000 or R1 million  because you know something he or she does not. We could charge ten time what we are charging for this course and on these figures it would still be worth it. And that’s not even considering the psychological benefits or less stress and better sleep because you now know what is going on. 

If you don't want to buy the whole course for now or you have a need to know about a specific course, then for only R100 you can get a short course that explains only that specific issue. The courses are:

Explaining the divorce summons
Explaining a Rule 43 application
What is a Parenting Plan?
How do settlement agreements work?
Demystifying maintenance
Children and Divorce

And, lastly, while I would usually want to encourage more people to buy my course, a piece of advice, whatever you do, don’t tell your soon to be ex-spouse about the courses. Keep this advantage to yourself!

See you on the other side.