Privacy Notice
Equity Law Chambers is committed to privacy for everyone who accesses our website and deals with our firm directly. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 and General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), we must comply with certain requirements which are designed to ensure that any Data you provide to us is processed with due care and attention.
WHY WE HAVE A PRIVACY POLICY
Equity Law Chambers is committed to privacy for everyone who accesses our website and deals with our firm. Under GDPR, we must comply with certain regulations which are designed to ensure that any data you provide to us is processed with due care and attention.
WHAT IF I DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY?
If you do not agree to our processing of your data in the manner outlined in the Policy, please do not submit any personal data to us.
THE DATA WE COLLECT AND HOW IT IS USED
Equity Law Chambers collects personal data about you by requesting this from you to help in the case which you require assistance with. This may be an immigration, family, personal injury or other litigation or criminal matter. The data involved will include your name, address, contact number, email address and maybe your nationality as well as other relevant information relating to your case.
The personal and sensitive personal data which we collect will be stored, processed and used and disclosed by us as follows:
1. Provide our legal services to you, whether you are a client, potential client, user of our website or employee.
2. Allow you to provide relevant information to us regarding your case so that we can progress and finalise the same.
3. Maintain our business relationship, if you are a user of our website, a client, potential client or employee.
4. Provide information and advise you accordingly regarding your matter.
5. Deal with and answer any questions or queries which you may have
6. Fulfil contractual obligations and legal requirements on behalf of our clients.
Where we have received your consent, we will also use the information we hold to begin and progress your case which may involve sharing some of your personal information with other bodies and companies. For example, in immigration matters your information may be shared with the Home Office and in Personal Injury matters your information may be shared with third party insurers, medical agencies and medical experts and possibly Barristers. Where we have your consent, we will also market our other services to you directly.
Equity Law Chambers is a small firm with two offices, one in Oldham and the other in Rotherham. The information which we will hold for you may be shared between both offices if required. We process data securely which are accessible at both offices by relevant employees of the firm.
Equity Law Chambers will not contact you about matters, unless you have specifically consented to receiving details of our other services and we will not share, rent or sell your personal data outside of the firm except where we share your information with parties relevant to your case only as mentioned above. However, we must advise you that, although it is unlikely, that if we requested to disclose your personal information due to a legal matter i.e. by way of Court Order or where we believe that the law requires it then your personal identifiable information i.e. name, address, contact details, may be disclosed.
We may use your personal information to undertake a search with a credit reference agency. We will keep a copy of any searches made and the results which will be used for internal decision making purposes. The credit reference agency may also keep a copy of the search and they may share that information with other businesses who undertake similar searches in respect of you.
We will also request your identification from you to verify your identity. This is for compliance reasons, so we can comply with Money Laundering regulations, which is further mentioned in our firm's Terms and Conditions which you will be provided a copy of at the beginning of your case.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
By signing and returning our Terms and Conditions, you are indicating that you consent to Equity Law Chambers to process and share your personal information as mentioned above.
WITHDRAWING YOUR CONSENT
Please note that once you have provided your consent, you can withdraw this at any time either by email or in writing. Also, if you wish for us to change the use to which any such data can be put, please email us at info@elc-solicitors.co.uk. Equity Law Chambers will then review your case and will then take the appropriate steps.
SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST
If you require a copy of the information which Equity Law Chambers holds for you on our systems, please contact us either by telephone or in writing with your request. Once we have received identification from you to verify your identity, we will then be able to provide the information to you. Please note that we will not be able to provide the following types of information in response to a data access request: information which we hold about other people, opinions given in confidence, repeat requests or privileged information. Other types of information may also be exempt under data protection laws (e.g. data relating to the commission of offences or estimates of damages).
OTHER SOURCES OF DATA
We may also process information about you where it is available from public sources. For example, social media. We may combine that information with the information you provide directly to us but if we do this we will inform you.
HOW LONG IS MY INFORMATION HELD FOR?
We are required by law to hold your information for as long as is necessary to comply with our statutory and contractual obligations and in accordance with our legitimate interests as a data controller. Once we have completed your case, we will store your file at our offices for 6 years before it is destroyed.
We will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that your personal data is maintained and up to date. However, you are under a duty to inform us of any and all changes to your personal data to ensure that it is up to date and we will update or delete your personal data accordingly. This is so that we may contact you to discuss your case if required.
DO WE PASS DATA TO THIRD PARTIES?
Where necessary we may pass data to relevant third parties that help us to process data and to progress and finalise your case e.g. Home Office, third party insurers. This data may be transferred outside of the European Union.
External Firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice. These external firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files. The firm is working towards the Lexcel quality standard of the Law Society and so we may become subject to periodic checks by outside assessors. This could mean that your file is selected for checking, in which case we would need your consent for inspection to occur as referred to in our Terms and Conditions.
Sometimes we may ask other companies or people to do work such as typing, photocopying, call handling or other work on our files. For example, any complaints received by us may be referred to an independent complaints handler with the purpose of obtaining an objective view, and to ensure that work is done promptly. We will always seek a confidentiality agreement with these outsourced providers.
If you do not want your file to be seen by other organisations as mentioned above, please tell us as soon as possible by telephoning our offices or emailing us at info@elc-solicitors.co.uk.
HOW IS THIS DATA PROTECTED?
The security of your data is extremely important to Equity Law Chambers. Access to your personal data is only provided to our staff and third parties relevant to your case who help us to process data and progress and finalise your case. Equity Law Chambers will advise you of who your details will be shared with at the beginning of your case and as your case progresses. We have security measures in place to prevent unauthorised access to information although we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.
POLICY CHANGES
Any policy changes, either due to business reasons or future changes in legislation, will be posted on our website and through e-mail and letter if required.
QUESTIONS
If you have any queries about our privacy policy or its implementation, please email us at info@elc-solicitors.co.uk and we will respond back to you.
