Professor Mervyn Dendy

Mervyn Dendy

Author - Costs (Lawsa Volume 10 - Third Edition)

Professor Mervyn Dendy matriculated from King Edward VII High School (KES) in Johannesburg in 1974. He holds the degrees of BCom and LLB (cum laude) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg where he was subsequently employed as an academic in the School of Law from 1985 to 2002, teaching mainly the law of delict and civil procedure.

He is also an admitted attorney and notary, and has been in private practice as an attorney since 1999. He now lives in Hermanus, in the Western Cape. He is the author or co-author of 40 books or chapters in books, a number of which are Lawsa titles – most recently Costs, and over 400 other publications in a variety of South African legal journals and elsewhere. He is also an experienced legal editor, having at various times edited or co-edited Businessman’s Law, the Annual Survey of South African Law, the Tydskrif vir Hedendaagse Romeins-Hollandse Reg, books on civil procedure and The South African Law Journal Cumulative Index 1973—1997.

Professor Dendy is the updating author of the third edition of the Lawsa title Costs and had this say:

“The title deals with the fundamental rules governing the computation and taxation of legal costs, such as the general rule that costs follow the event; exceptional instances in which costs do not follow the event; the principles governing awards of costs on the party-and-party scale and the attorney-and-client scale; the circumstances under which security for costs will have to be furnished; costs in constitutional cases; tenders and offers of settlement; costs de bonis propriis; rules of court relating to the taxation of costs; special rules governing awards of legal costs in relation to particular types of litigant such as statutory bodies, public officers and deceased and insolvent estates; and costs in appeal cases. The title in its updated form serves as a comprehensive source of first reference to all legal practitioners, particularly attorneys and costs consultants, in relation to the awarding and taxation of litigation costs.”