The Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa is located in Bloemfontein. The Court generally sits in panels of three or five judges, depending on the nature of the appeal. There has to be an application for leave to appeal as there is no automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.Once leave to appeal is granted, your Notice of Appeal needs to be lodged within thirty days with the Registrar.

The appeal record must be lodged within three months of the lodging of your Notice of Appeal. Cases are decided on the record of the proceedings as it was before the lower court. This record has to be prepared strictly in accordance with the Supreme Court of Appeal rules. All irrelevant and formal documents have to be excluded and there has to be compliance with Rule 8(8) and 8(9) whereby the Parties have to come to an agreement as to what documents, if any, can be excluded from the record.

After perusing the record, and considering the written and oral arguments presented a written judgment is handed down.