Trust & compliance
Caseo is built for how South African law firms are regulated: POPIA for client information, LPC Rule 54 for trust money, and FICA for knowing your client. This page sets out what Caseo does, what your firm stays responsible for, and which providers process data on our behalf.
01Who we are
Caseo is a product of Synara AI (Pty) Ltd.
- Trading as
- Caseo
- Legal status
- Private company, South Africa
- Registration number
- 2025/921363/07
- Place of registration
- Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), South Africa
- Physical address
- 133 Derby Road, Kensington, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2094
- Address for legal service
- As above
- Director
- Nakai Farid Williams
- Phone
- 066 373 5300
- VAT
- Not a VAT vendor
- Information Officer
- Nakai Farid Williams
- Information Officer email
- privacy@caseo.co.za
- Information Regulator registration
- 2026-067492
02POPIA: who does what
Your firm is the responsible party. You decide why and how your clients’ personal information is processed.
Caseo is your operator under sections 20 and 21 of POPIA. We process client information only on your instructions, keep it confidential, and maintain the security safeguards set out below.
Operator agreement. We sign an operator agreement (DPA) with every firm. Ask for a copy and we’ll send it.
Request our operator agreementBreach notification. If we become aware of a compromise affecting your firm’s data, we tell your firm within 72 hours, so you can notify the Information Regulator and the clients affected, as section 22 requires.
03Security safeguards
What we have in place today, under POPIA section 19:
- Everything between your browser and Caseo is encrypted in transit (TLS).
- Every matter keeps a history of what happened to it, including trust transfers and statements issued, and who did it.
04Sub-processors
The providers that process data on our behalf:
| Provider | Purpose | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Convex | Application database and backend (matters, clients, trust records, documents) | United States |
| Vercel | Serves the web app (no client records stored) | Global edge |
| Clerk | Sign-in and identity for firm staff | United States |
| Resend | Transactional email | United States / EU |
| PostHog | Product analytics (no client records) | United States |
| Meta | Ad attribution on caseo.co.za marketing pages only, after you accept cookies; never inside the app | United States |
| Google Ads conversion tag on caseo.co.za marketing pages only, after you accept cookies; never inside the app | United States |
Where a provider is outside South Africa, we rely on POPIA section 72 through data processing agreements with each provider.
05Trust accounting: LPC Rule 54
What the rule requires, what Caseo does about it, and what stays with your firm.
| Rule | Requirement | Caseo | Your firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 54.14.9 / 54.14.11 | No trust creditor may ever be in debit. A debit must be reported to the Council. | Blocks any trust payment or transfer that would take a matter's trust balance below zero. | Reports any debit to the LPC in writing. |
| 54.14.13 | Money received in advance for fees or disbursements goes to trust. | Keeps separate trust and business ledgers on every matter, so each receipt is recorded against the right account. | Deposits money into the correct bank account. |
| 54.11.1 / 54.11.2 | Transfer from trust to business at least monthly, and never more than is due. | Won't let a trust-to-business transfer exceed the fees and disbursements outstanding on the matter. | Makes the transfers, at least monthly. |
| 54.12 | A written statement of account covering receipts, disbursements, fees (stating agreed fees) and the amount owing. Keep a copy for five years. | Produces a per-matter statement of account covering trust and business, discloses agreed fees, and archives every statement exactly as issued. | Sends the statement to the client. |
| Monthly reconciliation | The trust bank balance must equal the total owed to trust creditors. | Imports your bank statement and matches it line by line against the ledger. | Reviews and signs off the reconciliation every month. |
Caseo is built around Rule 54. Compliance remains your firm’s responsibility, and your auditor’s sign-off is what counts.
06FICA
Attorneys are accountable institutions under Schedule 1 of the FIC Act. The Act requires client identification and verification records to be kept for at least five years after the business relationship ends.
- Caseo keeps a FICA record for each client: identity verification and its date, PEP and sanctions screening with results, a risk rating, and the next review date.
Your firm stays responsible for its Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP) and for reporting to the Financial Intelligence Centre.
07Confidentiality and privilege
- Caseo staff are bound by confidentiality. We don’t access your firm’s data except to deliver support you ask for.
- We never sell your data, and we never use it to train AI models.
- Legal privilege stays with your firm and your clients.
08Your data, and leaving
- Your firm owns its data.
- On request, we export your matters, clients, trust ledgers and documents within 30 days.
- When you leave, we return or delete your data within 30 days, except records the law requires to be kept (LPC and FICA records, five years), which we hand over to you.
09Documents
10Contact
Our Information Officer is Nakai Farid Williams, at privacy@caseo.co.za. Questions from your auditor or compliance officer are welcome.
See also our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.