Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy Notice Effective 25th May 2018

Central Chambers Law Solicitors at Suite 2,
Central Chambers,
The Broadway, Ealing,
London, W5 2NR,
UK Data Privacy/Data Protection Law changed significantly on 25th May 2018.

The General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR for short) is a positive step towards you having more control over how your data is used and how you are contacted by us.

If you are an individual, the rights you have under the GDPR include the following:

• The right to be informed

• The right of access

• The right to rectification

• The right to erasure

• The right to restrict processing

• The right to data portability

• The right to object

• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

  The changes will also help to better protect your Personal Data. We have therefore updated our privacy notice to reflect these changes.

  We use your personal data to help us provide an excellent client service, which includes tailoring the information we share with you to help ensure that it’s relevant, useful and timely.

  We will respect your privacy and work hard to ensure we meet strict regulatory requirements.

  We will not sell your personal data to third parties.

  We will provide you with easy ways to manage and review your marketing choices if you receive direct marketing communications from us.

  We are a firm that is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). As you might expect, we are already subject to strict rules of confidentiality. It is therefore already part of the fabric and culture of our firm to keep your information private and secure.

  We would ask you to help us keep your data secure by carefully following any guidance and instructions we give e.g. communicating bank account details and transferring funds to us.

We are sometimes obliged to share your Personal Data with external authorities without notifying you e.g. as required by the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing Act 2017. In all other cases, we will be transparent, and we will explain to you why we are requesting your data and how we are using it.

Lawful Bases for Processing your Data

The new law states that we are allowed to use personal information only if we have a proper and lawful reason to do so. This includes sharing it with others outside the firm e.g. an auditor of a relevant quality standard. Privacy Policy

The GDPR says we must have one or more of these reasons:

• Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract we have with an individual, or because they have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract.

• Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).

• Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.

• Consent: the individual has given clear consent for us to process their personal data for a specific purpose.

  A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information.

  Here is a list of all the ways that we may use your personal data, and which of the reasons we rely on to do so.

Special Categories and Criminal Convictions Data

Further to our lawful bases for processing personal data we rely on further conditions contained within the Data Protection Act 2018 for processing these types of data. These conditions are contained in Schedule 1, Part 3 of the Act. The primary condition we rely on is known as “legal claims” where;

This condition is met if the processing—
(a) is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, any legal

(c) is otherwise necessary for the purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights

We would normally also rely on another condition in Schedule 1, Part 3 of the Act known as “consent” where, due to the nature of these types of data we would obtain

proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings), (b) is necessary for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, or

Types of Personal Data we process

Financial

Contact Information Socio-Demographic

Transactional Contractual Behavioural Communications

Social Relationships Open Data and Public Records

Documentary Data

Your Bank account details and your financial status and information
Where you live and how to contact you
This includes details about your work or profession, nationality etc.

Details about payments to and from your bank accounts Details about the products or services we provide to you Details about how you use our services
What we learn about you from letters, emails, and conversations between us

Your family, friends and other relationships
Details about you that are in public records such as the Land Registry, and information about you that is openly available on the internet
Details about you that are stored in documents in different formats, or copies of them. This could include things like your passport, drivers licence, or birth certificate

Consents National Identifier

Legal Aid Application and Bill

Any permissions, consents or preferences that you give us. This includes things like how you want us to contact you.
A number or code given to you by a government to identify who you are, such as a National Insurance Number Information required to submit an application for public funding and to claim our fees under any legal aid certificate issued to you.

Sources of Data

We collect personal data from various sources:

Estate Agents

Agents

To enable us to act on your behalf in relation to a land transaction

Your GP or other medical professional

Doctor

To obtain appropriate medical reports

Who we share your Data with

Subject to the SRA Code of Conduct and the requirements with regard to client confidentiality, we may share your personal information with:

• Lawyers or other organisations on the other side of a matter or case

• Barristers or experts we instruct

• The courts and other tribunals

• Your Personal Representatives or Attorneys

• Auditors

• Lenders

• Estate Agents, IFAs, Referrers, etc

• Organisations that we introduce you to.

