Privacy Policy

It also informs you who we share this information with, the security measures we have put in place to protect your data and how to contact us if you have a complaint.

If you have any questions about this notice or the information we hold about you please contact us, our details are set out below.

We collect, use and are responsible for personal information about you. When we do this we are the “controller” of this information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) and other applicable data protection laws.

What Do We Do With Your Information?

Information collected by us

When carrying out legal work on your behalf we will collect  from you the following information ::-

• Personal details
• Family details if needed in certain cases
• Details about your finance
• In certain circumstances your medical records

Information collected from other sources

We collect the following information from other sources:-

• Your name, address and contact details from estate agents if we receive a memorandum of sale from them.
• Your name, date of birth and contact details from Local Authorities in some cases involving children issues.
• Your communication preferences

How we will use your information

We use your information for the following reasons:-

• To perform any contract we have entered into with you to provide legal services.
• To comply with anti-money laundering regulations
• In the exercise of any legal claims or proceedings on your behalf
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations.

The personal data we collect from you will be used to:

• Provide and improve (where necessary) our services to you including the handling of personal information by others on behalf of our clients.
• Provide information and advice requested by you.
• Manage or administer our relationship with you.
• Fulfil our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations, including establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.
• For the purposes of recruitment.

We rely on confirmation from you to of our Terms of Business and continued instruction as your consent

Who will we share your personal information with?

We may, where necessary share your personal Information with certain trusted third parties such as:-

• Our professional advisors and auditors.
• Suppliers to whom we outsource certain support services such as barristers, experts and costs draftsmen.
• IT service providers.

Our legal obligations

We will share specific and relevant information with law enforcement and government agencies or public bodies where we are legally required to do so. Examples of this may include:-

• For the prevention or detection of crime and fraud.
• For the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.
• For the assessment or collection of tax or duty owed to HMRC.
• Sharing information in connection with legal proceedings.
• Sharing information in relation to the physical or mental health of an individual where disclosure is required to protect them or others from serious harm.

How long will we store your personal data?

We are both legally required to store your personal data for at least 6 years.

Under the GDPR you have a number of important rights that you can exercise free of charge. In summary, these rights are:-

• Access to your personal information and other supplementary information;
• Require us to correct any mistakes or complete missing information we hold on you;
• Require us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances;
• Receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us or have this information sent to a third party, this will be provided to you or the third party in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format;
• Object at any time to processing of your personal information for direct marketing;
• Object in certain other situations to the continued processing of your personal information;
• Restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;

If you want more information about your rights under the GDPR please refer to the guidance provided by the Information Commissioners Office on Individual’s rights under the GDPR.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please:-

• Email, or write to Frances Woollaston (our Data Protection Officer);
• Let us have proof of your identity and address;
• State the rights or rights that you wish to exercise;

We will respond to you within one month from when we receive your request.

How to make a complaint

We hope that you will not need to make a complaint, but should the situation arise, please get in touch so that we can do our best to resolve any issues if this is not possible them you can refer the matter to The Legal Ombudsman who may be able to help .

The GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in the UK the supervisory authority is the Information Commissioners Office who can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Our security

We use a variety of technical and organisational measures to help protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction consistent with applicable data protection laws.

Future processing

We do not intend to process your personal information for any reason other than stated within this privacy notice. If this changes, we will inform you by publishing a new privacy notice on our website www.woollatonssolicitors.co.uk

Changes to this privacy notice

This Privacy Notice was published on the 21st March 2022 and will be updated when necessary.

Our internal privacy practices are constantly under review and may change this policy from time to time. When we do so we will inform you by publishing the new notice on our website www.woollastonssolicitors.co.uk

Get in touch

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you please contact us, our details are:-

Woollastons Solicitors Limited

331 Jockey Road, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield B73 5XE

Tel:  0121 355 5516.

E mail enquiries@woollastonssolicitors.co.uk

Our data protection officer is Frances Woollaston