"All that is certain in life is death and taxes" - Benjamin Franklin, the First American, said so, but so is The Circle of Life. If you can read here, it means you were born and you are alive. In your journey, you will be involved in relationships and finally, you will die, you cannot escape. It is always better to deal with matters than to be passive. Knowledge, as the learned say, is power. The contents in this book are not fiction and written in a simplified legal language, easy to understand and applicable worldwide. The Circle of Life is designed to assist those that need to know more about the human pattern of betrothal, marriage, divorce and death. The Circle of Life is filled with interesting anecdotes and statistics, practical and to the point since it claims no academic status and is easy to read. It is somewhat odd and frightening in a certain way how the law will never leave you alone, even when in love and staring into your soul's green eyes. Whether you know it or not, approve or not, the law is all invasive and demands compliance from you at all times. Make no mistake, this is needed. Without laws, there would be utter chaos and, more importantly, no moral guidelines to know what is wrong and what is right. There are a lot of misconceptions out there, but ignorance is no excuse, the law will not take kindly to non-compliance and being forewarned is being forearmed. This is a "fun" legal book, not meant to be a legal textbook and based on the legal cases the author handled during two decades of practicing law. Yet, it is also a serious subject and needs to be understood, not only read. This book, The Circle of Life, touches everyone who ever fell in love. When you are made by your parents, the law is involved. The unborn child is protected or used to be - this depends on where your Constitution stands on abortion as well as your religious belief system, but in the end, no matter what, you may confess in Church or the Mosque or where ever, the Constitution supersedes your beliefs in all cases. This is where the final judgment lays, end of the argument.It is therefore, important to understand what the law says regarding the circle of life, which is from conception to after you die. We will discuss, among other subjects, whether the rule of thumb to punish a wayward wife really exists in law (no, never, don't even try it). The legalities surrounding betrothal and marriage (very interesting when in love and taking the next step). What not to do during divorce (make lawyers rich, they have enough money and should be viewed with as much distrust as possible). The Circle of Life will show you how to avoid the financially ruinous pitfalls. The best advice is to settle your divorce amicably and get on with your life, but don't do yourself in, you have rights, exercise them with due care, not with hatred. Finally, what occurs legally speaking after death? This is an important chapter because, I found, in practice, that few couples are willing to discuss their last will and testament openly with each other and death is always unexpected. Even when expecting the bad news, the moment itself is impossible to predict. We see that the deceased seldom leaves a "living will" and then when the times comes no one knows his wishes regarding switching the life-supporting machines off or not or even if he wishes to be buried or cremated (there is no other choice in law, either or, decide right now). Also, in these days of social media, the lack of online passwords being left behind creates much anguish. Facebook, for instance, has almost 50 million deceased accounts and there is nothing that hurts a widow or widower more than to suddenly see the social media accounts "come alive" and not being able to delete them (or place them in a special "In Remembrance" category). Many times, happy memories are lost because the backup disks cannot be accessed, and life policies are not paid because they are unknown.
About the Author: Koos Kotze is a former member of the South African Police Force. He served between 1985 and 1991 primarily as a sergeant in the Pretoria Flying Squad. During his police years, he was awarded the South African Police Medal for Combating Terrorism twice besides lesser awards. After leaving the Police Force he obtained the law degrees B Iuris & LLB at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa) and was a commercial law attorney for eight years. These days he is the owner of JKLS Africa and Associates, a specialist legal consultancy which specializes in hostage survival training and reducing legal risk in Sub Saharan Africa. He wrote several books on business, law, counter-terrorism and security issues. At times he is asked to participate on the Voice of America regarding legal forensic matters. Koos is a widower and lives in Bloemfontein, South Africa.