Blog - Grigor and Young

Grigor & Young LLP makes a commitment to the Living Wage

06/09/2018 Filed Under: Firm News

Grigor & Young LLP has become accredited as a Living Wage Employer.

The firm’s commitment to the Living Wage means that everyone working at G&Y will be paid a minimum hourly wage of £8.75, irrespective of whether they are direct employees or third-party contracted staff. This pay level compares to the statutory minimum rate for over 25s of £7.83 per hour which came into force in April 2018.

The real Living Wage is an hourly rate which is determined independently and annually updated.

The calculation is meant to take into account the real costs of living.

As Neil Ross of Grigor & Young explained: “We expect that it is only a matter of time before the real Living Wage is viewed as the basic, universal benchmark for a fair wage. We wanted to get our accreditation in place so we can show our support for this important social initiative.”

Employers choose to pay the real Living Wage on a voluntary basis.

It is an initiative which has garnered cross-party political support.

Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance, hopes that as many organisations as possible will become accredited.

As he has pointed out, there is a strong “business reputation” case for paying the Living Wage. However, more importantly, it allows those in work to become more included in society, better provide for their families, and feel that their value and hard work is recognised by their employer. He regards the real Living Wage as one of the crucial tools at our disposal to help make an impact on levels of in-work poverty in Scotland.

You can search for Scottish accredited employers on the Scottish Living Wage website. At this point, there are 18 employers in Scotland in the legal sector with this accreditation.

List of accredited Living Wage Employers in the legal sector in Scotland (September 2018):

Reduce your risk of Whiplash Injury by doing the Head Rest Test

14/08/2018 Filed Under: Road Traffic Accidents

Taking a few extra seconds before any car journey could help to minimise the risk of injury to the driver and any passengers.

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) is urging vehicle travellers to “Do the Headrest Test” and protect themselves, by ensuring that their headrests are in the correct position.

This is APIL’s theme for Injury Prevention Day (15 August 2018), supported by motoring safety experts, Thatcham Research. APIL campaigns to improve safety standards and is a not-for-profit organisation. [Read more…]

Wills Promotion success results in donation to Moray Foodbank

28/06/2018 Filed Under: Charitable Causes, Firm News, Making a Will

In November 2017, Grigor & Young ran a promotion, agreeing to donate £100 from each fee for preparation of a Will to Moray Foodbank.

In 2016, Moray Foodbank’s charitable work allowed them to help in excess of 2,000 people in Moray.

This is an essential service in alleviating the effects of food poverty.

The Foodbank relies heavily on public donations of food. Anyone to whom assistance is provided gets a minimum of 3 days’ food.

We are very happy that the wills promotion during November 2017 attracted a high level of interest. The income generated has been converted into donations to provide a sum of money to assist Moray Foodbank. [Read more…]

Licensing The Macallan’s £140 million boost to the Moray economy

06/06/2018 Filed Under: Firm News, News

The Macallan Distillery recently opened the doors to its new £140 million home.

The impressive new distillery and visitor experience is set to deliver a boost to the local tourism industry in Moray – and to the Scotch whisky industry as a whole.

At Grigor & Young, we are proud to have been a part of the process.

We handled the licensing matters in relation to the visitor experience. We worked closely with the team at The Macallan to deliver our professional and specialist services. [Read more…]

New court procedures for the private rented sector in Scotland

24/05/2018 Filed Under: Landlord and Tenant, Property

From 01 December 2017, new legislation came into force in Scotland which means that Sheriff Courts no longer have jurisdiction for civil cases relating to the Private Rented Sector in Scotland.

The new court for cases of this type is the Housing and Property Chamber in Glasgow. It’s a form of Tribunal.

Note that the regime for court actions for evictions and rent arrears has not changed for local authority and social landlord tenancies. They are still in the Sheriff Court.

Here are some FAQs about the new system.

How much does it cost to raise the action?

It’s free of charge. In the Sheriff Court, on the other hand, it costs £102 to raise a Summary Cause action for eviction and/or rent arrears.

