Success Stories

Our client's infant child was permanently disabled due to negligence at Chipata Level One Hospital, where nurses wrongly inserted a cannula into the baby's arm, ultimately resulting in amputation.

NLACW commenced action in 2024. The state initially denied liability, citing the fact that the child had first been seen at a private clinic. After two witnesses testified from our side, and mid-way through trial, the Attorney General agreed to enter into a consent settlement.

Our clients, a mother and daughter, were charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm on their neighbour. The court found the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the mother (Accused No. 2) and she was acquitted.

The daughter (Accused No. 1) was convicted. After mitigation, she was ordered to pay a fine of K500, with six months' simple imprisonment in default. The convict paid the fine that same day.

Our client was charged with assault on her own child. She acknowledged she had negligently struck the child but had no intention of causing harm.

Following several meetings between NLACW, the complainant, and the prosecutor, the matter was resolved out of court. When the case returned for hearing, the Magistrate discharged our client.

Our client was detained in police cells for six hours after being mistaken for another person. It was a case of false identity — she was never the intended suspect. She suffered mental distress and anxiety during the detention.

NLACW helped her sue the Attorney General for false imprisonment.

Our client HC, a full-time housewife married for nearly thirty years and mother of three, was charged with murder in the High Court following the sudden death of her husband at their matrimonial home on 30th July 2024 in Choma District.

Her husband HM, a ZNS employee with a history of heavy drinking, was brought home heavily intoxicated that evening. While closing windows in the kitchen, she heard a thud and her husband cry out — he had collapsed in his bedroom. His condition worsened through the night, and despite efforts to seek help, HM was pronounced dead on arrival. A postmortem indicated the cause of death as a ruptured heart, possibly caused by blunt trauma. HC was subsequently arrested.

NLACW defended her throughout the trial, opposing the state version that HC had struck her husband with a side table, and presenting her own account of events.

During the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence in 2025, NLACW was invited by Youth Alive to conduct a sensitisation meeting with market traders at Ngwenya market in Livingstone. During the session, a marketer raised concern about a 7-year-old girl who was regularly seen at the market begging for food, dancing in bars, and sleeping at funeral houses.

The market chairlady brought the girl to NLACW attention. Immediate action was taken — NLACW engaged the market chairperson and reported the matter to Mbita Police. The girl mother was traced and detained on police bond.

The child disclosed that she had been sexually abused by multiple men within Ngwenya compound and that her mother alcoholism had left her without care. The girl had suffered psychological, sexual, and economic abuse.

Our client, a widow, inherited four pieces of land in Ellaine Brittel Township, Livingstone. In 2021, officers from Livingstone City Council forcibly entered the property, broke down the gate, and demolished part of the perimeter wall — claiming she had encroached on an adjacent plot.

The damage left her property exposed to thieves and local delinquents. Despite multiple complaints to the Council from 2021 onwards, and a Council undertaking to repair the damage totalling K79,925.00, the Council gave her nothing but excuses for four years.

In 2025, NLACW helped the client commence legal action against the Council.

VKSS, 38, a resident of Monze District, came to NLACW in February 2022. In November 2021, in desperate need of a soft loan, she was introduced to a man known locally as a moneylender. He agreed to lend her K30,000.00 at 50% interest, with her plot as collateral.

Without her full understanding, she was made to sign a document she was told was just a formality — it was in fact a contract of sale for her property. When she attempted to make her first payment, he refused it and declared the contract terminated. He began issuing eviction notices to her tenants. When she confronted him, he demanded sexual intercourse in exchange for returning her property documents. She refused and engaged NLACW.

NLACW filed a Writ of Summons, advised the client to have her property valued (valued at K350,000.00), and cross-examined the Defendant, exposing contradictions in his account.

BB, a 27-year-old woman from Nalolo District, was charged with unlawful possession of prohibited articles — specifically 7.62mm ammunition — after ZAWA officers conducted a search of her home on the night of 21st October 2024.

