The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) and the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) would like to
warn the public against buying legal insurance (legal aid) policies from unregistered legal aid societies.
Legal services and legal insurance can only be provided by licensed legal practitioners and registered
insurers respectively.

Whilst legal aid societies carry on insurance business and must therefore, be registered as insurers, IPEC
would like to advise the public that to date, it has not registered any legal aid society to offer legal
insurance.

On the same note, the LSZ advises that legal aid societies are not allowed to provide legal services for a fee
as they are not licensed law 􀃶rms. Any legal aid society that offers or purports to offer legal services for a
fee is in contravention of the Legal Practitioners Act.

In all the cases that LSZ and IPEC have investigated, it has been noted that, most of the legal aid societies
work directly or indirectly with some members of the legal profession. The Legal Practitioners Act
prohibits the act of practicing in association with unquali􀃶ed persons, which includes sharing, dividing
professional fees with an unregistered person. Such an act amounts to professional misconduct.

Both IPEC and LSZ are collaborating with the Zimbabwe Republic Police (Commercial Crimes Unit)
in weeding out all the unlicensed legal aid societies. A number of these have been convicted for
contravening the Legal Practitioners Act and the Insurance Act.

To this end, the public is advised to contact IPEC and the LSZ to verify the registration status of any entities
or persons purporting to offer legal aid services and legal insurance.

IPEC Contact Details: LSZ Contact Details:
Telephone: (242) 443358 Telephone: (242)779207-9
0772154281-4 Cell: 0772240424
Email: enquiry@ipec.co.zw Email: secretary@lsz.co.zw

Issued by the Law Society of Zimbabwe and the Insurance and Pensions Commission in the
interest of the public.