What procedural differences are there?

One obvious difference is that, under Sheriff Court procedure, you can raise claims for eviction and rent arrears in one action. Under the tribunal procedure, you have to raise these as separate claims. [Read more…]

Central Elgin “open for business” despite temporary closure of North Street to vehicles

11/05/2018 Filed Under: News

Problems with the masonry on the Poundland building (formerly Woolworths) on Elgin High Street have led to the temporary closure of North Street to vehicles

The Grigor & Young Elgin office is on North Street.

We – and other businesses in central Elgin – would like to emphasise that North Street still provides a means of access to High Street for pedestrians in both directions. In other words, for example, you can still get from Elgin Bus Station to the High Street on foot by the usual route. [Read more…]

2 major changes for personal injury litigation from new Scottish legislation

09/05/2018 Filed Under: Personal Injury Claims in Moray

According to comScore, 50% of all online searches will be conducted by voice by 2020.

40% of adults already use voice search at least once per day (according to Location World).

Sound (sorry) advice for websites wanting to optimise for voice search – which is good advice about how to write website content, generally – is to ensure that your content has an approachable tone.

Part of setting the right tone means avoiding the use of unnecessary jargon.

Unfortunately, jargon is difficult to avoid when you are writing about the law. And the two major changes we are going to highlight in this article are both heavy on mumbo jumbo.

In its abbreviated version, one of the bits of terminology sounds like the noise a bird might make – or like a sub-atomic particle.

The two significant developments for Scottish personal injury claims which we are going to discuss are:

The introduction of qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS – pronounced “quawks”), and
The introduction of damages-based agreements (DBAs)

[Read more…]

Celebrating 190 Years of Grigor & Young

03/05/2018 Filed Under: Firm News

On Friday 04 May 2018, the offices of Grigor & Young will close at 12.30pm.

We will be going out for lunch to celebrate a few things.

There’s the recent conversion of the business to a limited liability partnership. We also celebrate the fact that Greg Robertson has become a member (a “partner”) in the firm. Greg has designed the header image for this article.

And there’s the fact that 2018 marks 190 years since this solicitors’ business began in 1828. [Read more…]

What is Legal Expenses Insurance?

06/04/2018 Filed Under: Insurance Claims, Personal Injury Claims in Moray

This might seem like a very simple question.

Too simple, even.

But insurance is often confusing. We find that people don’t always readily understand what different types of insurance are intended to do.

Apart from that, many people have Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI) and don’t know it.

And, apart from that, we’re not always very good at explaining it.

In this article, though, we’re going to try and explain some aspects of LEI relative to personal injury claims.

We’ll cover what it is and what it is not. We will look at the different types of LEI which exist. Relative cost of insurance types will figure in our overview and we’ll also consider the timing of taking out the insurance. Finally, we will touch on the question of how easy it is to enforce your own choice of legal adviser under a LEI policy (rather than the LEI insurer’s choice). [Read more…]

Grigor & Young becomes a Limited Liability Partnership (Grigor & Young LLP)

30/03/2018 Filed Under: Firm News

From 01 April 2018, Grigor & Young is a limited liability partnership.

It means that the formal title for the business is Grigor & Young LLP, though our trading name will still be Grigor & Young.

As another element of this change, on the down side, Nicola Howard is not continuing as a member (‘partners’ become ‘members’ in an LLP). We are very sorry to see Nicola leave us and wish her all the best for the future.

On the up side of things, though, we are delighted that Greg Robertson moves from being an associate to being a member of the LLP.

In the hope that it will be useful to you, if you have any questions about this change, here are some answers to the questions we think will come up most frequently.

Should you have a question that is not answered here, feel free to contact us directly – either via this website or by phone or email.

What is a Limited Liability Partnership?

A Limited Liability Partnership is a registered legal entity. The legal entity is separate from its members and accordingly the personal liability of the members is limited to their capital contribution to the LLP. [Read more…]