Publications
Partners
Various associations are uniting to challenge parts of the Road Accident Fund Amendment Act and will make their voices heard in the Constitutional Court on Thursday.
The Quad Para Association of SA (Qasa), the SA Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (Saapil) and the Johannesburg Attorney's Association (JAA) said on Wednesday they will be joining the Law Society of SA (LSSA) in challenging the amendment act.
"Government is... harshly discriminating against road accident victims by depriving over 90 percent of victims from receiving any compensation for a lifetime of pain and suffering," said Ronald Bobroff, Saapil president, and Jacques Tarica, JAA chairman, in a joint statement.
Eleven organisations have joined as co-applicants in challenging the act.
Ari Seirlis, spokesman for Qasa, said the act deprives the victim of the "opportunity to claim cost of private health care and therefore will be at the mercy of the under-resourced state healthcare system".
There are about 20,000 victims of road accidents every month.
The organisations will petition the Constitutional Court on Thursday to hear their application for direct access so they can "present argument to the court on various constitutional challenges to the Road Accident Fund Amendment Act and Regulations", said LSSA's road accident fund committee chairwoman, Jacqui Sohn.
If the application is granted, the appeal against the judgment by the High Court in Johannesburg on March 31 will be heard there and then.
The LSSA said the amendment act not only radically reduced the benefits that RAF paid to victims of road accidents, but also deprived them of the right to claim compensation.
The Road Accident Fund Act of 1996 was changed by the Road Accident Fund Amendment Act of 2005 and came into effect in August 2008.
Before the amendment became law, motorists and public carriers were liable to compensate their passengers in full for the damages suffered by them.
Qasa said victims of road accidents who are quadriplegics and paraplegics "now have the noose of the amended act around their necks".
It called on the minister of transport to acknowledge this "and begs the integrity, understanding and compassion from the judges in the Constitutional Court, when hearing this case".
The Quad Para Association of SA (Qasa), the SA Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (Saapil) and the Johannesburg Attorney's Association (JAA) said on Wednesday they will be joining the Law Society of SA (LSSA) in challenging the amendment act.
"Government is... harshly discriminating against road accident victims by depriving over 90 percent of victims from receiving any compensation for a lifetime of pain and suffering," said Ronald Bobroff, Saapil president, and Jacques Tarica, JAA chairman, in a joint statement.
Eleven organisations have joined as co-applicants in challenging the act.
Ari Seirlis, spokesman for Qasa, said the act deprives the victim of the "opportunity to claim cost of private health care and therefore will be at the mercy of the under-resourced state healthcare system".
There are about 20,000 victims of road accidents every month.
The organisations will petition the Constitutional Court on Thursday to hear their application for direct access so they can "present argument to the court on various constitutional challenges to the Road Accident Fund Amendment Act and Regulations", said LSSA's road accident fund committee chairwoman, Jacqui Sohn.
If the application is granted, the appeal against the judgment by the High Court in Johannesburg on March 31 will be heard there and then.
The LSSA said the amendment act not only radically reduced the benefits that RAF paid to victims of road accidents, but also deprived them of the right to claim compensation.
The Road Accident Fund Act of 1996 was changed by the Road Accident Fund Amendment Act of 2005 and came into effect in August 2008.
Before the amendment became law, motorists and public carriers were liable to compensate their passengers in full for the damages suffered by them.
Qasa said victims of road accidents who are quadriplegics and paraplegics "now have the noose of the amended act around their necks".
It called on the minister of transport to acknowledge this "and begs the integrity, understanding and compassion from the judges in the Constitutional Court, when hearing this case".
