THE estranged wife of an attorney is facing a 30-day suspended sentence after she badmouthed her husband in a letter of complaint sent to the Legal Practice Council (the watchdog over the legal profession) in which she levelled many accusations against him, including that he is a “bully”.

The divorce proceedings have been marred by acrimony. One of the ways in which this acrimony has been expressed is through the wife publishing allegations regarding the alleged impropriety of the husband in relation to his professional and personal conduct.

The husband earlier obtained an order against his wife and her new lover following their relentless campaign against him, which involves repeatedly litigating against him and attempting to malign him.

The court at the time ordered that the pair may not badmouth the husband in any manner, threaten him, or level accusations against him to tarnish his good reputation.

The wife and her lover tried to appeal against that order, but they lost.

The maligning and defamation, however, did not stop.

The husband later obtained an order in terms of which the lover was convicted of contempt and fined R70 000.

The husband has now turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, for an order holding his wife in contempt of court and issuing her with a suspended jail sentence.

This was after the wife wrote a long letter to the LPC in which she explained that she was going through a very acrimonious and costly divorce.

She accused her husband of “bullying” her through the legal system, as he “knows every trick in the book” to manipulate the legal system.

She claimed that she has been at a huge disadvantage “since Day One”. The wife also claimed that she had to spend R3 million to defend herself from all the “side shows” in the litigation between her and her husband.

She also claimed that he had hacked into her computer.

The wife told the LPC that if it did not act against her husband, she would turn to the media. The wife told the court that she had no other choice but to approach the LPC.

She alleges that she cannot afford to bring further litigation and that she has thus made the complaint. She alleges that she was advised to lodge the complaint after talking to an official at the LPC.

Judge Denise Fisher commented: “Chillingly, she threatens that if the LPC does not come to her assistance, she will go to the media. She says this well knowing of the order against her. To my mind, this suggests a lack of respect for the order.”

The judge said the complaint to the LPC against the husband contains sweeping generalisations, name-calling, accusations without substantiation, and rambling vitriol which does not lend itself to the making of any inquiry or the determination of any facts.

She added: “To my mind, the engaging of the processes of the LPC to publish the defamatory and damaging accusations suggests guile.”

Judge Fisher concluded that the wife was well aware that it was in breach of the court order to make the utterances in question. She has nonetheless sought to do so under the guise of reporting professional misconduct by an attorney.

“There is no doubt that the intention behind the claim was only to malign and defame the applicant.”

The judge commented that only a suspended sentence hanging over her head would stop her from “her campaign of defamation and abuse”.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za