Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

I was just sent an email about Biker's law and thought that it was quite interesting. You can go straight to the site www.bikerslaw.co.za and have look, but here's the background. The founder of Biker's Law, Jaco Wessels had this to say when he started off Biker's Law in June 2008: You all know the story too well by now. Hardly a week goes by, and we get word of one of our fellow bikers going down, because someone driving a car did not see him, or did not hear him, or did not..... The fact is, if you are riding a motorcycle in South Africa, you too, have come to realize, we are not considered by our fellow road-users. The guy in the car is just not aware of us, and if he is, he could not care less. And sadly, it seems our justice system is also failing us, either no criminal case is registered against the driver, or if it is, there are no witnesses, or the case gets thrown out of court due to a lack of evidence. All the while, somewhere a biker has to get along with a broken leg, or a broken arm, or even worse. In the last two months, 3 people I know came off their bikes due to cars either changing lanes, skipping stop signs, or simply driving directly into the way of the biker. And in all 3 cases the biker is worse off. And the driver seems to be without a care in the world. I Decided to see what I can do to help change this, as the passive approach no longer helps. And after many a night, I came upon an idea. Ran it past a few friends in the know, and voila! Biker’s Law was born. Biker’s Law will provide you with the following benefits: 1. A Lawyer will evaluate the circumstances, and assist to compile a complete criminal docket, with statements and witnesses where available. 2. The criminal case will be tracked, by means of a “Watching Brief”, which basically means the lawyer will constantly be looking over the shoulder of the state-prosecutor, and ensure that your case gets the attention it deserves. This will in most cases result in a criminal conviction for the driver. 3. Then a lawyer will use the criminal conviction, and file a lawsuit against the driver’s insurance company, if he/she has one, if not, the suit will be filed against the person themselves. This will be a claim for all damages and costs we can claim for. Including damage to your bike, clothes and all extras fitted to your bike. 4. If applicable a lawyer will also file a “3rd-party” claim on your behalf, and will probably be able to half the time it normally takes to have this done. If a “3rd-party” claim is not possible in your circumstances, then the value of what would have been claimed will be added to the civil claim against the and/or his/her insurance. But yes, wherever possible, the lawyer will instigate both a civil AND a “3rd-party” claim on your behalf. You will not be asked for a deposit, nor will you have to pay anything as the cases progress, this is for the criminal case, the civil suit and the “3rd-party”claim. The lawyer will act on what is know as a “Contingency Basis”, which means they will pay their own costs, and once they get a successful claim aid, they will take a percentage of the pay-out for their costs, but also will add their costs to the claim, so in fact the other party pays for just about all of it. If they are unsuccessful, they will have to carry the losses in terms of their costs themselves. There are no hidden costs involved. None, Zero. Nada! By now you are probably wondering how much this will cost you! Well, unfortunately service of this kind does not come cheap, so yes - you will have to cough up, how much exactly you ask? A full R20 per month. Yep, you read it correctly, only Twenty Rand A Month !! Hey - what is stopping you? Join up today! How do we do it? Simple. We pay the money received from bikers on a monthly base, to a network of lawyers we have contracted every month. This is called a “retainer” for their services to be rendered, and when you need them, they are there - and they have been paid already! We have a network of lawyers in just about every town. And where we don’t have them we will get them! So the Biker’s Law service is available to any rider within South Africa, and we will see to it that a lawyer will handle your case wherever you may be so unfortunate to have an accident. We even cover your pillion (at an additional fee of R20.00 per month). And if you have more than one bike, you only need to join one - it does not matter which bike you are on at the time of the accident, it need not even be your own bike! But where you have more than one person regularly using the same bike, each one of them need to register! We are open to ALL bikers, from the school-girl riding her scooter in the morning to the most hardened biker with 40-years or more in the saddle! If you are injured, or suffer any losses or costs, you have the RIGHT to be compensated by the person(s) who are the cause of the accident. If you have a wife and kids, someone has to look after them when you can’t due to injury, or even worse. We will sue on their behalf if you died as a result of the accident. Let us get them where it hurts! Their pockets and their pride! And then see how quickly they start taking our safety into consideration, after all, if they stand to lose their houses to pay us our damages, they might start to think twice before getting in our way! We might not be able to get them to watch out for us as individuals, but we sure will get their attention as a group! We are not an insurance-house, we do not offer legal insurance, or any other type of insurance. Please read through the terms and conditions document carefully before you join. But ultimately you will agree, you can’t afford not to join! If you too believe this is something the biker fraternity in South Africa needs, please take time to tell this news to your biker friends, who knows, they may need it before you do! Andy1200 Never ride faster than your guardian Angel can fly!!