ZELDA VENTER – 29 Jun 2020 Pretoria News IN the wake of a legal battle between 103 law firms whose contracts as in-house attorneys for the Road Accident Fund (RAF) the entity is trying to terminate, it is also trying to find a way to streamline its business, while saving costs. The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, recently ruled on various applications in which the attorneys tried to overturn the decision by the fund to no longer use an in-house panel to act on its behalf against the public. In the latest judgment, Judge Wendy Hughes ordered that the RAF retain the services of its panel of attorneys for at least the next six months – to safeguard the rights of those embroiled in legal proceedings against the RAF. The RAF subsequently unsuccessfully applied for leave to appeal against this judgment. It stated at least 19 grounds on which it felt

Phillip de Wet , Business Insider SA Jun 05, 2020 Sourced from: Business Insider A new draft law seeks to change the definition of a bicycle in South Africa, to include e-bikes – but only if they can go no faster than 25km/h. And e-bikes that go faster than 45km/h may require a licence to drive, just like a motorbike. That could have implications for safety, insurance, who gets to use bike lanes, and how legally dangerous it will be to overclock an e-bike. For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za. South Africa will be getting a new definition of what qualifies as a bicycle, if the transport department gets its way. The National Road Traffic Amendment Bill, published this week, notably seeks to set the drunk-driving limit in South Africa to zero, potentially meaning drivers will have to watch what they drink the night before getting behind the wheel to go to work. But

Pretoria – In an order which could save billions of rand in expenses, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, dismissed an application by 42 law firms to remain as lawyers for the Road Accident Fund (RAF). The firms turned to the court to obtain an urgent interdict after the RAF demanded that they had to hand back all case files regarding the claims they are handling on its behalf. The RAF’s five-year service level agreement with about 103 law firms to act on its behalf in claims instituted by the public had come to an end at the end of November. The RAF then asked the lawyers to hand back the case files, as it wanted to try to see whether some of the cases can be settled. This is with the aim of saving costs and for its cases to be streamlined. According to the RAF, the panel of lawyers

20 September 2019 – By Dan Meyer on timeslive.co.za A Pretoria law firm will launch an application at the Pretoria High Court to overturn a practice directive that it believes is leaving cases left to perish in an ever mounting backlog and the risk of enormous administrative costs. A law firm is going to the high court in Pretoria in a bid to overturn a practice directive it believes will worsen a massive case backlog in the courts. Gert Nel attorneys, which manages thousands of road accident victim cases in an attempt to resolve appropriate settlements in court, as opposed to direct settlements claimed through the Road Accident Fund (RAF), argue that the directive is overly laborious and will result in a backlog of about 6,000 cases continuing to pile up. The directive affects personal injury cases. “[Our firm] intends to file an application to have the so-called ‘Practice Directive 2’,

20 September 2019 – By Zelda Venter in Pretoria News A PRETORIA law firm which specialises on Road Accident Fund (RAF) claims has launched an application in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to overturn a practice directive. Gert Nel Inc is arguing that the directive will micro-manage personal injury cases to such an extent that the public will have great difficulty in having their day in court. The firm will take on these directives in the same court where the directive has been established and has been practised since July 1. It is expected that a full bench – three judges – from a different division, will hear the application. This practice directive is aimed at personal injury cases such as RAF claims, medical negligence and claims following train accidents. Judge President Dunstan Mlambo earlier issued a lengthy document on how cases would be managed from now on. This document

28 June 2019 – By Zelda Venter on iol.co.za Pretoria – No win, no fee – the so-called contingency fee arrangement between lawyers and the cash-strapped public who wish to institute a claim following an injury or other harm – is often a contentious issue, but this subject saw leading Pretoria lawyer Gert Nel scooping a prestigious legal award. Nel, of the law firm Gert Nel Inc, won the 2018 LexisNexis prize for the best article by a practising attorney published in De Rebus, the official journal of the attorney’s profession. This was his first ever article submitted to De Rebus and the first prize he has ever won. “The main aim of the article was to somehow contribute in addressing the long debated issue of what would be regarded as an acceptable or reasonable interpretation and application of the Contingency Fees Act,” Nel said. Lawyers are often asked by