Rule 43
When a divorce is taking a long time to finalise or when one of the spouses is a homemaker with no income, the law provides a mechanism that can be used to assist spouses during a divorce to provide for the interim period until the divorce is finalised. Rule 43 of the High Court and rule 58 of the magistrate’s court provide an interim measure to help an applicant quickly and with minimal legal costs. In the law, this is called interim relief. Rule 43/58 can be used for one or more of the following:
• interim care or contact with the child;
• maintenance for the spouse and/or children;
• enforcing certain payments, such as for the bond on the matrimonial home, vehicles, school fees, medical aid premiums and even deposits on new accommodation and relocation costs;
• interim contribution towards the costs of the divorce and legal fees; and/or
• an order for delivery of a car, furniture, etc.
Rule 43/58 deals with many of the issues that will ultimately be dealt with in the final divorce action but is an interim solution. An extremely acrimonious divorce can take years to finalise and spouses need to be safeguarded during the divorce process.
In terms of the equality provisions in the Constitution, a divorcing wife who has no income is entitled to a contribution to her legal costs to ensure she has an equal opportunity to defend her case.