Please read the following information carefully. This privacy notice contains information about what information (data) we collect and store about you and why. It also tells you who we share this information with, the security mechanisms we have put in place to protect your data and how to contact us if you have a complaint.

Who we are?

Richard Reed Solicitors collects, uses and is 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 Regulation and other applicable data protection laws.

Sarah Reid, Compliance Officer for Legal Practice is responsible for this policy. She can be contacted on 0191 5670465 or at [email protected]

What information do we collect from you?

The information that is likely to be collected by us is as follows (but is not limited to):

Your name, address, telephone number, email address and your national insurance number;
Identification documentation such as your passport, driving licence, utility bills and bank statements;
Your financial information such as bank, pension and tax arrangements and details;
Your Job title, employment information and in some cases your education details.;
Information regarding third parties in your case, your family members, trustees, beneficiaries or nest of kin.
Some Special Category Data such as your ethnicity, your beliefs, any trade union membership, or information about your health and other information such as medical records;
Any personal identifying information that may be required to answer security questions with other third parties such as Companies House;
Technical Data including internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, 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 our website.
Special category Information / Sensitive Personal Data

You may need or want to provide us with details of any health condition or disability you have so we can make reasonable adjustments for you and to help accommodate your specific needs. This is known under the law as ‘special category information’. It may be that we obtain this type of information from you or other third parties in order to carry out the work you have instructed us to do for you. We will only process this type of data where it is necessary to do so in relation to our instructions form you.

Telephone Calls

It may be that we monitor or record telephone calls. This will be in accordance with law and this notice. All recordings belong to us but can be disclosed under data protection law.

Children

We may be required to hold personal information relating to children. This may be provided by you or other third parties. In some circumstances where children are involved, they may need to be represented by a parent, guardian or a ‘Litigation Friend’ and we will need the consent of these individuals to hold such information.

If you don’t provide us with your personal information

We will need to collect personal data from you either by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and if you don’t provide that to us we may not be able to carry out your instructions to us. We may not be able to act for you, but we will tell you if this is the case.

How is your personal data collected?

Your personal information is collected in different ways including but not limited to:

Directly from you: either by telephone, in person, by email or other electronic means or via our website.

This includes when you

Provide information to us when initially contacting us for legal advice and details of our services.
Provide instructions to us to act on your behalf in a legal matter.
Provide personal information in the recruitment section of the website.
Complete the contact us forms that we may provide or via our website
Request marketing to be sent to you.
Provide your feedback to us on the outcome or during the course of your case.
When you contact us for any other purpose including via our social media.

We may from time to time collect information about you from other sources. This may include but is not limited to;

From someone else involved in your case, court proceedings, or client due diligence provider checks
From a third party such as your bank, financial advisor or medical professionals.
From sources that are available to the general public such as Companies House, and the Land Registry. We may also obtain information from other search providers.
From online providers such as Google.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information in accordance with the law.

Normally we would use your personal data to:

effectively respond to your request for details of our services.
perform the contract we enter into with you to provide legal services to you.
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.
For marketing purposes

From time to time we may use your personal information to contact you about updates and legal developments that are relevant to you and might be of interest to you. We may also send information to you about our legal services and events.

For any other type of marketing, we will ask for your express opt-in consent before doing so.

Our marketing emails will contain an opt-out button – please use this if you would like us to stop sending you marketing material. Alternatively, you may opt out of our marketing at any time by emailing us at [email protected].

Where you have otherwise given consent.

Legal reasons we collect and use your personal information

We give details below as to ways we may use your personal information and which legal bases we rely on to do so. We may process your personal information on more than one lawful ground for doing so.

To provide legal services to you which may include the preliminary steps and the preliminary information we may need to take prior to confirming we can provide those services to you. In this circumstance the lawful basis for processing is in performance of the contract we have with you or in dealing with the preliminary steps we need to take before confirming our contract with you, or to comply with our legal obligations, with your consent or where it is necessary for our legitimate interests to do so.
Where we need to conduct identity checks. We need to do so in accordance with our legal obligations and it is necessary to our legitimate interests.
To advise you about matters which may be of interest to you which are connected to the work you have asked us to carry out for you and to provide you with details of our articles and news. This is necessary for our legitimate interests and in furthering our business.
To help us provide better services to you, including asking you for feedback and updating our terms and conditions of business. We will do this to comply with our legal obligations to do so, it is within our legitimate interests to do so and it is necessary to perform our contract with you.
To provide information to third parties involved in your case. This is necessary to perform our contract with you and to comply with our legal obligation to do so.
To provide information to our regulatory bodies, insurers, and Lexcel. This is necessary to comply with our legal obligations and is necessary to our legitimate interests.

How long do we keep your information ?

We must retain your information in accordance with the rules set down by our regulatory bodies and to comply with our legal accounting and reporting obligations.

In order to decide on how long we keep your information, we have to consider the type of personal information we hold and how it is held.

There are different requirements for different aspects of your personal information and this is available by contacting us.

You may have a right to ask us to delete your personal data. In some circumstances we may be able to do so but we will only do so in accordance with our legal obligations – see ‘right to erasure’ below for further information.

Will your personal information be shared and with whom?

We may have to share information in order to carry out your instructions to us, and this may include but is not limited to:

People who help us provide our services such as case management service providers, IT providers, storage providers and marketing organisations.

We may also need to share your information with other professionals who are assisting with or are involved with your case such as other lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, estate agents, medical professionals and other experts.

We may also share information with other third parties such as mortgage providers, Land Registry and Companies House, HMRC, the Court service and other government agencies.

This may also include the ICO, the SRA and the Law Society in order for us to comply with our reporting requirements.

Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We will only permit your personal information to be used by these third parties in accordance with our instructions to them and they are not allowed to use them for their own purposes. Third parties must ensure the security of your personal information at all times and in accordance with the law.

We will share personal information with law enforcement agencies if required by applicable law and with our regulatory bodies to comply with our obligations to do so.

We use social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You should always refer to their own privacy policies if you use their sites.

We will not share your personal information with any other third parties without your consent.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a number of important rights that you can exercise free of charge. In summary, these rights are:

In most circumstances transparency over how we use your personal data and fair processing of your information;
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; (right to erasure)
Receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us or have this information be 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;
Request not to be subject to automated decision making which produce legal effects that concern you or affect you in a significantly similar way.

If you want more information about your rights under the GDPR, please see the Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office on Individual’s rights under the GDPR.

If you request such information, we may need further details from you and may give you a form to complete. You do not need to complete this form and can provide the information to us verbally. If you don’t provide the further information we have requested from you, this may make it more difficult to respond to you and within the time limits provided. We may need this information to help us confirm your identity and reasons why you want access to the information requested. We need to ensure you have a right to the information requested. We aim to respond to all legitimate requests within 28 days.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact Sarah Reid on 0191 5670465 or [email protected]

Our security

We take the security of your personal information very seriously and can confirm we have satisfied the requirements of the Government backed scheme Cyber Essentials. We have policies and security measures in place to prevent your personal information being used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We also hold the Law Society’s accreditation Lexcel which ensures quality standards in terms of practice management and client care. We ensure that only those that need to have access to your personal information can do so. Third parties, employees, agents or contractors can only access your personal information based on our instructions to them to do so. They are also subject to strict duties of confidentiality

We also have procedures in place to deal with any possible data breach or loss and will contact you and our regulatory bodies when required to do so.

Alternative formats

If it would be helpful to have this notice provided in another format (for example: in another language, audio, braille), please contact us (see ‘Get in touch’ above).

Richard Reed Solicitors

Updated: September 2020