TRANSPORT Minister Mac Maharaj is not having an easy time trying to become the Cabinet’s Robin Hood. First he came under fire for suggesting the idea of taxing petrol to hit the rich, leaving diesel as the people’s fuel. And then the Law Society this week lambasted his proposed shake-up of the state’s accident insurance scheme.
Dudley Honey, chairman of the society’s motor accident insurance subcomittee, apparently scoffed at the idea that Maharaj’s suggested approach — a “no fault” system, with drastic ceilings on damages — was attuned to the man in the street. The minister’s scheme proposes accident victims, regardless of whether they are to blame for the accident, will fill out a simple form for their damages.
But, said Honey, the very people who were supposed to benefit from the new approach were often illiterate and so were incapable of filling out forms. He said Maharaj’s suggestion that banks and hospitals could help victims fill out the form was laughable.
In general, he said, the draft White Paper which outlined these dramatic changes had been cunningly prepared, pretending to help the poor man when it fact it robbed him of some crucial rights.
Other lawyers have pointed out that the idea of a simple form is particularly ludicruos considering the fund often complains that lawyers are unable to fill out the existing forms. They add that the new scheme will provide fertile ground for unscrupulous middlemen offering their services to accident victims unable to fill out the forms.
Apart from leaving the seriously injured with small awards, the new scheme will hammer the many lawyers whose practices depend on accident work.