RAF plans to continue with out-of-court settlements to ensure payouts are not squandered on legal fees
RAF increased its settlement agreements by 20% in the past three years, settling 82% of all claims in the 2023/24 period.
Road Accident Fund buttons. Picture: Road Accident Fund/Facebook
JOHANNESBURG - The Road Accident Fund (RAF) said that it would continue to attempt to settle matters out of court to ensure payouts were not squandered on legal fees.
RAF increased its settlement agreements by 20% in the past three years, settling 82% of all claims in the 2023/24 period.
RAF said that unscrupulous law firms perceived the social benefit scheme as a cash cow.
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It is for this reason that the RAF is trying to negate legal battles and settle with claimants out of court.
Speaking at a briefing, RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo, provided an example of how law firms were milking the system at the detriment of those claiming from the social benefit scheme.
He said that in one instance, a person claiming R241,000 from the RAF was slapped with a R768,000 legal bill.
"This is money that someone lost by not working and that money comes as a replacement of that salary and the lawyer takes all of it and I still owe the lawyer... an interesting phenomenon," said Letsoalo.
He said that it was for this reason the RAF was trying to reduce litigation.
RAF spent R3.9 billion on legal fees in the 2023/24 period, saving R24 billion in the past four years on legal costs.