The application primarily aims to have the civil trial date and default judgment application processes adopted by the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Pretoria, declared unconstitutional and invalid. These processes are regulated by a number of practice directives, the implementation of which has had the ultimate effect of infringing upon the applicants’ constitutionally enshrined rights to equality, human dignity, and access to courts. The applicants cited are but six of thousands of victims who have suffered injury or loss as a result of the negligent or otherwise wrongful driving of motor vehicles and are impeded from obtaining speedy, just, and equitable relief.
Gert Nel Inc’s application to the Constitutional Court, filed on 14 December 2022, is one of direct access to the apex court in terms of section 167(6)(a) of the Constitution and is governed by rule 18 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court.
In terms of rule 18(3), respondents had until 25 January 2023 to notify the applicants as well as the Registrar of their intention to oppose the application. Only four of the ten respondents elected to do so.
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.
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.
While the legal fraternity describe the claims process as chaos, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) says order had been restored. The lawyers camped outside Sammy Marks Square for two days this week to try to get a spot to settle RAF claims on behalf of their clients. Attorneys are so upset about the fact there was no structure to the process of block settlements to which they were invited by the RAF, that the Pretoria Attorneys’ Association asked the Legal Practice Council to intervene in the “unfortunate situation”.