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Divorce, Maintenance, Personal Injury, Medical Negligence
Defendant lawyers not preparing for cases properly
I read an interesting article recently about a case that a motorcyclist, who became a paraplegic 25 years ago as a result of a pothole, has against the City of Durban. The attorneys delayed the case and proceeded slowly with it so that they could bring it at a time when the laws were more favourable. In 2011 the City of Durban conceded liability and agreed to pay 75% of the claim of Scott Taylor. They had issued the summons timeously in 1990 and so clearly they have played a great tactical game, but are very upset now that with the case set down for trial in late August, the City of Durban has not arranged for the client to go for a single medico legal expert appointment of their own.
They have not arranged for Scott to go and see their own medical experts, so at the moment the case will proceed without the benefit of their own experts. That is a very similar situation to what we often face against the Road Accident Fund, although typically speaking these days they do use their own doctors more often than not, and certainly some defendant firms are far better organized and ready than others. In many cases however when one gets to court, the other side, who have known about the trial date for at least a year, suddenly say that they now need to send the client to their own experts and that obviously then leads to most unfortunate and unfair delays. The courts obviously want to ensure that the litigants are able to present their case properly, and have to give them a postponement in most cases in order to do so.
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Wednesday 28-May-14
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Comments
Bilankulu said:
on Friday 28-Nov-14 02:18 AM
As attorneys we forget that we were sworn in to do justice and not to frustrate.Mafia strategy is totaly
not acceptable in this industry.If the defending attorneys think piling up the debt anyhow is doing justice to their client(RAF),they must rethink.There is no point in delaying the defeat at your own cost.This strategy is not working.Please lets not just implement wrong defense mechanism in the name of legal costs.
In some cases all heads of damages were long settled directly with the fund but some defending attorneys still appoint experts to quantify the claim which has been settled
only waiting to be made an order of Court,which confirms either laziness,mafia strategy,not following up on the matter or an abuse of RAF resources on their part.
Please Professionals,do the right thing.
shaun said:
on Tuesday 17-Jun-14 11:46 AM
2007 i was on a motor bike involved in a accident. The attorneys helped me out at first i thought oky well lets go with them. Not knowing anyth7ng about the law i was 17 at the time . I broke my pelvis in 2 places had a head injury a lazy left eye and today i am fighting to get a job where i can sit or stand as i want. Only 2013 they the raf paid out only 357k now this was after the attorneys lost my file for more then a year they said this was paid out for injury and loss of income and to take care of myself till i get a job. Looking into it i feel hard done and have new attorneys looking into this matter . Nothing made sence at the time now looking at it i know for a fact david from norman attorneys will be able to help me with the matter.
Thabitha said:
on Thursday 29-May-14 08:52 AM
The client is been reminded of the accident for 25 years this is nonsense really
Sorea said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 04:27 PM
That is nicely done Anna. Not every day that you hear that the Court has taken a hard line with the Defendant attorneys. I suppose the Courts are also starting to get irritated with the stalling techniques employed by certain Defendant Firms.
Jade said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 03:32 PM
This is an injustice to the legal system and the claimants themselves. All of the clients that I have spoken to whether on one of my small matters, or a client on Anna's matters have all said that they just want to put the accident behind them but until such a time that the matter is resolved in court, they feel as if they can't. It doesn't have to take as long as 4 years or even more. Most of these matters could have been settled even before court, but for the poor work ethic of defendants attorneys.
Another trend for defendant attorneys is to not pitch up for their pre-trials before the judge despite personally sending them the notification and calling them to remind them the day before. Pure laziness.
I am hopeful that the court starts to seriously penalize the culprits.
Kaylee said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 03:02 PM
I have to say the lack of preparation by the defendant's attorneys is incredibly frustrating. From the Plaintiff's perspective especially. I find that we are always 110% prepared and the Defendant's attorneys on the day of the trial will do anything to be obstructive and to force a postponement. The problem is that often the client has gone to every single appointment but the defendant's attorney is unprepared and the matter will then postpone for another year. This isn't always the case and some defendant's attorneys are well prepared and will do go out of their way to settle the matter, however they seem to be in the minority. I also think that often even if the defendant's attorney is prepared and has submitted everything to the RAF, the claims handler then becomes obstructive, but no reverting with an offer or an instruction and then unfortunately the defendant's attorneys hands are tied, and often the handler will at the last minute request documents or provide an instruction to proceed with a postponement. All of which may result in the matter being postponed and an unhappy client. I do see however that since the DJP in Johannesburg has implemented the Pre-Trials before the various Judges, the defendant's attorneys are far more prepared and more willing to obtain instructions, which I think is in the Plaintiff's favour. The Judges are also showing their distaste to how the defendant's attorneys are dealing with the matters and hopefully they are becoming more aware as to why so many matters are on the daily court roll. Its incredibly frustrating and I hope something is done about the system.
Monique said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 02:50 PM
I have not been in this industry for very long and have seen this happen more than once. We are all very prepared and ready to proceed and then the matter is postponed or only settled on one issue due to the Defendants not been ready.
Anna said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 01:54 PM
The Deputy Judge PresidentS, in both Johannesburg and Pretoria , ARE becoming less tolerant of the defendant's attorneys in this regard. Yesterday in Pretoria, my counsel and I argued before Judge Ledwaba, DJP that the defendant had known of the severity of the Plaintiff's injuries - severe traumatic head injury with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 4/15 (almost dead) - since March 2013 when the serious injury form was lodged with the Road Accident Fund, yet, despite repeated requests to arrange medico legal appointments, the Defendant neglected to do so. Judge Ledwaba, DJP was extremely dismayed with the Defendant attorney's conduct and awarded us a high interim payment and ordered that the Registrar must provide us with a preferential trial date before the end of September and that the matter must proceed whether or not the Defendant has arranged and obtained all of it's medico legal reports or not.
Elektra said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 12:01 PM
I can see this trend already, at the last minute the Defending Attorneys now want to appoint their own experts, its just such a waste of time, and slightly unfair to the client. I mean having a case drag on for 3 - 4 years is frustrating for anyone. Just to add on to the costs of the RAF in any event.
Elektra said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 12:01 PM
I can see this trend already, at the last minute the Defending Attorneys now want to appoint their own experts, its just such a waste of time, and slightly unfair to the client. I mean having a case drag on for 3 - 4 years is frustrating for anyone. Just to add on to the costs of the RAF in any event.
Bianca R said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 10:23 AM
Bad preparation can really incur suffering for any client. So often, the Defendant firms do not prepare properly causing the case to drag on unnecessarily. At the end of the day, no matter how many postponements and delays, the RAF will have to pay the costs so why not minimize the costs and prepare properly the first time?
Alexis said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 10:00 AM
It really irritates me that they do this, they are messing with the lives of people who need the compensation - just do your job and do it properly - things would run so much more smoothly if you did it right the first time round
Sally said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 09:42 AM
It is just very sad that the victims/clients are the ones to suffer as the defendant attorneys are not doing their working in the right time frames and due to this the defendant attorneys are also wasting money on delaying matters and those wasted costs could have paid for another victims compensation.
Juliet said:
on Wednesday 28-May-14 09:39 AM
Is it really an issue of defendant firms in general or defendant firms who act on behalf of the government? I guess SA is a great place to be a plaintiff attorney who sues governmental bodies because it has to be easier than if for example you were in a country where the government actually had a clue what was going on
Johannesburg based attorney specializing in personal injury matters including Road Accident Fund claims and medical negligence matters. My interests include golf, reading and the internet and the way it is constantly developing. I have a passion for life and a desire for less stress!
