DURBAN, 20 June 2019 – Media Release by LexisNexis Pretoria based attorney, Gert Nel of independent law firm, Gert Nel Inc, recently scooped the 2018 LexisNexis Prize for Legal Practitioners for the best article by a practising attorney published in De Rebus, the official journal of the attorneys profession. His winning article, Decoding s 2(1)(a) and (b) of the Contingency Fees Act, was published in the June 2018 edition of De Rebus.  It focused on several issues, including the origin of contingency fees, foreign law, incentives for legal practitioners, the reasonability of fees and how the fees should be calculated. Nel said he wrote the article to serve as a reference and a practical guideline to be used by any practitioner engaging clients on a contingency fees basis. “The correct interpretation of Section 2(1)(a) and (b) of the Contingency Fees Act 66 of 1997 (CFA) has always been a contentious

21 June 2019 – By Zelda Venter on iol.co.za Pretoria – A practice directive to regulate case management and the enrolment of trials at the Gauteng High Courts, Pretoria and Johannesburg, has the legal fraternity up in arms, with them saying rather than alleviate congested court rolls, it will have a devastating effect on the public who wish to bring their cases before the courts. Judge President Dunstan Mlambo this week issued a lengthy document on how cases will be managed from July 1. This document contains step-by-step directives of what must be done before a civil trial can start. Attorneys who unreasonably frustrate the objectives of the judicial case management process can face a punitive costs order against them. They may even be prevented from charging clients a fee. Judge Mlambo said in the directive the objective of these measures was in the interest of justice, and meant to alleviate

15 June 2019 – By Zelda Venter on iol.co.za Pretoria – The MEC for Health in Mpumalanga has agreed to pay more than R15.7 million in damages to the mother of a 6-year-old boy who is blind after the nursing staff at the Witbank Provincial Hospital exposed him to too much oxygen when he was born. Renier van Aswegen’s mother, Mary Rossouw, initially claimed more than R19m in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. The health authorities accepted full liability for his blindness and this week agreed to pay a total of R15 714 628 in damages. This amount included R9.7m for Renier’s future medical expenses and R1.4m for general damages. The money will be held in a trust and used as and when the child needs it to make his life easier. The family live on a farm in the Delmas area. Renier was born prematurely – at 33 weeks –

23 May 2019  Some of the 6 000 file backlog in the office of deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba are more than 10 years old. In many cases the medico-legal expert reports have lapsed and taxpayer money will have to pay for the duplication of reviews and reports. A “practice directive” from Ledwaba’s office aimed at clearing up the delays says a trial-readiness certificate can only be obtained if applications have signed pre-trial minutes, expert reports and joint minutes from the resulting judicial certification meeting. The deputy judge president has the executive power to remove a matter from the court roll, as has happened with many RAF cases.  Legal experts says the process is inconsistent and prejudices clients who were part of older directives, as their cases no longer comply. This new directive is supposed to attend to the backlog, but it is not practical and there is no sense

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) runs a campaign in terms of which they encourage the public to “claim directly” from the Road Accident Fund. A “direct claim” refers to a claim lodged, by a road crash victim, directly with the RAF without the assistance of a legal practitioner. By acting in this manner, the RAF stands in the shoes of a legal practitioner and in doing so assumes a position in which they now have a duty of due diligence and professional care. The RAF, as an organ of state, is subordinate to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of South Africa, which holds that the RAF, should refrain from interfering with, amongst others, the right of access to court and the right to bodily integrity of the victims of motor vehicle accidents. It is expected of organs of state, like the RAF, to act reasonably and to treat