Written by Lerato Mutsila | Published on 21 June 2023 The Law Society of South Africa has expressed concern about the Road Accident Fund’s treatment of lawyers lining up outside its offices. The Law Society accused RAF of subjecting the lawyers to unfair conditions and delaying justice for their clients The lawyers camped overnight to settle their client’s cases, only for RAF to fail to open its office doors The Law Society has slammed RAF for subjecting the lawyers to unfair treatment and impeding accident victims’ access to justice. Throngs of lawyers have had to endure long lines outside the RAF offices at Sammy Marks Square in Pretoria since noon on Sunday, 18 June, to negotiate block settlements. This comes after RAF released a notice informing legal practitioners about the dates and venues for block settlements. The notice indicated that the negotiations would be on a “first-come, first-served” basis. Committed

Written by Zelda Venter | Published on 21 June 2023 Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA) Pretoria – Hundreds of lawyers, desperate to have their clients’ claims settled directly with the Road Accident Fund (RAF), were again waiting for service yesterday after camping overnight outside Sammy Marks Square in the Pretoria CBD. While things were moving slightly yesterday after a futile overnight wait on Monday, the process was still painfully slow with the queues hardly moving. Proceedings were slow because only a few firms were allowed in at a time; and it took at least two hours for RAF staff to negotiate with each firm. The lawyers did not want to miss out on the opportunity to respond to the RAF’s recent invitation to negotiate block settlements, and again braved the bitter cold night to be first in line when the offices opened yesterday morning.Some posted videos of queues stretching

Written by Jonisayi Maromo | Published on 21 June 2023 File Picture: Jacques Naude / African News Agency (ANA) Pretoria – The Law Society of South Africa has expressed concern over the treatment of throngs of legal practitioners who queued at Sammy Marks Square in the Pretoria CBD in a bid to take up the offer from the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to negotiate block settlements for their clients who are accident victims. The RAF had sent a notice to legal practitioners indicating the dates and venues for block settlements. However, these negotiations would be on a “first come, first served” basis. Legal practitioners queued up since noon on Sunday, 18 June in order to be first in line on Monday. “On 19 June, the RAF offices remained closed and legal practitioners were informed that the offices will open on Tuesday, 20 June. Police were called in when legal practitioners

Written by Zelda Venter | Published on 20 June 2023 Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA) Pretoria – Chaos erupted yesterday as hundreds of attorneys queued at Sammy Marks Square in the Pretoria CBD, to take up the offer from the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to negotiate block settlements for accident victims. Several attorneys who did not want to be identified for fear of victimisation, told the Pretoria News that they had been queuing at the venue since noon on Sunday. “We did this to ensure a place in the queue as the RAF said it will be on a first come, first serve basis,” one of the attorneys said. According to her, she and her colleagues took turns to stand in the queue. To make matters worse, nothing came of their efforts, as the office set up by the RAF on the first floor of the Sammy Marks Convention

Written by Zelda Venter | 11 May 2023 Pretoria – A full Bench (three judges) of the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, this week heard arguments by several Road Accident Fund (RAF) claimants, asking that directives issued by the entity which places obstacles in the way of issuing new claims to be overturned. It was argued on behalf of the eight claimants who turned to the courts, that the directives make it nearly impossible to lodge claims and that the RAF is infringing on the constitutional rights of claimants. In terms of these directives and an amended claim form, claimants must attach a host of documents, such as a comprehensive accident report and hospital and medical records, before they are allowed to even lodge it. The court was asked to set aside the requirement for all the compulsory information before being able to lodge a claim. In a first step, the

Email from Gert Nel Sent: 14 April 2023 08:55am Dear V Dhulam, Thank you for the prompt reply. We are however concerned that an otherwise urgent matter is met with little or no reasonable response, each passing day adding to the already top heavy and dire situation. We are totally aware of the procedural requirements but are now at a point where we would require that you start extending the Applicants the courtesy of a feasible timeframe in which to expect your clients response, surely the prescribed dies applies to all parties involved? Having regard to the above we respectfully require you to favour us with a more substantial reply within the next 7 (seven) days. Yours Truly, Gert Nel Reply from Vijay Dhulam Sent: 18 April 2023 12:55am Dear Sir We take note of your email. Our clients instruction is to await the court’s directive in terms of Rule

Email from Gert Nel Sent: 13 April 2023 14:26pm Dear V Dhulam, Your ref.: 0252/22/P14/mp The above mentioned matter and our letter addressed to the Honourable Chief Justice, dated the 24th of February 2023, refers. We confirm, not having received the courtesy of a reply to the said letter nor anyformal reply, in the form of apposing papers or otherwise. Having regard to the urgent and serious nature of the application, we respectfully submit that we would be pleased to receive your further advices within 7 (seven) days of this letter, in the absence of which we will reconvene to consider remaining remedies available to ensure that our client’s constitutional rights are protected. Yours Truly, Gert Nel Reply from Vijay Dhulam Sent: 13 April 2023 14:56pm Dear sir We do apologise for not responding to your previous correspondence. We have filed our notice to oppose in terms of the rules