About Plainly
Plainly is an independent guide to family law in South Africa. It is built to explain how a matter works, help you prepare, and show you which professional to see first. It is not a law firm.
What Plainly is for, and what it never does
What Plainly is for
- Explain. Plain-language guides, with each legal point linked to the Act or rule it rests on. 10 guides are published so far.
- Estimate. Broad ranges for cost and time. These work today. Each figure names where it was published. No practitioner has reviewed them.
- Prepare. The Navigator: a private workspace for your dates, documents and next steps. It is not open yet. Founding members pay for the build.
What Plainly never does
- Give legal advice, or act for you. That is an attorney's work.
- Generate, offer or sell anything for use in court.
- Take money from a professional, for any reason.
- Ask for an ID number.
The independence standard
Professionals never pay us
Not to be listed, not to rank higher and not for introductions. Plainly will be paid for by the people who use it.
No ratings and no public reviews
A family matter is not a restaurant meal. Feedback about a professional will be private, and only our team will see it.
Nothing earned when you hire someone
No referral fees. We will not track who you go on to hire.
One standard for everyone
Nobody is listed yet. Each professional will have to meet the same standard before they are.
The standard itself is on the Find help page.
How we handle the law
- Every legal statement cites the Act and section it rests on. Where a source has not been verified, the page says so.
- A guide is published only once every legal statement in it has been checked against the Act or official source it cites. Each guide shows the date of that check and says whether a legal practitioner has also reviewed it. A draft is never shown.
- The Navigator's AI will answer only from Plainly's own library of sources, and will show which ones it used.
- Plainly describes options. It will never tell you what to do, and never speaks as a lawyer.
Your safety and your information
- Safety comes first. Crisis lines are on every page, and the Navigator will ask about safety before anything else. If you are not safe, it will never suggest mediation.
- No ID numbers. Children will be recorded only as a first name or initials and an age.
- What you save will be kept in a database in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany), and you will be able to delete your account and everything in it.
- No countdowns, no invented scarcity and no boxes ticked for you.
The privacy notice is a draft, and says so at the top. If you are not safe now, go to the crisis lines and protection orders.