BB was home alone with her young child when five men identifying themselves as ZAWA officers arrived, looking for her husband. Despite nothing being found in her hut, she was allegedly threatened, physically assaulted, and forced to accompany the officers to Senanga on foot — carrying her 1-year-8-month-old child through the night. She was detained in police cells before NLACW paralegal officer Mr. Boyd Mumeka successfully applied for her police bond.

NLACW staff travelled to Senanga to represent BB at trial. Through cross-examination, NLACW established that BB was not the target of the operation — her husband was.

Our client JP was sued for eviction from land legally belonging to the plaintiffs father. She came to the Clinic on recommendation from the judiciary. Upon taking her instructions, it emerged that although the plaintiffs held title to the land, our client late father — who had lived on the property — had never been paid his employment benefits.

Both parties agreed that the father was indeed owed these benefits. A consent agreement was reached.

Our client was referred to the Lusaka office from the Ndola SLO. She sought legal help to access her share of her late father estate, which her stepmother was withholding and refusing to share.

Recognising this as a family matter, NLACW pursued mediation before litigation. A meeting was convened and agreement was reached that the matrimonial house — which the stepmother had wanted to sell unilaterally — should be sold at fair market value and our client given her rightful share.

Our client was charged with theft of groceries from a supermarket. She had a medical report confirming she was on anti-depressants and had simply forgotten to pay. Despite this evidence, the supermarket insisted on prosecution.

Recognising her distress, she was first seen by a counsellor before legal representation was arranged. Our legal officer represented her in court and filed written submissions arguing lack of criminal intent.

Our client sought a protection order from her husband who had been physically and mentally abusing her. Although separated, he continued to harass her with threats and abusive language. She had just given birth and needed immediate protection.

NLACW referred her first to a counsellor, then prepared and filed for a protection order. She was represented at trial.

Our client had been granted custody of her three daughters (aged 10, 6, and 3) following dissolution of marriage at the Local Court in Lusaka. Her former husband asked to see the children, then took them and fled to Kitwe, where he commenced a fresh custody action at the Kitwe Subordinate Court.

NLACW immediately filed an Affidavit in Opposition and raised a preliminary objection based on the existing Lusaka judgment.

When our clients father died, their stepmother — appointed co-administrator of the estate — refused to acknowledge them as beneficiaries and collected a portion of the deceased employer benefits without sharing them.

NLACW represented the children and fought for their inheritance rights. The court referred the matter to mediation.

Our client worked for a Chinese gambling company managing coin machines across several outlets. When one of the company directors died, relatives gave her ten machines as appreciation for her service. Fellow employees reported to the company that she was using company machines for her private business and she was charged with theft by servant — an offence carrying up to seven years imprisonment.

NLACW defended the client at trial. Legal officers cross-examined five prosecution witnesses and called our client and one defence witness.

Our client had a tenant who refused to pay rent and would not vacate her property, despite written notice. The tenant — who had also accumulated substantial water bill arrears — threatened to kill our client if she came near the house.

Our client was referred to NLACW by someone at the court. We commenced proceedings in the Subordinate Court.

We helped our client sue for specific performance after she entered into a contract of sale for a plot with a real estate company in 2020. The company failed to transfer the plot to her — it was discovered they had sold the same plot to two other buyers.

Our client husband appealed in the Kabwe High Court, arguing that the Subordinate Court had wrongly ordered property sharing because the parties were merely cohabiting and were never married. He also disputed paying lobola, citing the absence of a written agreement.

NLACW managed to prove to the court that the parties were married and that lobola had in fact been paid.

Our client, an elderly woman aged 72, had been widowed since 2009 and was raising the family children alone. One of her daughters had been abusing her and making false accusations against her regarding the family home.

NLACW prepared the necessary documents and filed for a protection and occupation order with the assistance of a paralegal officer in Lundazi. Despite the daughter being represented by Legal Aid Board counsel, our client was successfully granted the protection and occupation order.

Our client from Lundazi came to the clinic after her husband abandoned her with five children, took possession of the matrimonial house, and planned to sell it and leave her with nothing.

Despite the husband being represented by the only lawyer in the district, NLACW prepared the appeal and all necessary arguments and submissions.