Privacy Policy.
Purpose of this notice
To describe how we collect and use personal data about you in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Who we are
Forresters Solicitors Ltd is a Limited company registered in England. The Firm’s registered address is 117 Duke Street, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, LA14 1XA, registration number 6503747 and authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 484808.
Forresters Solicitors Ltd is known as the “Controller” of the personal data you provide to us. Personal data includes name, address, date of birth, national insurance number, e-mail, telephone number, financial information (payment information such as a debit/credit card).
Why we need it
The primary reason we collect personal data is to provide you with a legal service in accordance with your instructions and for related purposes including verifying your identity, administration of files and updating our records.
You are responsible for ensuring that all personal data provided is accurate.
What we do with it
We only use your personal data with your consent, or where it is necessary:
- to enter into, or perform, a contract with you. This includes providing your data, where appropriate and necessary to experts, barristers, banks, building societies, mortgage lenders, estate agents etc.
- to comply with legal and regulatory compliance
- for statutory returns
- to protect your vital interests
- for our own (or a third party’s) lawful interests, provided your rights don’t override these
Your information is only used for the purpose or purposes it was collected for (or for closely related purposes).
We may process personal information for certain legitimate business purposes, which include some or all of the following:
- where the processing enables us to enhance, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services/communications for the benefit of our Clients.
- to identify and prevent fraud
- to enhance the security of our network and information systems
- to better understand how people interact with our websites
Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always keep your personal data rights in high regard and take account of these rights at all times.
Where we hold documents such as Wills, Deeds, LPA’s etc, we may rely upon legitimate interests as the reason for contacting you in the future. We will make sure that we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative), and your rights under data protection laws. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests – we will not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law.
Where we keep it
All data we obtain is stored securely in the UK. We will not transfer any of your data to another country unless you instruct us to do so.
How long we keep it
We will only use and store information for so long as it is required for the purposes it was obtained for and depending on the nature of the case. This will be confirmed to you at the end of your case. After this period of time your file of papers together with the electronic file will be destroyed confidentially without further reference to you.
In order to meet our regulatory requirements, we may be required to retain basic information about you for a longer period of time.
We continually review the information we hold and delete what is no longer required. We will not retain your data for any longer than necessary.
How we keep personal information secure
We have appropriate security measures in place to ensure personal information is not lost, stolen or used in an authorised manner.
We have procedures in place to deal with data breaches. We will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of any personal data breach within 72 hours of becoming aware of it where we are legally required to do so.
What are your rights?
We want to ensure that you remain in control of your personal data. Part of this is making sure you understand your legal rights, which are as follows:
- the right to confirmation as to whether we have your personal data and, if we do, to obtain a copy of the personal information we hold (this is known as a data subject access request)
- the right to have your data erased (though this will not apply where it is necessary for us to continue to use the data for a lawful reason)
- the right to have inaccurate data rectified
- the right to object to your data being used for marketing or profiling; and where technically feasible, you have the right to personal data you have provided to us which we process automatically based on your consent or the performance of a contract. This information will be provided in a common electronic format.
Please keep in mind that there are exceptions to the rights above and, though we will always try to respond to your satisfaction, there may be situations where we are unable to do so.
If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer, who will investigate the matter.
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, who may be contacted at www.ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone 0303 123 1113
Contact us
Should you wish to contact our Data Protection Officer or have any queries on this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you, either email [email protected] in writing addressing any correspondence to the Data Protection Officer, 117 Duke Street, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, LA14 1XA or call 01229 820297.