Data Protection & Confidentiality

DATA  PROTECTION  AND  CONFIDENTIALITY

We take protecting your privacy very seriously.  We will hold/store all your personal date safely and securely.

Our use of the personal data and information you provide to us is subject to your instructions, data protection legislation (General Data Protection Regulation) and our duty of confidentiality.

We will use your personal data information primarily for the provision of legal defence services to you in accordance with your instructions.  Please note that this work may require us to give information to third parties such as the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) when we apply for legal aid for you, expert witnesses and other professional advisors such as a Barrister.

You have a right of access under Data Protection Legislation to the personal data we hold about you and to correct it if it is wrong and to have this data deleted/removed from our records provided we are no longer required by law/regulation/statutory authority to retain it for any period of time.  We are obliged to keep your file/s for 7 years following conclusion of your case.

External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our firm.  Please be assured that they are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your personal data and files.  We may also be required from time to time to disclose your personal data for the purposes of legal and regulatory compliance, statutory returns and equal opportunities monitoring.

We may also be required by law to make a disclosure to Police/Government/Financial agencies where they know or suspect money laundering or terrorist financing.  If we are obliged to make such a disclosure we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made.  We may have to stop working on your matter for a period of time and may not be able to tell you why.  Please note as well that if we know or suspect that you have given false information in relation to an application for legal aid we are obliged to disclose that fact to the LAA.

Other than in circumstances already mentioned above, if we decide to use your personal data/information for any other purpose, eg for marketing our services, then we will not do so without obtaining your consent first.

We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office, registration number Z4698712.  If you require further information about data protection and or wish to make a complain about how we deal with your personal data, the ICO can be contacted at www.ico.org.uk or telephone number 0303 123 1113 or in writing to Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 SAF. Our Data Protection Officer is Nigel Ford.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.