Privacy Policy
We take data protection very seriously and understand the importance of protecting your privacy and personal data. This Privacy Policy contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains in relation to your personal data and control you can exercise in relation to it. Please read this notice carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

What information do we collect about you?
We will collect personal information from you in the course of our business through solicitor – client relationship, through our website and when you contact us by email, letter, telephone or through our website.
The personal data that we process is your name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone number, name of spouse or ex-partner, details of any children and details of your circumstances.

How do we collect the information from you?
We collect personal data from you by:
• Attendance records
• Telephone
• Email / letter
• Identity documents
• Documents in respect of your matter

How do we use your personal data?
We use your personal data to provide a legal service to you and look for ways to improve our service to you.

What legal basis do we rely on to process your personal data?
The new law requires us to have a legal basis for processing your personal data and we process your personal data for the following reasons:
• Performance of a contract – Our contract with you for the purposes of providing a service
• Consent – We process your data with your consent. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Where consent is the only basis for processing, we will cease to process your personal data after consent is withdrawn.
• Compliance with a legal obligation – We will process your personal data for the purposes of complying with our legal and regulatory obligations
• The legitimate interests of the data controller – Providing a legal service, ensuring the security and integrity of our services at all times, responding to your enquiries, enabling our website to operate effectively, managing complaints and queries and fulfilling our obligations to you.

Who do we share your personal date with?
We may make your personal data available to the following:
• Counsel, court and CAFCASS / Local Authority
• Medical practitioners or experts
• Enquiry agents
• Mortgage providers
• Third parties for the purposes of file storage

How do we protect your personal data?
We will keep our file of your papers for up to 6 years, except those papers that you ask to be returned to you. We keep files on the understanding that we can destroy those 6 years after the date of the final bill. After the end of the matter our procedure is to send your file to our storage and document company who will place the contents of your file on a CD ROM. The contents of your file will also be securely encrypted and also be stored on cloud. Once this is in place the physical file will be destroyed. It will be the CD ROM that we will keep for 6 years.

How do we keep your personal data secure?
We are committed to keeping your personal data safe and secure from unauthorised access. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect you to our fullest capability. Although we have appropriate security measures in place we cannot guarantee complete security of transmitted data.
We use third party cloud service providers that provide data storage pursuant to standard terms and conditions that may be non-negotiable. These providers have informed us that they apply security measures they consider adequate for the protection of data within their system, or they have a general reputation for applying such measures. We will not be liable for any damages that may result from the misuse of any information, including personal data, by these companies.

What are your rights?
You have the following rights:
• The right to ask what personal date we hold about you at any time
• The right to ask us to update and correct any out of date or incorrect personal data that we hold about you
• The right to ask us to delete or remove personal date held by us. Please note that we reserve the right to refuse your requests in certain circumstances, for example if it interferes with our legal and regulatory obligations
• The right to ask us to restrict processing your personal data
• The right to ask us to transfer your personal information to a third party
• The right to object to how your personal data is being used
• The right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note that if you withdraw your consent we may not be able to continue providing you with our services.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights then please contact our offices straightaway. We will respond to your request without undue delay and no later than one month from the receipt of the request. If we encounter a delay, we will inform you at the earliest opportunity with an explanation.

How do you make a complaint?
If you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal data you may contact us and we will investigate and respond to your complaint. You can also
complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office by the following methods:
Postal Address: Information Governance department, Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Email Address: accessicoinformation@ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/

Changes to the Privacy Policy
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.