Introduction

We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal information. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation, which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

Key Terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

We, us, our Maysons Solicitors Ltd
Personal information Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual
Special category personal information Personal information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership. Genetic and biometric data. Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation

Personal information we collect about you

We may collect and use the following personal information about you:

  • Your name, address and telephone number
  • Electronic contact details, e.g. your email address and mobile phone number
  • Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information, e.g. if using our secure online client portal
  • Information relating to the matter on which you are seeking our advice or representation
  • Information to enable us to check and verify identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details your National Insurance and tax details
  • Financial details so far as required by the money laundering regulations or as relevant to your instructions including your ability to meet our invoices
  • Bank and/or building society details
  • Details of your professional online presence, e.g. LinkedIn profile
  • Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, e.g. if you instruct us on a Will
  • Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, e.g. if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant
  • Your nationality and immigration status and information from related documents, such as your passport or other identification, and immigration information, e.g. if necessary for compliance with the money laundering regulations
  • Details of your pension arrangements, e.g. if you instruct us on an employment matter
  • Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), e.g. if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant
  • Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g. if you instruct us on a discrimination claim
  • Personal identifying information, such as your hair or eye colour or your parents’ names, e.g. if you instruct us to incorporate a company for you
  • Your medical records, e.g. if they are material in court proceedings

This personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

How your personal information is collected

We collect most of this information from you direct. However, we may also collect information:

  • From publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
  • Directly from a third party, e.g.:
    • (a)  Sanctions screening providers
    • (b) Client due diligence providers;
  • From a third party with your consent, e.g.:
    • (a)  Your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
    • (b)  Consultants and other professionals that you or we may engage in relation to your matter;
    • (c)  Your employer, professional body or pension administrators;
    • (d)  Your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
    • (e)  Your authorised agent(s)
  • Via our website
  • Via our information technology (IT) systems, e.g.:
    • (a) Case management, document management and time recording systems;
    • (b) Automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, communication systems, email and instant messaging systems;

How and why we use your personal information

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.:

  • To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
  • For our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
  • Where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

The table below explains what we use (process) your personal information for and our reasons for doing so:

What we use your personal information for Our reasons
To provide legal services to you For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity

Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes

Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business e.g. under health and safety regulations or rules issued by our professional regulator

 To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet use For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to make sure we following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information 

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you 

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Updating and enhancing client records For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract 

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

 

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services
Statutory returns To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring safe work practices, staff administration and assessments To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations 

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. make sure that we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you
Marketing our services to: 

  • Existing and former clients;
  • Third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services;
  • Third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings.
 For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former clients
External audits and quality checks, and the audit of our accounts For our legitimate interests or those of a third party i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standard 

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

 

The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

Promotional communications

We may use your personal data to send you updates by email, text message, telephone or post about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.

We may have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal data with our utmost respect and never share it with other organisations other than contractors or agents that we occasionally use for the sending out of e-newsletters or event invitations.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

  • Contacting us by email addressed to info@maysonslaw.co.uk or writing to Maysons Solicitors, Burnley Business Centre, Off Liverpool Road, Burnley, Lancashire, BB12 6HH
  • Using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in e-newsletters or electronic event invitations

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share personal data with:

  • Professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
  • Other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions e.g. your mortgage provider, Companies House, or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction;
  • Our insurers and brokers;
  • External auditors, e.g. in relation to quality assessments and the audit of our accounts;
  • Our bank;
  • External service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. marketing agencies, analysis suppliers, cloud providers, software providers.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of such information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

Where your personal information is held

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see above: ‘who we share your personal information with’).

How long your personal information will be kept

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.  Different retention period apply for different types of data.  As a general guideline we will not hold your data for more than six years unless there is a specific need or you instruct us to do so.  When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you.  We will do so for one of the following reasons:

  • To comply with your instructions;
  • To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
  • To show that we treated you fairly;
  • To keep records required by law.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access 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 you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulations also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.  The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone 03031231113

Changes to this privacy statement

This privacy notice was published on 25th May 2018.

How to contact us

Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.  Our contact details are below:

Maysons Solicitors Ltd
Burnley Business Centre
Off Liverpool Road
Burnley
Lancashire
BB12 6HH

01282 685444

info@maysonslaw.co.uk