How Get Law is simplifying Legal Consultation for South Africans

With individuals and businesses still counting their losses as a result of the total lockdown in a significant part of 2020, individuals in different parts of the African countries sought innovative solutions to cushion the effect of the lockdown especially as it cuts through their finances.

In the intense heat of the lockdown, almost all professions weren’t spared, thus the law sector wasn’t left out of the challenge.

In South Africa during the Level 5 lockdown, some law attorneys were struggling to work remotely or just out of contract.

Identifying this challenge, Ya’eesh Cader alongside his brother Youshaa Cader who are both attorneys co-founded Get Law an online legal service platform in May 2020.

The startup was launched to simplify the law and enable anyone to access registered attorneys on-demand at a fraction of the conventional law costs.

Many attorneys across the country are now offering their services through Get Law which offers legal consultation in minutes to users.

We had a chat with Ya’eesh Cader, one of Get Law’s Co-Founder who took us through how the legal startup is changing the face of legal consultation in South Africa as consumers are becoming more and more reliant on online services in this era of micro-transactions.

According to Ya’eesh the platform seeks to simplify law and enable anyone to access registered attorneys on-demand at a fraction of traditional law costs.

“The entire business is digital, and the savings as a result of not being burdened with the hassles of traditional SME expenses like large rental overheads etc, are passed onto their clients.”

Explaining more on why Get Law started, the co-founder said, the startup was formed in the midst of Level 5 lockdown in South Africa.

“As a result of the impacts of COVID19 on the SA economy, a network of digital and legal professionals saw an opportunity to innovate and enable business services digitally, rather than be decimated by its impacts.

COVID19 has had the biggest impact on global business digital transformation, and the Get Law team can attest to that.”

According to Ya’eesh, the business was founded and conceptualized in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic as many within the Get Law attorney networks were either struggling to work remotely needing to consult with clients, or simply out of contract as a result of retrenchments due to lockdown.

“The business idea of running a digital only service offering came after studying the local digital landscape and evaluating how other businesses were adapting.

These included psychologists giving Zoom consultations, or cooking classes also running off virtual platforms.

The opportunity to leverage off digital skills from one of the founders made this a complex concept but one that was fairly simple to execute.”

Ya’eesh explained that the Get Law attorney were offering free COVID19 legal advice in their individual capacities from the first week of lockdown in March 2020, but once the Get Law platform was launched officially online, they transferred these uncoordinated efforts to their online platform as a single consolidated effort.

Since its launch, South Africans have taken up the Get Law offer for free legal advice.

“As a truly e-commerce platform, clients simply needed to apply a promo code upon checkout to make use of the offer and get access to free legal advice by qualified and registered attorneys.

Being in a position to be able to give back is a core value entrenched in the Get Law business philosophy.”

Get Law’s journey

According to Ya’eesh, the number of clients the platform has serviced since its launch in May 2020 has been encouraging.

“The demographics of clients ranged from 25 – 54 years of age, with predominantly African Black female in the lower-income band.

Given the immediacy of access needed to legal advice, mobile visits account for over 90% of traffic, which is why a mobile-first development methodology was key from a technology perspective.

Clients have utilized the platform for a variety of needs including business registration, retrenchment disputes, civil law cases etc.”

Get Law is funded purely by capital invested by the 2 founders. The platform has a network of freelance legal professionals and currently has 7 attorneys across South Africa linked to the backend of the platform.

Each of Get Law’s registered and qualified attorneys are and experienced in various legal matters such as civil litigation, labor and employment matters, e-commerce law, family law, company registrations etc.

The platform provides complete digital legal consultations via chat, phone call or video-call.

“This has allowed us them to abide by the social distancing requirements whilst ensuring clients get access to the best possible legal advice wherever they are.”

According to Ya’eesh, Get Law has no hidden or surprise costs, often associated with legal consultations.

“Clients simply select their product online, from an affordable 15-minute legal consultation to the drafting of complex legal contracts, and pay securely via credit card or EFT.

Confidentiality is entrenched in the business philosophy, given the sensitivities around client privacy.”

“We have used the COVID lockdown to enable, rather than disable our business.”, Ya’eesh concluded

Featured Image: Ya’eesh Cader (Left), Youshaa Cader (Right)

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