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The Road Accident Fund has welcomed a recent Limpopo High Court ruling in which an R11 million claim was reduced by over 90%.
This was after acting judge E Mashamba significantly reduced the claim by a mother for her young daughter who was injured in an accident in 2015 while walking to the shop.
RAF CEO, Collins Letsoalo, said the judge had found disparities in the reports of the medical specialists during the hearing and reduced the claim to R800 000.
“The court decided that the child’s injuries were unlikely to adversely impact her school performance, or future loss of earnings.
The only information the court found credible was that of the clinical psychologist, who stated the child has post traumatic disorder and psychosocial problems,” he said.
He said the court found these problems probably only have a slight effect on the child’s future income.
“Based on the judgement, it is abundantly clear that lawyers who represented the claimant recommended and guided the mother for the child to be sent to many specialists, despite the injuries being minor,” he said.
Letsoalo said “most legal practitioners attempt to extract as much cash as possible from the State entity, an unethical and sometimes criminal practice that affects the RAF and is grossly unfair to other claimants.”
He added that while the RAF was “not apportioning criminal blame to the law firm that represented the woman, they should nevertheless be ashamed of themselves for creating expectations to the mother that she was in for a huge cash windfall.”
"The disparity between the R11 million and R800 000 “is proof enough that there was probably unethical conduct involved,” the RAF CEO said.