• HM Revenue and Customs

• The government both Central and Devolved

• Fraud Prevention Agencies including the National Crime Agency

• The SRA and other regulators

• ID checking organisations

  Automated Decision-Making

  We do not use automated decision-making systems. All decisions relating to you and your matter are made by a person.

  Personal Data we use

  We typically will use the following types of personal data:

• Your Name

• Date of Birth

• Home address

• Contact details such as phone numbers and email addresses

• Bank details and account information

• Medical information (where applicable)

• Employment details

• Data that identifies you by cookies when you use our website

  Sending Data outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

  Unless you instruct us in a matter or case that involves an international element, we do not normally send your personal data outside the EEA. If we do, then we will seek your consent to do so, explain the risks to you and talk to you about potential safeguards depending on the country involved.

  Your refusal to provide Personal Data requested

  If you refuse to provide the information requested, then it may cause delay and we may be unable to continue to act for you or complete your matter.

  Marketing Information

  We may from time to time send you letters or emails about changes in the law and suggestions about actions that you might consider taking in the light of that information e.g. reviewing your will. We will send you this marketing information either because you have consented to receive it or because we have a “legitimate interest”.

You have the right to object and to ask us to stop sending you marketing information by contacting us at any time. You can of course change your mind and ask us to send the information again.

How long we keep your personal information

We are legally obliged to keep certain information for at least 5 years and typically store your file for 6 years before destroying it.

In some cases, e.g. Legal Aid Matters we are obliged to keep your files for a longer period of time, this period will be set out in our closing letter to you.

We will store Wills and other documents indefinitely.

We will keep your name and personal contact details on our database until you tell us that you would like them removed e.g. where you have changed solicitor.

How to get a copy of your Personal Information

If you wish to access your personal data then write to:

Mr Mannu Vaish, Data Protection Supervisor Central Chambers Law Solicitors
Suite 2,
Central Chambers,

The Broadway, Ealing, London,
W5 2NR,

or Email: info@centralchamberslaw.com
Telling us if your Personal Information is incorrect (The right to rectification)

If you think any information we have about you is incomplete or wrong, then you have the right to ask us to correct it. Please contact us as above.

Other Rights

As mentioned above you also have other rights, namely

• The right to erasure

• The right to restrict processing

• The right to data portability

  You have the right to ask us to delete (erase) or stop us using your data if there is no longer any need for us to keep it (e.g. under a legal obligation).

  In terms of data portability then subject to any lien we may enjoy for non-payment of fees, we will comply promptly (where permitted) to your request to transfer your physical paper file to another solicitor upon receipt of your signed consent. If your file is in electronic format we will take reasonable steps to export the file to a “portable format” where possible so that your new solicitor can upload it to their system. As many different IT systems are used by the legal profession we cannot guarantee that we can provide data in a compatible format.

Consent

GDPR in some cases requires us to obtain your explicit consent i.e. (a) the racial or ethnic origin of the data subject,
(b) his political opinions,
(c ) his religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature,

(d) whether he is a member of a trade union (within the meaning of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992),

(e) his physical or mental health or condition,
(f) his sexual life,
(g) the commission or alleged commission by him of any offence, or

(h) any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by him, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.

Where acting for you involves us processing such data we will seek your explicit consent e.g. when we plan to obtain your medical records.

You have the right to withdraw your consent by contacting us as stated above.

However, if you do so then we may not be able to progress you case or indeed continue to act for you.

How to Complain

If you are unhappy about how we are using your Personal Data then you can complain to us using the contact information above.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Further details on how to raise a concern with the ICO can be found on the ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns

Updating this Notice

We will, from time to time, update this Privacy Notice after 25th May 2018 to reflect emerging ICO and Working Party 29 guidance, requirements of the new Data Protection Act and any other relevant changes in the law or regulations. We will also seek to learn from any published cases of Data Protection breaches.