Peter Brash
APIL Senior Litigator
Grigor & Young LLP, Moray
"What I perceived as injustice in many situations really frustrated me. It got me thinking that, if I knew about my own rights better, I would be able to help others to know their rights better too."
When I was a child, my parents used to get the Reader's Digest and I was fascinated by a regular feature in that, called "Drama in Real Life" (or similar). These articles would tell the story of how someone survived a situation of great personal peril, which could be anything from a natural disaster to a hotel fire or an accident at work. Often, other people involved in the situation did not make it out alive. This would get me thinking about how better precautions or preventative measures might have been taken so as to avoid the injury and loss of life.
While studying law, I found much of the development of the law has been through decided cases from the courts rather than legislation made in Parliament. In many ways, the cases seemed like an extension of the "drama in real life" stories I had read as a child.
As I grew older, I remember feelings of frustration in situations where I felt powerless because I did not know my legal rights. It has been said that "If you don't know your rights, you don't have any". What I perceived as injustice in many situations really frustrated me. It got me thinking that, if I knew about my own rights better, I would be able to help others to know their rights better too.
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