Frauenstein and Beukes attorneys is a Port Elizabeth-based law firm specialising in divorce and family-related matters.
The firm provides high-quality services and legal advice at a rate that is affordable to the public.
We attempt to settle matters in an amical manner, yet strive to fight for the best interest of our clients.
We provide services which includes but not limited to:
Divorce- divorce is an emotional journey, we compassionately assist in the process of terminating the matrimonial union in the best way possible; we can provide a high-quality service whether the divorce is uncontested or contested.
A contested divorce is when you and your spouse have one or more issues that you cannot agree on, e.g. maintenance, primary residence, accrual, or division of the estate.
An uncontested divorce is where disputes are resolved out of court. This can be a relatively quick process.
More particularly: no disagreements between you and your spouse over any assets, accrual, maintenance, or primary residence of the minor children.
Our offices will draft your personalised deed of settlement that will protect your interests for the present and future.
Maintenance (including spousal)- whether the issue is in respect of arrears, increase, reduction or enforcement we can assist in this process by going to court with you, determining the reasonable needs of the child(ren), and financial assessment of the parents, ensuring that the process is fair;
Adoptions-we can assist an adult single person or couple to become the legal parents of a child and through this process, the child becomes yours as though born of you, we can assist in the adoption application, we will advise our clients on the best approach to follow and guide them through the process. A social worker plays an important role in this process and we will ensure the social worker liaises with you to ensure a quicker and smoother process;
Antenuptial Contract (ANC) ANC is a document that under South African law, determines whether your marriage will exist in of the following ways:
-in community of property;
- out of community of property-with accrual or
- out of community of property without accrual.
Having an ANC offers a number of benefits, for example – preventing your intended marriage from being in community of property, and preventing unnecessary disputes with your spouse in the future. We offer our clients fully comprehensive service in respect of the drafting of a ANC with an initial one-hour consultation at our office, drafting a tailor made ANC, a follow-up consultation to sign the documents, a letter for your marriage officer confirming that a contract has been executed, lodging the contract at the Deed Office for registration, notifying you that your contract has been registered and providing a scanned copy and original thereof.
Cohabitation agreements-this is a written agreement used by an unmarried couple who are in a long-term relationship. Life partners are permitted to enter into a contract similar to an ANC that regulates their respective obligations during the subsistence of their union and the patrimonial consequences of the termination thereof. We can draft a cohabitation agreement to regulate the finances and division of property, goods and assets upon its termination. We establish the needs of the parties and can include provisions to protect each parties’ rights and sets out their obligations.
Parental rights and responsibilities-the implementation of the Children’s Act, Act 38 of 2005 defines the parental rights and responsibilities that parents or other parties may have. There are many ways for persons to acquire parental responsibilities and rights over children – we can assist biological mothers, married biological fathers, unmarried biological fathers, artificial insemination, guardians and caregivers appointed in a will, and guardians, and caregivers appointed by court order.
Care and contact of minors – this includes care, reasonable contact, defined contact, supervised contact, phased-in contact, indirect contact, shared contact, guardianship, sole guardians, and co-guardians. We can assist in ensuring that the care and contact of the minor children are to the best interest of the children and assist in making co-parenting an easy task.
Domestic violence and Harassment– obtaining a protection order / restraining order/harassment order to tell the abuser to stop the abuse. We can assist to help ensure that the abuser is prohibited from continuing the harassing and abusing of the victim or prevent the abuser from obtaining help from any other person to commit abusive acts. We can assist in applying to the court for a protection order and representing a person in court to obtain a final order.
Parenting plans- to obtain a lifestyle that has routine and guidance for the best interest of the child(ren) whereby we take the process to court to obtain a court order. We can assist when co-holders experience difficulties in exercising their rights and responsibilities, we can formulate a parenting plan to regulate the exercise of their responsibilities and rights. The Children’s Act offers parenting plans a method to assist parents with how to exercise their parental rights after separation of divorce or alternatively unmarried parents.
Furthermore, we attend to all general civil litigation within the Magistrates’ and Regional Court.
Debt collection;
General Litigation- whether you are need of having a judgment rescinded or needing to institute or defend an eviction, we have the legal expertise to assist you in your matter.
At Frauenstein and Beukes attorneys we understand that each situation is unique, and we will work hard to find the right solution for each of our clients.