Please read the following information carefully. This privacy notice contains information about the information collected, stored and otherwise processed about you and the reasons for the processing. It also tells you who Stratford Solicitors Limited shares this information with, the security mechanisms Stratford Solicitors Limited has put in place to protect your information and how to contact Stratford Solicitors Limited in the event you need further information.
Who Are We?
Stratford Solicitors Limited collects, uses and is responsible for personal information about you. When Stratford Solicitors Limited does this it is the “controller” of this information for the purposes of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
If you need to contact Stratford Solicitors Limited about your information or the processing carried out you can use the contact details at the end of this document.
What does Stratford Solicitors Limited do with your information?
Information collected
Stratford Solicitors Limited collects some or all of the following personal information that you provide:
- personal details
- family details
- lifestyle and social circumstances
- goods and services
- financial details
- education, training and employment details
- physical or mental health details
- racial or ethnic origin
- religious, philosophical or other beliefs
- sexual orientation
- genetic information
- criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences, or related security measures
- other personal information relevant to instructions to provide legal services, including information specific to the instructions in question.
Information collected from other sources
The same categories of information may also be obtained from third parties, such as members of Stratford Solicitors Limited, experts, members of the public, your family and friends, witnesses, courts and other tribunals, suppliers of goods and services, investigators, government departments, regulators, public records and registers.
How Stratford Solicitors Limited uses your personal information: Purposes
Stratford Solicitors Limited may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- to fulfil regulatory requirements
- to procure goods and services
- to manage matters relating to employment, including payroll and pensions
- to respond to requests for references
- to respond to potential complaints or make complaints
- to carry out anti-money laundering and terrorist financing checks
- as otherwise required or permitted by law
Marketing and promotion
In relation to personal information collected for marketing purposes, the personal information consists of:
- names, contact details, and name of organisation
- the nature of your interest in Stratford Solicitors Limited marketing
This will be processed so that you can be provided with information about Stratford Solicitors Limited.
You may contact Stratford Solicitors Limited using the contact details at the end of this document if you no longer wish to receive such information.
Whether information has to be provided by you, and why
Information may have to be provided by you for the purposes of completing a legal transaction.
If you are offering or providing Stratford Solicitors Limited with goods or services your information may be processed in relation to such offers or contracts.
Who will Stratford Solicitors Limited share your personal information with?
It may be necessary to share your information with the following:
- information processors, such as IT support staff, email providers, information
storage providers - in the event of complaints, the Head of Stratford Solicitors Limited and members
of Stratford Solicitors Limited who deal with complaints, the Bar Standards Board and the Legal Ombudsman - other regulatory authorities
- current, past or prospective employers or employees
- education and examining bodies
- legal professionals
- experts and other witnesses
- prosecution authorities
- courts and tribunals
- Stratford Solicitors Limited staff
- family and associates of the person whose personal information Stratford Solicitors Limited is processing
- current, past or prospective employers
- business associates, professional advisers and trade bodies, e.g. the Solicitors Regulation Authority
- the intended recipient, where you have asked Stratford Solicitors Limited to provide a reference
Stratford Solicitors Limited may be required to provide your information to regulators, such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority or the Information Commissioner’s Office. In the case of the Information Commissioner’s Office, there is a risk that your information may lawfully be disclosed by them for the purpose of any other civil or criminal proceedings, without Stratford Solicitors Limited consent or your consent, which includes privileged information.
Stratford Solicitors Limited may also be required to disclose your information to the police or intelligence services, where required or permitted by law.
Sources of information
The personal information Stratford Solicitors Limited obtains may include information obtained from:
- legal professionals
- experts and other witnesses
- prosecution authorities
- courts and tribunals
- lay and professional clients of members of Stratford Solicitors Limited
- family and associates of the person whose personal information Stratford Solicitors Limited is processing
- in the event of complaints, a complaints partner, the Solicitors Regulation
Authority and the Legal Ombudsman - other regulatory authorities
- current, past or prospective employers
- education and examining bodies
- business associates, professional advisers and trade bodies, e.g. the Solicitors Regulation Authority
- the intended recipient, where you have asked Stratford Solicitors Limited to
provide a reference. - data processors, such as IT support staff, email providers, data storage providers
- public sources, such as the press, public registers and law reports.
