Law Researcher REF NO: 2026/43/OCJ at Office of the Chief Justice South Africa

REQUIREMENTS :

• Applicants should be in possession of an LLB Degree or a four-year recognized legal qualification. A minimum of three (3) years’ legal research experience in the relevant field. Superior court or litigation experience and a valid driver’s license will serve as an added advantage. All shortlisted candidates shall undertake a pre-entry practical exercise as part of the assessment method to determine the candidate's suitability based on the post's technical and generic requirements.

DUTIES :

• Provide support to legal research functions for the Judges and other Court officials: Provide support with legal research on various legal issues, statutes, rules, regulations, and case law, analyse and apply complex legal principles and provide summaries to the judges, provide research support to judges in the preparation of hearings and trials, carry out research and retrieve all material from all sources in both hard copy and electronic formats on legal issues, as requested by a Judge, provide analysis through studying all the relevant material. Prepare and compile legal opinions: Provide support to the Judges with legal arguments analysis submitted by litigants, evaluate merits of each argument, research supporting and opposing case law (precedent) and provide recommendations to the Judges, review legal issues, arguments, and relevant case law in the form of legal memos, prepare a comprehensive memorandum on the outcome of the legal research.
• Provide support with drafting of clear, consistent and comprehensive judgments: Provide support to Judges in reviewing and proofreading draft judgment(s) to ensure clarity and accuracy, proofread all judgments, articles, speeches and conference papers with respect to spelling and grammar, quality assure all references, full citation of judgments and footnotes in all draft judgments and legal articles against the original text to ensure correctness and accuracy, correct mistakes (typos) with the help of track changes so that Judges can accept or decline any proposed changes.
• Ensure that Judges are up to date on recent developments in case law, practice directives and legislation: Quality assure the maintenance of knowledge of recent legal developments, new legislation, and relevant case law, provide support to the monitoring of legal journals, ensure that judges have access to the latest legal information, keep up breast with recent developments in relevant areas of law, such as legislative changes, new precedents, and emerging legal trends.