BIKELINE (a trading name of Alyson
France & Co. solicitors) was developed in 1998 by
Alyson France to help her co bikers and cyclists. A keen
biker, Alyson was brought up on the Isle of Man where Ma & Pa
were keen bikers and had a guest-house full of bikers during
the TT, Southern Hundred and Manx Grand Prix.
Alyson is also a keen cyclist (i.e. no engine!) and has
been cycling since the age of 16! She raced from 16 to 24,
when she too was the victim of a negligent car driver who
put an end to her racing season and gave her first-hand experience
of being the victim. She is a member of the Port
Sunlight Wheelers and the CTC.
We can't claim to have ridden in the TT or raced motorcycles,
but we use qualified solicitors and are members of the
Law Society's Personal Injury Panel.
Our aim is to offer old-fashioned personal service but in
a modern and efficient way. This means that we use e-mail
and computers to help us to handle your claim, but you can
still telephone and speak to a real person if you need to!
We have a helpful and dedicated team of staff who are here
to help with your claim and to deal with the non-legal queries
you may have, in plain English and with no complicated jargon.
However, many busy people find that they are happy to deal
with their claim by e-mail, post and telephone and in most
cases that is no problem!
Because of modern technology we have clients throughout
the whole of England & Wales and distance is no object to
dealing with your claim.
Many
firms offer a so called '24 hour' service. In actual fact,
what you often get is simply someone taking a message to
pass on! We therefore do not pretend to be available 'round
the clock' and our office opening hours are 9.30am to 5.00pm,
Monday to Friday. However, we do know that not everyone
is able to contact us during these times. We therefore
do have an answering service and will arrange to
call you back outside office hours if necessary. Alternatively,
you can contact us by e-mail, fax or post.
We
hope that you will find all of our staff helpful and friendly.
We pride ourselves on our good reputation - see some of
our clients' comments.
Alyson says:
"I still love riding my (push) bike, but I've become
increasingly concerned about being cut-up/pulled-out on/verbally
abused every time I'm cycling and think that a lot could
be gained by cycling and motorcycling organisations putting
their heads together. We have a lot in common (poor road
design, ignorant car drivers, potholes and road studs) and
two minority groups can make one much bigger group! The campaign
groups for both could gain a lot by linking up on various
issues - although I do think cyclists are a little more hard-done-by,
due to their lack of power (literally and metaphorically!)
and the attitudes of other road users.
I strongly believe that the answer to the lack of support
for cycling is not more cycle paths (useful though they may
be), but a major change in the public's attitude. This will
only be brought about by a major campaign to make ill-treatment
of cyclists, pedestrians and other non-car users as socially
unacceptable as drink driving now is. I am also convinced
that making a 2 week stint of cycling part of the driving
test would work wonders for most people!
For those of you reading this who aren't cyclists or
motorcyclists, remember - one more bike/pushbike on the
road is one less car in that queue you're stuck in!"
|
