The high court in Pretoria has for the second time scrapped the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF’s) attempts to impose onerous new requirements on traffic accident victims seeking compensation from the fund.
In a judgment handed down on Wednesday, a full bench ruled that a board notice and linked RAF1 form published in May 2022 setting out new requirements for lodging claims were unlawful and set them aside. The court ordered the transport minister to devise a new version within six months, and said claimants who had failed to meet these mandatory requirements could resubmit their claims using the simpler RAF1 form that was brought into effect in 2008. The ruling has wide-reaching implications, as tens of thousands of unsuccessful claimants may now have a second chance at securing compensation for their injuries…