Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Introduction

Stephen Moore & Co respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy applies to any personal data collected or received through our website www.stephenmooresolicitors.co.uk or via email, letter, telephone or face-to-face contact.

1. Important information and who we are

Purpose of this privacy policy

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how Stephen Moore & Co collects and processes your personal data.

It is important that you read this privacy policy.

Controller

Stephen Moore & Co is the controller and responsible for your personal data.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights (as set out in paragraph 9 of this privacy policy), please contact the DPO using the details set out below.

Contact details

Our full details are:

Name and title of DPO: Catherine Brockway, Partner

Email address: catherinebrockway@stephenmooresolicitors.co.uk

Postal address: Stephen Moore & Co, 34 Regent Place, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 2PN

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

The data protection law in the UK will change on 25 May 2018. This privacy policy sets out most of your rights under the new laws.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy/notice of every website you visit.

2. The data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

  • Identity & Contact Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, gender, job title, employer billing address, correspondence address, email address and telephone numbers (where applicable).
  • Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details (where applicable).
  • Where it is appropriate for the nature of the services that we are providing to you, we may collect Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Similarly, we may also collect information about criminal convictions and offences. If we are advising you in relation to an allegation of criminal activity, it will be necessary for us to obtain information regarding any previous convictions that you have in order to advise you fully.
  • Case Data – includes information about your case or legal problem.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel a service we proposed to provide to you, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise, including face-to-face contact. This includes personal data you provide when you:
  • request our services;
  • use our website:
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
  • Identity & Contact and Transaction Data from public regulatory bodies such as the police, HMRC, and courts, who are usually based within the EEA.

4. How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. It will usually be in the following circumstances :

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you. We only use your data for the purposes of providing you with legal advice, assistance and where appropriate, representation and for reasons directly associated with those services, i.e. providing information to quality auditors.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

The provision of legal services – including file management & use

  • File archiving, deletion and destruction – The type of data we hold is identity and contact.
  • Internal Firm Management (including reporting, monitoring and complaints handling) – It is necessary for us to use your personal data to perform our contract with you in the provision of legal services and to comply with our legal obligations.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, it is a natural part of the provision of legal services that such services develop and change over time; this shall not constitute a change of purpose.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. Disclosures of your personal data

We may have to share your personal data with other parties for the purposes of performing our contract with you.

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

Where reasonably practicable, we have a signed Data Processing Agreement in place with such third parties.

6. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

All data that is held by ourselves is encrypted, backed up on a daily basis and stored on servers based in the EU.

All data held capable of being accessed by desktop, laptop or tablet computer which equipment is password protected and secured by further authentication.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

7. Data retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.  Please refer to paragraph 22 in our Terms & Conditions of Business document entitled Storage & Documents.

8. Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.  Please refer to paragraph 19 in our Terms & Conditions of Business document.

No fee usually required

You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.  Please refer to paragraph 19 of our Terms & Conditions of Business document for further information concerning your rights.