Our Privacy Notice

Last updated 18th April 2018 

1.         What grounds do we have for processing your data?

We must have a lawful basis for processing your information. This will vary depending on how and why we have your information but typical examples include:

  • the activities are within our legitimate interests as a law firm seeking to engage with and provide services to prospective and current clients and personnel;

  • you have given consent for us to process your information;

  • we are carrying out necessary steps in relation to a contract to which you are party or prior to you entering into a contract;

  • the processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject e.g. anti-money laundering requirements; and

  • to protect your vital interests e.g. if you were unfortunate enough to fall ill or suffer an injury on our premises.

If we acquire information that is “specialised category data” such as information about your: race, ethnic origin, political views, religion, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, health data or data concerning your sex life or sexual orientation then we must have a further lawful basis for processing this data which may include:

  • your explicit consent;

  • the processing is necessary to protect yours or someone else’s vital interests;

  • you have made the information public;

  • the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;

  • the processing is in the public interest.

2.         What information do we process?

2.1.    Our website

You will be asked to provide us with personal information about yourself when you submit an online enquiry via our website. The information you can provide includes: your name, your postal address, telephone number and email address. We may also collect information automatically about your usage of our websites using cookies and other technology (for full details of what we use - see the information on our website about cookies).

2.2       Legal work

If you seek an estimate of costs for legal work, or you consult us for advice or become a client of the firm, we will need to ask you for some personal information for the following purposes:

  • to confirm your identity,

  • to enable us to understand the issue about which you have consulted us,

  • to provide you with appropriate advice,

  • to prepare or review any documents you require us to deal with, and

  • to communicate with you.

2.3        Recruitment purposes

If you apply to work for us, we will need to collect information about your name, address, postal address, telephone number and email address so that we can contact you and identify you. We may also require other personal data from you, including for example, data about your education, qualifications and training, work experience and employment, salary and financial information.

3.         How do we use the information?

We will use your information for the specific purposes for which it has been provided to or collected by us, for example:

  • to provide information that you may request regarding the services that we offer;

  • to contact you to introduce you to our lawyers;

  • to provide you with legal services;

  • to comply with our statutory and regulatory obligations;

  • to verify your identity for anti-money laundering purposes;

  • to administer your application for a job vacancy;

  • to deal with your feedback, query or complaint; and

  • to contact you for views on our services.

Information gathered through cookies and similar technologies are used to measure and analyse information on visits to our websites, to tailor the websites to make them better for visitors and to improve technical performance. We will not use the data to identify you personally or to make any decisions about you.

4.     Disclosure of your information

Some of the information that you provide to us will be held on our computers and will only be accessed by or given to our staff. Some of the information you provide to us may be transferred, stored and processed by third party organisations which process data for us on our behalf. These third parties may include IT platforms (including cloud based platforms), suppliers of administrative and support services and suppliers of other specialist products.

We may also transfer your information to other organisations or professional advisers with whom we are working on client matters or to whom we are referring you for additional or separate advice. We may also be obliged to disclose data under certain laws or by order of court or other competent regulatory body or may be permitted to disclose it under applicable data protection laws.

5.     Protection of your information

We have in place administrative, technical and physical measures to guard against and minimise the risk of loss, misuse or unauthorised processing or disclosure of the personal information that we hold.

Where we transfer information to third parties to enable them to process it on our behalf, we ensure that the providers meet or exceed the relevant legal or regulatory requirements for transferring data to them and keeping it secure. Information on our document retention policy is provided with our terms of business.

6.     Your rights

The General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) (EU) 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law which governs data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and it gives you certain rights in relation to your personal data. The Regulation will be implemented on 25th May 2018.  You have the right to request that we:

  • provide you with a copy of your personal information that we hold;

  •  update your personal information which is out of date or incorrect;

  • delete personal information that we hold;

  • restrict the way in which we process your information;

  • consider any valid objections to our processing of your personal information; and

  • provide information you have given to us to a third party provider of services.

These rights do not necessarily apply in all cases or to all information that we hold about you. We may need to continue to hold and process information about you to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights. We will respond to your request within 30 calendar days of receiving it or we will provide you with an explanation as to whether your rights apply in the particular circumstances.

7.     How to contact us

If you need to contact us to discuss this policy, how we use your personal data, to exercise your rights or to provide feedback or make a complaint please address correspondence to our data protection compliance officer, Charles William Masefield who can be contacted by post, telephone or email using the information below:

post:                       Masefield Solicitors LLP, Worcester Road, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 1PN

telephone:            01531 632377.  fax:  01531 633904.  email: law@masefield.co.uk

 

You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office via https://ico.org.uk/  for information, advice or to make a complaint.