Road accident victims win first round in their fight against RAF

IN A groundbreaking first step, the court has given the green light for claims to be lodged with the Road Accident Fund (RAF) for now without all documents.

The decision will prevent millions of RAF claims from lapsing before claimants are able to submit all the documents, as required under a new directive.

The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, has ordered the RAF to stop enforcing a practice directive issued and promulgated earlier this year stipulating the terms and conditions under which claims for compensation will be administered.

Judge Norman Davis ruled that this was an interim order, which would remain in force until the matter returned to court for an order to review and finally set aside the practice directive and notice.

The effect of the interim order is that the RAF cannot refuse any victim of a road accident from lodging their claims. This is irrespective of whether they have all the documentation – such as full accident and medical reports at hand at the stage of lodging their claims.

For the past few months, the RAF steadfastly refused to receive any new claims if the claimants or their lawyers did not have each and every document on hand at the time of lodging claims.

In its directive, the RAF attached a long list of requirements before claims could be lodged. Apart from the fact that the law precluded the RAF from accepting new claims, both lawyers and claimants said it was simply impossible to have all the documents ready at the time of lodging a claim.

While it takes a long time to obtain

full accident reports from a police station – especially during the Covid-19 pandemic – it is also costly and often difficult to obtain full medical reports.

In the past, claims were lodged while awaiting all the required reports – some of which the RAF is said to obtain through its staff.

One of the biggest challenges faced by the directive and notice was that claims could lapse if they were not lodged in time. A claim must be lodged within three years from the date of the accident.

Seven accident victims, represented by Adams & Adams attorney JP Rudd, lodged an urgent application against the RAF in which they argued that both the directive and the more recent notice in the Government Gazette – setting out the new requirements to lodge claims – were unlawful.