Attorney Michael de Broglio on: South Africa, Law, Politics, Attorneys, Sport, Photography, Technology, Gadgets, Media, Crime, Road Accidents Fund,
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Staff of the Road Accident Fund, and attorneys, were quite surprised to hear that the CEO of the Road Accident Fund, Jacob Modise, would not be having his contract renewed. What was even more surprising is that his contract only falls for renewal at the end of the year, and the Road Accident Fund announced on Thursday 29 July 2011 that they were not renewing it right there and then, and that he would not be in at work again!
Obviously, behind the scenes there has been, at the very least, some considerable disagreement, but no rumours so far as to what may or may not have transpired. Mr Modise was an eloquent and well-spoken man who achieved a lot simply by lambasting attorneys at every opportunity and blaming them for whatever ills befell the Road Accident Fund. Quite frankly, I believe that during his time as the CEO of the Road Accident Fund, legal costs increased largely because the Road Accident Fund started “outsourcing” all their work, as it were, to their attorneys with the result that many cases that could have been settled quite easily by the Road Accident Fund without them having to pay their attorneys or additional fees to other attorneys, were not settled without going to Court and considerable extra expenses being incurred.
It is very easy to say, after the fact that a matter was settled for R10 000,00 and that the attorneys ended up walking away with R70 000,00, and at the end of the day if the Road Accident Fund simply came up with an offer of that R10 000,00, shortly after the case was lodged, there would be almost no legal costs at all, and that is precisely how things used to be done, and I think one of the biggest mistakes that the Road Accident Fund made in recent years has been its approach of litigating to the door of Court, almost every case that was lodged with it.
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Monday 08-Aug-11
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Comments
Meluso said:
on Thursday 08-Sep-11 08:41 PM
Gorvnment suppose to be aware about this !
Gerrie said:
on Friday 12-Aug-11 10:33 AM
Modise should have left years ago. The damage has been done. Can it be corrected?
Nadia Roodt said:
on Wednesday 10-Aug-11 08:39 AM
I agree. It is so easy to blame the claims handler for the way the RAF funcion, but, in fact they are only following instuctions that came from head office and, they also got frustrated with the instuctions they received to defend every single matter even though it could have been settled when the matter was lodged. We can only hope that the new CEO has a vision and mission to make the RAF and the claimant's attorneys working together.
elaine said:
on Wednesday 10-Aug-11 08:28 AM
i agree 100% with what you have said,and at the end of the day it has now cost alot of innocent people because now they can't even claim but are still paying there due's!
John said:
on Wednesday 10-Aug-11 08:06 AM
Well said. Added to this, the amendments have just made litigation a matter of course.
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!