Lawyers are warning road accident victims not to be taken in by touts offering legal services at accident scenes and hospitals in South Africa, an illegal practice which is alarmingly on the increase and may amount to criminal conduct.
This is according to Kirstie Haslam, partner at DSC Attorneys, who says that you’re at your most fragile after you or a family member has been injured in an accident. “What you need at this time is the support of loved ones and trusted medical professionals. What you don’t need is to be taken in by an untrustworthy tout, looking to take advantage of your misfortune.”
What is a tout?
Haslam explains that a tout is a person who makes direct and insistent attempts to sell a service or solicit work from a person who has been injured in an accident and involves unethical gathering of information without the accident victim’s knowledge or consent.
In the legal profession, touting is unethical and may also be illegal. “In South Africa, the Cape Law Society (CLS), the Law Society of the Northern Provinces (LSNP) and the KwaZulu- Natal Law Society (KZNLS) previously all expressly prohibited touting,” she explains. “Under the new Legal Practice Act, the code of conduct for attorneys stipulates that attorneys may not buy instructions from, or directly or indirectly reward or give other consideration to, a “third party” (tout).”
How to identify touts in South African hospitals
• Haslam says the following behaviour is typical of touts in hospitals:
• they make face-to-face contact with potential clients to sell their services.
• they promise victims and their families large sums of money as compensation in
• personal injury claims.
• often, they employ people to arrange referrals and introductions to potential clients (this can include tow-truck drivers, first responders and even police officers).
• they make unsolicited phones calls and send emails to people who already have client/attorney relationships.
Haslam says that touts typically hang around accident scenes and emergency rooms. They pressure individuals into contracting legal services. Often, their goal is to secure clients who will make claims against the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
A tout may also attempt to solicit details about an accident, or to collect that information without your consent.
Haslam paints a common scenario of how a tout might approach you:
A family member is seriously injured in a road accident. You’re at the hospital in time to meet the ambulance.
While you’re waiting for attention from a medic, one of the ambulance paramedics strikes up a conversation. The paramedic mentions knowing a great law firm, in case you or your injured relative want to pursue a personal injury claim.
Later, you’re waiting in the emergency ward or a hospital waiting room.
A stranger starts to chat. When asked, you briefly outline what has happened.
The stranger suggests you can get a lot of money by claiming from the Road Accident Fund (RAF). By “coincidence”, he or she works for a leading law firm that can help.
It turns out this is the same firm that the paramedic mentioned.
The stranger rushes off to their car to fetch the papers you’ll need. This person is a tout.
Why it’s best to give touts a wide berth
She says that a law firm or independent practitioner who has to resort to unethical methods to secure clients is not the kind of party you want handling your personal injury claim.
In recent years, touts at hospitals have become so impertinent that former Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters, described them as “vultures” and “tsotsis” who prey on accident victims to rob them.
Haslam notes that it’s increasingly common for touts in hospitals to approach people who are confused, suffering and in pain. She warns that it’s not in your interest to use the services promoted by touts, whose behaviour is unethical and untrustworthy.
She also notes that the RAF’s practice of what they do to solicit ‘direct claimants’ in hospitals is no different to touting. “RAF solicits claimants to deal with them directly without legal representation and then takes advantage of these unrepresented ‘direct claimants’ by neglecting to process their claim fairly or timeously, under-settling the claim or allowing it to expire resulting in claims being unenforceable,” she says.
How to avoid touts
If a stranger approaches you to offer legal services in a hospital or at an accident scene, Haslam says it’s best to follow these guidelines:
• firmly but politely state that you’re not interested and walk away
• do not share medical information or any other particulars of the incident
• even if you may have a valid personal injury claim, do not sign any documents
• once you’ve parted ways, have a quiet word with security personnel, who may require the tout to leave the premises.
Don’t risk dealing with a disreputable individual or firm. If you do so, Haslam says that your claim could be compromised by less than competent legal services and you may even find yourself a victim to fraud.
Instead, wait until you have a clear head she advises. “Then contact a reputable firm of personal injury attorneys yourself as this is the best way to avoid scams,” she concludes.