Community guidelines
The short version: be specific, be respectful, cite your sources, and don't treat the community as a free legal advice line. The long version is below.
Community guidelines
CaseNotes is a community of South African law students helping each other wrestle with real legal problems. These are the rules of the road. They exist to keep the community useful and pleasant.
Be specific
Vague questions get vague answers. See how to ask a good question.
Show your own reasoning
The community is not a homework service. Before asking, try to work out the answer yourself, then explain where you got stuck. This is how real legal thinking improves.
Cite your sources
If you reference a case, give the citation. If you paraphrase a rule, name the statute and section. Answers without sources are opinions; answers with sources are research.
Be respectful
Disagreement is fine — and often how the most useful answers emerge. Personal attacks, sarcasm, and condescension are not. Remember that the person on the other end might be a first-year who is genuinely confused, or a fourth-year who is exhausted.
No legal advice
CaseNotes is a study community, not a legal service. Do not ask for advice on your own legal problem, and do not give advice to someone else who is asking about theirs. If someone posts a question that reads like a real legal issue (landlord dispute, criminal charge, custody matter), point them politely to Legal Aid South Africa or the University legal clinic at their institution and then close or downvote the question.
Copyright
Don't paste entire judgments or textbook chapters. Link to them by citation. Short extracts for discussion are fine under fair use.
Voting and accepting
- Upvote answers that are correct and useful.
- Downvote answers that are misleading or unsupported. Downvotes are not insults — they are signals to future students.
- Accept the best answer on your own question so future students see it first.
Flagging and moderation
If you see a question or answer that breaks these rules, flag it. Moderators (a mix of senior students and academic staff) will review.
Content coming soon
A longer section on what counts as legal advice vs. legal discussion, and the specific line CaseNotes draws.