Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Clarence Family Law respects your privacy and places paramount importance to the privacy of and management of the data it holds.

This privacy policy provides information on how Clarence Family Law collects, manages and processes your personal data through your use of this website alongside information about when and why we collect and store personal information from you. It also tells you how this personal information will be used, when it might be disclosed to third parties, how it will be kept secure and how long it will be retained.

It also provides details of how to contact us and if you have a complaint. If you have any requests concerning your personal information or any queries about these practices, please contact us by e-mail at info@clarencefamilylaw.co.uk, with subject matter “GDPR”.

We will ask you to consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy when you first visit our website.

1. WHO WE ARE

Clarence Family Law Limited collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal data about clients and members of the public.

We are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and we are a controller of that personal information for the purposes of those laws. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk) with registration number: ZB611725.

If you have any questions about this notice or if you want to exercise any of your rights under data protection laws you should contact Helen Wilby by email at info@clarencefamilylaw.co.uk

2. THE DATA WE COLLECT AND USE FROM OUR CLIENTS

Whilst providing legal services we collect, use, store and transfer some or all of the following personal data from our clients:

  • Identity Data: including name, maiden name, surname, the names of any children (if any) marital status, title, date of birth, gender, identifiers and usernames.
  • Contact Data: including residential address, billing address (if different), business address, email address and telephone numbers.
  • Financial Data: including bank account, salary and income information, payment and account details and any information about your other finances and assets that we need to provide legal services to you.
  • Medical Data: including health and medical records.
  • IT and Technical Data: including IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Marketing Data: including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.
  • We may also collect other categories of Personal Data including details about your race or ethnicity, business and professional qualifications and experience, immigration status, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, political views, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data and information about criminal convictions and offences.
  • We will typically hold copies of your passport, driving licence, utility bills, bank statements and similar documents.

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or in order to provide legal services to you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to provide legal services to you. In this case, we may have to stop acting for you, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED

(i) VIA OUR WEBSITE

We will collect information that you voluntarily provide to us if you fill in an enquiry form on our website. This information may include the following personal data:

  • name;
  • residential and/or business address;
  • contact details, for example email and telephone number;
  • and, where you provide it, some categories of personal data, for example ethnic origin and gender.

(ii) BY CORESSPONDING WITH US VIA POST, TELEPHONE, EMAIL OR OTHERWISE. THIS INCLUDES PERSONAL DATA YOU PROVIDE WHEN YOU:

  • Instruct us to provide legal services;
  • Request marketing or invitations are sent to you;
  • Give us feedback or contact us.

4. THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM THIRD PARTIES OR PUBLICLY AVAILABLE SOURCES

In the event you provide us with your personal data other than through use of our website or if we obtain your personal data from another party or from information you have made public, we will only collect, process and store your information for the purposes set out in this notice.

5. REASONS WE COLLECT AND USE PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • To respond to your enquiries and requests for legal services.
  • To register you as a new client and to provide you with legal services, including dealing with legal proceedings, under a retainer.
  • To allow us to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements and applicable law, including anti-money laundering legislation, guidelines and regulations or in response to a lawful request from a court or regulatory body.
  • Enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on our behalf in order to provide legal services, including webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical, courier or other functions, as applicable.
  • Allowing you to use features on our website, when you choose to do so.
  • To provide you with legal updates relevant to the legal services we provide.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and provided fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
  • Ensuring security and preventing or detecting fraud.
  • Administration, including complaints’ resolution, troubleshooting of our website, data analysis, testing of new features, research, statistical and survey purposes.

The legal basis for our processing of personal data for the purposes described above will typically include:

  • Processing necessary to fulfil a contract that we have in place with you or other data subjects.
  • Your explicit consent.
  • Processing necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, which is carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests to ensure that legal services are properly provided, our security and our clients security and our proper administration.
  • Processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject; and,
  • Any other applicable legal grounds for processing from time to time.

6. SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF (SENSITIVE) PERSONAL DATA

You may also supply us with, or we may receive, special categories of (or sensitive) personal data. This is defined by data protection laws to include personal data revealing a person’s racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or data concerning health. We process these special categories of personal data on the basis of one or more of the following:

  • Where you have given explicit consent to the processing of the personal data for one or more specified purpose(s);
  • Where the processing relates to personal data which is manifestly made public by you;
  • Where the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
  • Where the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, in accordance with applicable law. Such reasons include where the processing is necessary:

(a) for the purposes of the prevention or detection of an unlawful act or for preventing a fraud;
(b) for the provision of confidential advice.

7. DATA RELATING TO CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS AND OFFENCES

We will only collect and store personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences (including the alleged commission of offences) where necessary for the purposes of:

  • The prevention or detection of an unlawful act and it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
  • Providing or obtaining legal advice; or
  • Establishing, exercising or defending legal rights.

8. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We routinely share personal data from our clients with various third parties in order to properly progress your case and to provide legal services. Third parties may include:

  • Other law firms and the courts.
  • Legal service providers.
  • Barristers.
  • Third party experts such as chartered surveyors, financial advisors and forensic accountants.
  • Business services suppliers.
  • Background and identity check providers (including e-verification services) and credit check agencies.
  • Third party litigation funders.
  • Government, regulatory and other official bodies.
  • Law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

We will not share personal information with any other party unless specifically requested by you.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

9. MARKETING

We want to provide you with choices around certain personal data uses, especially in relation to marketing and advertising.

We use your personal data to notify you by email, telephone or post about important legal developments and services which we think you may find valuable, for sending you newsletters, invitations to seminars and similar marketing.

In this connection we may disclose personal data to third parties providing marketing services to us, or with whom we are conducting joint marketing exercises.

You have the right to opt out of receiving direct marketing communications from us at any time by contacting Helen Wilby, using the contact details set out above, or using the unsubscribe link in emails.

10. EMAIL MONITORING

Email communications which you send to us or which we send to you may be monitored by us to ensure compliance with professional standards and our internal compliance policies. Monitoring is not continuous or routine but may be undertaken on the instruction of a partner where there are reasonable grounds for doing so.

11. FAILURE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION

If clients do not provide the personal data that we ask for and that we need to enable us to carry out their instructions, it may delay or prevent us from providing legal services to them.

The provision of name and address and information on identity documents is required from clients to enable us to comply with our obligations under anti-money laundering legislation.

12. DATA RETENTION PERIODS

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect of our relationship with you.

We will usually retain your personal data for a period of six years from completion of your matter. In some cases, for example if your matter involves a child or children, we may need to retain your file and relevant personal data until the youngest child reaches the age of 18. We will inform you when this is the case.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see below for further information.

In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

13. TRANSFER OF YOUR INFORMATION OUT OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA)

We will not routinely transfer personal data outside of the EEA or to any organisation governed by public international law or which is set up under any agreement between two or more countries. If we do propose to transfer personal data outside of the EEA, we will check that the data subject’s privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate technical, organisational, contractual or other lawful means.

14. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under the GDPR data subjects have several important rights. Those include rights to:

  • Fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your personal information.
  • Access your personal information.
  • Require us to correct any mistakes in your information.
  • Require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations.
  • Receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations.
  • Object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing.
  • Object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you.
  • Object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information.
  • Otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

  • Email, call or write to our DPO, Helen Wilby at info@clarencefamilylaw.co.uk.
  • Let us have proof of your identity and address; and
  • Let us know the information to which your request relates.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests.

15. HOW WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE

We maintain a comprehensive data privacy and security programme to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify the data subject and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

16. COMPLAINTS

We hope that Helen Wilby can resolve any query or concern raised about our use of personal information.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone 0303 1231113.

17. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We may change this privacy notice from time to time, and when we do, we will update the copy on our website.

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To see how we can help you with your finances on divorce, please call us now on 0203 576 3038 or
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