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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.

The total amount of money raised is £4,531.

Money came from several different sources. Of the wills made, some were by couples and some were single wills.

We also had a charity collection tin in each of our offices – Forres and Elgin – and the total from them (£1,031) is included.

We intend to arrange presentation of a cheque to Moray Foodbank in the near future.

How we can help

If you would like further information about making a Will, please contact Reception in Elgin (01343 544077) or Forres (01309 672126). Or you could send us a Free Online Enquiry and we will get back to you.

All initial enquiries are free of charge and without obligation.

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.

Gail Cleaver, General Manager, The Macallan, commented that

“Grigor & Young provided us with an excellent service. They handled the licensing side of our project very smoothly and professionally and were always available for any questions we had. I would like to thank Grigor & Young for their hard work and the part they played in making The Macallan expansion a success.”

We wish all at The Macallan well in their next exciting chapter.

We look forward to working with them again in the future.

Grigor & Young act for a number of major distilleries as well as private individuals, including hotels, shops and public houses, in a range of licensing matters.

If you would like any further information about our licensing services, please contact us by phoning 01343 544077 (contact: Neil Ross) or by sending us a Free Online Enquiry.

The new Macallan distillery, Easter Elchies, Craigellachie, Moray

Construction of the new Macallan distillery – May 2018. (Image: Mark Power / Magnum Photos)

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…]

When you need a Power of Attorney or Will urgently

14/03/2018 Filed Under: Making a Will, Powers of Attorney, Wills Executries & Trusts

It is human nature to put off making a will.

Perhaps it’s because making one is finally admitting we are mortal and one day will die. However, it has been proven that putting off this decision doesn’t make any difference to your life expectancy.

Making a will earlier, in a planned manner and without any family pressures means you can prepare better for the future. Once you have made a will, amending it as you grow older is much less daunting.

The process is easy.

You need to sit down and plan how you want to distribute everything you own (or may own) when you die. If you prepare a will then your estate will, to a large extent, be distributed in the way you want and not in the way that might happen without a will. (For more about what happens if there is not a will in place, see the Prior Rights page on this website).

Sometimes it is necessary to make a will urgently.

This may be because of some sudden change in your personal circumstances. If it is urgent, your solicitor will attend at a hospital or your home to take instructions and will return to see you to make sure your will is properly signed. [Read more…]

Moray and Elgin History Podcasted

26/01/2018 Filed Under: Moray Economy, Moray History

What did Robert Burns think of Elgin?

And did Bonnie Prince Charlie spend several nights in the town because he took a liking to the place?

Answers to these questions and others came up when Moray culture and history featured in the History Scotland: Hidden Histories podcast for 14 January 2018.

One of the aims of the podcast is to explore visitor attractions which could be described as a bit off the beaten track.

Well-known local figure, Jim Royan, gives a general introduction to Moray.

He then took presenter, Neil McLennan, on a tour of the centre of Elgin, focusing particularly on the Castle-Cathedral-Cashmere trail. The final part of the hour-long programme featured Moray’s own Fire Festival, the Burning of the Clavie, held in Burghead.

This article looks at the general Moray part and the section of the podcast which involved a wander through Elgin. We’ll look at the Burning of the Clavie in a separate article.

Moray is a triangular-shaped county.

According to Jim Royan, Moray is unique and yet not well known.

Moray is like Scotland in miniature. The coast of Moray is about 50 miles from the top of Ben Macdhui, which is the second-highest mountain in Scotland. [Read more…]

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