Privacy Policy
Russell Worth Solicitors respects your right to privacy
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 data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
When we use your personal data we are regulated under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of the UK GDPR. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the UK GDPR, other relevant legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.
Key terms
It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:
We Russell Worth Solicitors
Personal data Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual
Special category personal data Personal data 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 data we collect about you
Below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of advising and/or acting for you.
Personal data we will collect
• Your name, address and telephone number
• Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, eg your date of birth or passport details
• Electronic contact details, eg your email address and mobile phone number
• Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation
• Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, eg payslips if you are instructing us to recover loss of earnings
• Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information, eg if using our secure online client portal
• Other monitoring information, eg if using our secure online client portal
Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us
• Your National Insurance and tax details
• Your bank and/or building society details
• Details of your professional online presence, eg LinkedIn profile
• Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, eg if you instruct us to recover care costs
• Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, eg if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant
• Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), eg if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant
• Your trade union membership, eg if your matter is funded by a trade union
• Your medical records, we are acting for you in a personal injury claim
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 data is collected
We collect most of this information from you direct or via our secure online client portal. However, we may also collect information:
• from publicly accessible sources, eg Companies House or HM Land Registry;
• directly from a third party, eg:
– sanctions screening providers;
– credit reference agencies;
– client due diligence providers;
• from a third party with your consent, eg:
– your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
– consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
– your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
– your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
• via our website—we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our https://www.russellworthsolicitors.co.uk/cookie-policy/ cookies policy
• via our information technology (IT) systems, eg:
– case management, document management and time recording systems;
– reception logs;
– automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems;
How and why we use your personal data
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, eg:
• 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.
Below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:
Use of personal data =To provide legal services to you
Reason = For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
Use of personal data = 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, eg under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator
Reason = To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Use of personal data = Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies
Reason = To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Use of personal data = Ensuring business policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use
Reason =For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you
Use of personal data =Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control
Reason = For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can delivery the best service for you at the best price
Use of personal data = Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information
Reason = For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Use of personal data = Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, eg in relation to [our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures]
Reason = For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can delivery the best service for you at the best price
Use of personal data = Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems
Reason = For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Use of personal data = Updating [and enhancing] client records
Reason = 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, eg making sure that we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services
Use of personal data = Statutory returns
Reason = To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Use of personal data = Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments
Reason = To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you
Use of personal data =Marketing our services [and those of selected third parties ] 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.
Reason = For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to promote our business to existing and former clients
Use of personal data = External audits and quality checks, eg the audit of our accounts for SRA purposes
Reason = For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, ie to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
The above 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. In this regard, we provide your name and email address to data processors, namely Trustpilot (to send you invitations to leave a review) and AWeber (to send our newsletter), both of whom have obligations in relation to the GDPR and we are satisfied that they meet those obligations.
We 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 the utmost respect and never sell it to other organisations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:
• contacting us using the contact details at the end of this document
• using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails or ‘STOP’ number in texts
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 data with
We routinely share personal data with:
• professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, eg barristers, medical professionals, accountants, or other experts;
• other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, eg enquiry agents;
• our insurers and brokers;
• your insurers who may be able to provide legal expenses cover for your claim
• external auditors, eg in relation to the SRA and the audit of our accounts;
• our bank;
• external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, eg marketing agencies analysis suppliers; shredding services; IT support
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 relating 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 the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
We will not share your personal data with any other third party.
Where your personal data 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 ‘Who we share your personal data with’).
Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA’.
How long your personal data will be kept
We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:
• 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.
We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. We will keep files and/or electronically stored papers and documents on the understanding that we can destroy them 7 years after the date of the final bill
When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.
Transferring your personal data out of the EEA
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), eg:
• with your and our service providers located outside the EEA;
• if you are based outside the EEA;
• where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising you.
These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.
The following countries to which we may transfer personal data have been assessed by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data: USA(Subject to Privacy Shield Framework).
We also transfer personal data to the USA via Ngage who provide our website live chat facility. Ngage do not participate in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework but they have updated their Privacy Policy – which can be found here https://www.internetbrands.com/privacy/privacy-main.html – following GDPR. We have carried out an Adequacy Assessment of their Privacy Policy and are satisfied they do not present a risk and are content that client data will be protected. Should anything change in the future this will be reviewed.
If you would like further information please contact us see ‘How to contact us’ below).
Your rights
You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
Access The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data
Rectification The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
To be forgotten The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations
Restriction of processing The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data
Data portability The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations
To object The right to object:
—at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling);
—in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, eg processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.
Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making. The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including
profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation .
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
• email or write to us —see below: ‘How to contact us;)’ and
• let us have enough information to identify you [(eg your full name, address and client or matter reference number)];
• let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
• let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates eg; being specific about what you are requesting, eg emails between ‘A’ and ‘B’ (between 1/6/11 and 1/9/11); your medical records (between 2006 & 2009) held by Dr ‘C’ at ‘D’ hospital; copies of statements (between 2006 & 2009 .
Keeping your personal data 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.
If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit http://www.getsafeonline.org Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.
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 Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) 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: [0303 123 1113].
Changes to this privacy policy
This privacy policy was published on 15th April 2024 and last updated on 15th April 2024.
We may change this privacy policy from time to time, when we do we will inform you via email.
How to contact us
Please contact us by post or email if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.
Our contact details are shown below:
Compliance Team
Russell Worth Solicitors
Ashleigh Way
Langage Park Office Campus
Plympton
Plymouth
PL7 5JX
01752 334100
Do you need extra help?
If you would like this policy in another format (for example large print) please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ above).