Transfer of your information outside the European Economic Area (EEA)
This privacy notice is of general application and as such it is not possible to state whether it will be necessary to transfer your information out of the EEA in any particular case or for a reference. However, if you reside outside the EEA or your case or the role for which you require a reference involves persons or organisations or courts and tribunals outside the EEA then it may be necessary to transfer some of your information to that country outside of the EEA for that purpose. If you are in a country outside the EEA or if the instructions you provide come from outside the EEA then it is inevitable that information will be transferred to those countries. If this applies to you and you wish additional precautions to be taken in respect of your information please indicate this when providing initial instructions.
Some countries and organisations outside the EEA have been assessed by the European Commission and their information protection laws and procedures found to show adequate protection. The list can be found by clicking below:
Most do not. If your information has to be transferred outside the EEA, then it may not have the same protections and you may not have the same rights as you would within the EEA.
Stratford Solicitors Limited will not transfer personal information outside the EEA, except as necessary for the conduct of any legal proceedings.
If you would like any further information please use the contact details at the end of this document.
How long will Stratford Solicitors Limited store your personal information?
Stratford Solicitors Limited will normally store all your information:
- Until at least 1 year after the expiry of any relevant limitation period. This is because it may be needed for potential legal proceedings. At this point any further retention will be reviewed and the information will be marked for deletion or marked for retention for a further period. The latter retention period is likely to occur only where the information is needed for legal proceedings, regulatory matters or active complaints. Deletion will be carried out as soon as reasonably practicable after the information is marked for deletion.
- Equality and diversity data may be retained for three years in pseudonymised form for the purpose of research and statistics and complying with regulatory obligations in relation to the reporting of equality and diversity data.
- Names and contact details held for marketing purposes will be stored indefinitely or until Stratford Solicitors Limited becomes aware or is informed that the individual has ceased to be a potential client.
- Personal information held for recruitment purposes or in relation to employment.
Consent
As explained above, Stratford Solicitors Limited is relying on your explicit consent to process your information. You provided this consent when you signed Stratford Solicitors Limited’s client care letter.
You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, but this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing activity carried out prior to you withdrawing your consent. However, where Stratford Solicitors Limited also relies on other bases for processing your information, you may not be able to prevent processing of your information.
If there is an issue with the processing of your information, please contact Stratford Solicitors Limited using the contact details below.
Your Rights
Under the GDPR, you have a number of rights that you can exercise in certain circumstances. These are free of charge. In summary, you may have the right to:
- Ask for access to your personal information and other supplementary information;
- Ask for correction of mistakes in your information or to complete missing information Stratford Solicitors Limited holds on you;
- Ask for your personal information to be erased, in certain circumstances;
- Receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to me or have this information sent to a third party. This will be provided to you or the third party in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, e.g. a Word file;
- 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 the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
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 want to exercise any of these rights, please:
- Use the contact details at the end of this document;
- Stratford Solicitors Limited may need to ask you to provide other information so that you can be identified;
- Please provide a contact address so that you can be contacted to request further information to verify your identity;
- Provide proof of your identity and address;
- State the right or rights that you wish to exercise.
Stratford Solicitors Limited will respond to you within one month from when it receives your request.
How to make a complaint?
The GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners’ Office if you are in the UK, or with the supervisory authority of the Member State where you work, normally live or where the alleged infringement of information protection laws occurred. The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted at http://ico.org.uk/concerns
Future Processing
Stratford Solicitors Limited does not intend to process your personal information except for the reasons stated within this privacy notice.
Contact Details
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information Stratford Solicitors Limited holds about you, please contact Stratford Solicitors Limited using the contact details below.
The best way to contact Stratford Solicitors Limited is via:
Email to: enquiries@stratford-solicitors.com
Phone: 01625 878 204
Address: Stratford Solicitors, Poynton Chambers, 130 London Road South, Poynton, Cheshire, SK12 1LQ
Stratford Solicitors is committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you receive, or about the bill, please contact Nicholas Stratford on 01625 878 204 via e-mail at nick.stratford@stratford-solicitors.com or by post to this office.
We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints, available at this office. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV1 9WJ, or call 0300 555 0333.
You also have the right to object to the bill and apply for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Legal Ombudsman may not deal with a complaint about the bill if you have applied to the court for an assessment of the bill.