Challenging a Court Order

Dear Reader,

I do not have enough information to give you advice on this matter (remember that the advice here is not meant to be definitive legal advice, but rather points of discussion. You must still see a lawyer immediately).

That said, from what you have said, your friend's strongest ground is his claim that he has not been notified by the court of the goings-on. I will let you know that in my 8 years' experience, such claims are either not true or untenable in any case. It may well be that your friend simply ignored court notices. It may be that your friend made himself or herself difficult to find to serve with court notices. If the second theory is true, the court could have ordered substituted service which means service by another means such as the newspapers or posting the notice on the court notice board and/or on the wall of your friend's building.

If in spite of the paragraph above your friend is positive that he or she has not been notified of the court proceedings as well as the order at the end of the proceedings, they may bring any of several applications to the same court which gave the order. Without discussing the fine, technical detail, such applications include:

- Application for Review (of the Court Order);

- Application to Set Aside the Order of the Court;

- Application for Stay of Execution (of the Court Order);

It may serve your purposes better to try some of these applications. If they are successful, your friend has respite. If they are unsuccessful, then your friend can go on appeal (but eventually, your friend is likely to lose the land since he is not a bona fide purchaser of the land without notice. This simply means that your friend did not do the requisite enquiry to find out if there were no competing interests in the land they bought.

Good luck to your friend.