THE DRAMA BEHIND THE ROAD ACCIDENT FUND
21.08.20
The struggle started when the Acting CEO of Road Accident Fund, Collins Letsoalo, decided not to renew the tender to appoint panel attorneys to act on its behalf, in essence, firing about 103 legal firms throughout South Africa.
The fund states that it no longer requires costly panel attorneys and has allegedly implemented various strategies to settle claims on its own without any legal assistance. The aim is to save on billions of legal fees.
The Road Accident Fund proceeded to cancel their panel attorneys’ contracts and ordered them to hand over all their files. Over 42 of the panel attorneys took the Road Accident Fund to court in order to review and overturn the decision to no longer make use of panel attorneys.
The first difficulty is, that on application to court, Judge Norman Davis ordered them to immediately hand back all the files to the fund.
A second application was then brought by panel attorneys, Fourie Fismer Inc. and others, requesting that the decision by the fund to dispense with the services of the panel attorneys, be reviewed and set aside and further,to be declared unconstitutionally invalid.
On 1 June 2020 Judge Hughes ordered that the fund’s panel attorneys continue to serve on the panel for the next 6 months from date of the order.
Despite this order, the fund is still not allowing the panel attorneys to work on the files and is not giving any panel attorneys any instructions to do so. The fund is therefore in contempt of court as it is completely ignoring the judgment of the Honorable Judge Hughes.
The fund then brought an application for leave to appeal which was dismissed, with costs, by Judge Hughes.
The panel attorneys have now brought an application in terms of Section 18(3) of the Superior Courts Act,requesting the court to put into operation the orders granted by Judge Hughes on 1 June 2020.
The outcome of the application is awaited by the panel attorneys.
The fund has caused dire consequences for most panel attorneys as thousands of firms will have to be restructured and many attorneys and support staff face retrenchment and job losses.
The fund, in its court papers, has alleged that it is capable of dealing with all Road Accident Fund claims without the use of panel attorneys, but is this really the case? A most recent Judgment of KD Dichabe versus the Road Accident Fund, seems to reflect otherwise.
In this matter before the Honorable Judge Neukircher,the Plaintiff’s legal representative set the matter down for trial on 2 June 2020 for damages arising out of a motor vehicle collision. The claim is on behalf of a minor child. On the day of trial there was no appearance by the fund or their representative. The Plaintiff’s attorney argued that the matter should proceed by default as the fund was well informed of the trial date and that he was ready to proceed with the matter.
The Judge was faced with a difficult decision and stood the matter down for trial to be continued on 9 June 2020 at 10h00 in order for the Plaintiff’s representative to communicate with the fund and inform them that the matter would continue with or without them.
Despite notice to the fund on 2 June, 3 June and 8 June 2020, there was no appearance by any RAF official or representative on 9 June 2020 and the matter therefore proceeded in default of the funds appearance.
The matter proceeded without any appearance for the Defendant and judgment was granted in favour of the Plaintiff in the amount of R7 476 619 – 75(seven million four hundred seventy six thousand six hundred and nineteen rand and seventy five cents).
In the circumstances, it is difficult to comprehend the Road Accident Fund continuing to operate unrepresented. The court system, the Claimants and the panel attorneys are all seem to be negatively impacted by the current uncertainty with regards to the alleged “new modeled” Road Accident Fund system.
In the interim, the panel attorneys anxiously await the outcome of the Section 18(3) Application, enabling them to continue working on their files for the next six (6) months.
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