Mandatory mediation of RAF cases ‘a failure’

The fund is reportedly not complying with mediation notices, resulting in attorneys going to the interlocutory court and obtaining a referral to the default judgment roll. Picture: AdobeStock A directive making mediation of all civil trials mandatory in an attempt to reduce court roll backlogs, particularly Road Accident Fund (RAF) litigation, has been blamed for worsening delays, escalating legal costs and undermining access to justice for road crash victims. Advocate Justin Erasmus, chair of the Personal Injury Plaintiff Lawyers Association (Pipla), which has lodged a high court application to set aside the directive, said on Monday that hardly any mediation is happening.

The practice directive issued by then Gauteng Judge President Mlambo in April 2025 made mediation of civil cases compulsory in the Gauteng Division before they are enrolled on the court rolls. Erasmus says De Broglio Attorneys in Johannesburg and Schutte de Jongh Inc in Pretoria, which Pipla used as case studies, had together issued about 1 400 notices to the RAF up until about November 2025 indicating they wanted to mediate – but De Broglio only finalised about seven of these mediations and he does not believe Schutte de Jongh has finalised any. Erasmus believes that about a quarter of mediations are fully resolved, another quarter lead to partial resolution where, for instance, the merits and general damages are settled – and about half of mediations lead to no resolution.

He says about 300 RAF matters a week have been placed on the high court roll in Pretoria and Johannesburg “for donkey’s years”, which resulted in the court roll backlog and matters being enrolled for dates up to 2031. Erasmus claims there are 25 state attorneys in Gauteng – 15 in Pretoria and 10 in Johannesburg – and if they do nothing but RAF cases will collectively have to mediate 60 matters a week (12 each) “just to keep pace with the 300 RAF matters on the court roll each week”. But a state attorney is only able to do one or two mediations a day, he points out. Erasmus adds that the RAF is not complying with mediation notices, resulting in attorneys going to the interlocutory court and obtaining a referral to the default judgment roll.