Ware & Kay Solicitors shortlisted for The Yorkshire Legal Awards 2023

  Ware & Kay Solicitors with offices in York, Wetherby & Malton is proud to announce they have been shortlisted for an award at the upcoming Yorkshire Legal Awards, which is to be hosted on 5th October. David Hyams has been shortlisted for Managing Director of the Year Award. This is a testament to the positive direction and growth made after seeing organisational improvements and changes over the last 2 years. David has worked with each department head to develop business plans with growth targets and continues to encourage and mentor his colleagues to make those plans a reality. David has a wealth of experience and specialist knowledge in all areas and has a clear vision for the future of Ware & Kay. It is fantastic that the firm has been acknowledged amongst the awards’…

Joint Event with Ware & Kay and Azets Chartered Accountants – Recruit, Reward, Retain Seminar

Recruit, Reward, Retain:  Attracting and keeping key talent in your workforce You are invited to attend our Recruit, Reward, Retain Seminar at Azets Yorkshire office Date: 20th September 2023   Time: 8.30am – 10.30am In the current ever-changing financial landscape, business owners are facing significant challenges as they look to recruit, reward and retain the right people. Talented individuals are in demand and employers need to ensure they are exploring all the options available to them to retain valuable staff members, reward past performance and recruit new employees. As part of this, benefits and incentives beyond salaries are becoming increasingly important. While these additional options can act as a tool for retention, reward and recruitment, they also help to motivate employees to become more productive and align their interests with the business. With this in mind, tax and legal experts…

Employment Law Retainer Scheme

 

Laura Carter celebrates passing the SFE Older Client Law in Practice Award

Ware & Kay and Pearsons & Ward Solicitors is proud to announce that Laura Carter, Solicitor in the Wills & Probate team and accredited SFE (Solicitors for the Elderly) member, has passed the Solicitors for the Elderly Older Client Law in Practice Award.  In order to be a fully accredited SFE member, lawyers must have a minimum of three years' experience advising in areas of older client law and have completed the Older Client Law in Practice Award – a qualification which demonstrates the specialist client care skills that enable lawyers to advise and support older and vulnerable clients. Members are also required to continuously update their knowledge with training and produce an annual statement of competence, which ensures they maintain their expertise. Laura qualified as a Solicitor in 2015 and joined the firm in 2018…

Yorkshire Legal Awards

David Hyams has been shortlisted for 'Managing Partner of the Year' at the Yorkshire Legal Awards. The awards are taking place on 5 October 2023 at New Dock Hall in Leeds. We wish David all the best and good luck to everyone who has been shortlisted.

What is probate?

It's difficult enough to deal with a loved one's death. Additionally, organising their funds can be a difficult and drawn-out procedure. The executors designated in the will to carry out the deceased's wishes need legal custody over their assets, which is referred to as probate. In order to acquire access to the bank accounts of a deceased person and organise their property and goods. According to official statistics, approximately 250,000 petitions for probate are filed each year in England and Wales. What is probate? Executors are given access to a decedent's assets and the authority to distribute them through the legal process of probate, also known as estate management. The phrase "estate" refers to all their assets, including real estate, cash, and personal belongings. The personal representative is the individual who has been granted probate. Do…

Promises Promises Promises – Proprietary estoppel and the case of the Hughes family

In the recent case of Hughes v Pritchard and others the court dismissed a claim brought by the estate of one of the Deceased’s sons despite pre-existing findings that the deceased had promised that son the entirety of his farmland and that the son had relied on the promise. The Deceased Evan Richard Hughes died on 7 March 2017 aged 84 years. He was a cattle farmer with 137 acres of farmland and other property including a family building business. He had three children Gareth, Carys and Elfed; Elfed had tragically taken his own life in 2015. The Deceased had made three Wills in 1990, 2005 and 2016. By the 2005 Will he left his shares in the family business to Gareth and Carys and all his farmland to Elfed; the original trial judge found…

Could your business be named and shamed?

“Retail giants W H Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos are among firms who have been “named and shamed” by the government for breaking the minimum wage law. Almost £5m was found to be owed to around 63,000 workers following investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs dating back as far as 2017. These named employers have been made to pay back what they owed, and in addition were fined around £7m.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/minimum-wage-wh-smith-lloyds-argos-b2361300.html When my colleague sent me this article I was taken aback. How could some of our largest and best-established retailers fall foul of the most basic employment law? The law on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) is not simply about paying a minimum amount per hour worked. In fact, there are common pitfalls which, if breached, can land a business into seriously hot HMRC water. What are the…

Managing child contact arrangements after a divorce on the farm

  Resolving child contact arrangements after divorce is often tricky, but for a farming family where the children may have been actively involved in the business, it can be particularly problematic. When a couple who farm get divorced, one spouse will usually leave the family farm and so it is important to try to reach agreement at the earliest stage about who will get to spend time with any children and when. If the children work on the farm, this may need to be taken into consideration when the child contact arrangements are being negotiated as they may (or may not) want to be involved during busy periods such as lambing or harvest seasons. While agreeing co-parenting arrangements can be challenging for farming families – not least because of the demanding working patterns – there are…

Avoiding pitfalls of unregistered land

More than 85 per cent of land in England and Wales is now registered with HM Land Registry; however large swathes of rural farmland remain unregistered. Land is often farmed by the same family for years and therefore no ‘trigger event’ arises which would require first registration. Here our solicitors explain when it is compulsory to register unregistered land and outlines the benefits and the pitfalls for those who do not. When you should register All land or property must be registered with HM Land Registry if you have: purchased it; been given land or property as a gift; inherited any land or property; leased it for more than seven years; received it in exchange for other property or land; or had it mortgaged. Farmers should be aware that agricultural land must also be…