The Road Accident Fund Benefit Scheme, as we always refer to it as RABS, has already been approved in principle by the Cabinet.  It may be a matter of months, or hopefully longer before it becomes law.  In their efforts to get attorneys out of the system, the Road Accident Fund has basically devised a scheme to make sure that attorneys will not in any way become involved.  Payments are made directly to clients, so that would disincentivise any attorney from financing a case where there is no guarantee of getting paid, but in addition to that and more importantly so as to ensure that attorneys are not needed, they are going to move the whole scheme to a no fault basis. That means when you are to blame for an accident you will have a claim, just as you will have a claim when you are not to blame for the accident.  That in theory gets rid of attorneys but of course to introduce all of those extra cases and still pay them, you have to reduce the benefits!  

Put another way, because the guilty person will now have a claim, the innocent person will have a claim for far less than before.  One should be suspicious of any legislation that has the word “benefit” in it because normally the word is only used when in fact there are no benefits at all and that is pretty much the case here – there will be so few benefits applicable under the new Scheme that I doubt the majority of people will even go through the process, especially without the assistance of an attorney, of lodging a claim.  The loss of income for example is capped at about R50 000,00 compared to the R220 000,00 a year now, and there will be no money for pain and suffering no matter how serious the case is, there will be no lump sums if indeed you do qualify for a claim, you will receive your payments as a monthly amount.  The only type of person who would be happy with this is the drunk who drives through a red robot, crashes into another car, paralysing them and injuring himself.  In the past he would not have a claim, but now for everyone else’s benefit it has been either removed or drastically reduced, he or she will have a claim.  I have put forward a resolution to be heard at this year’s Law Society Annual General Meeting, motivating that the attorneys’ profession must spend a lot of money on an advertising campaign informing the public of what is about to happen to the contribution they make to the Road Accident Fund every time they purchase petrol or diesel.  I am certainly hoping that the members of the Law Society will approve the resolution and that the Law Society will tackle this issue.