Privacy Policy

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 the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction

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 on a family matter or a will
• Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, eg if you instruct us on matters related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant
• Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you
• Details of your pension arrangements, eg if you instruct us on a pension matter or in relation to financial arrangements following breakdown of a relationship
• 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 matters 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, eg if you instruct us on discrimination claim
• Your trade union membership, eg if you instruct us on discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union
• Personal identifying information, such as your hair or eye colour or your parents’ names, eg if you instruct us to incorporate a company for you
• Your medical records, eg if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim, a professional negligence, or a family matter
• Your criminal record, eg if we are acting for you in a criminal matter

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.

We collect most of this information from you, direct. 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;
  • Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy
• via our website—we use cookies on our website. For more information on cookies, please see our cookies policy www.jordanssolicitors.co.uk/cookie-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;

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.

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 - To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes - To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety regulation 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 are 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

Statistical analysis to help us in the performance of your contract, e.g. the same defendant - For our legitimate interest to assist in managing and progressing you case so that we can deliver the best service to you.

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 and 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 AND 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 AND to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations AND 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 working practices, staff administration and assessments - To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations AND for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you

Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies - For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. for credit control and to ensure our clients are likely to be able to pay for our services

External audits and quality checks, e.g. for Lexcel, Legal Aid Agency, Conditional Fee Agreement insurers, accreditation and the audit of our accounts - For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards AND to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

We routinely share personal data with:

• professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, eg barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
• other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, eg your mortgage provider or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction or Companies House;
• Insurers – Conditional Fee Agreements, After the Event Insurers, and the Legal Aid Agency
• credit reference agencies;
• our insurers and brokers;
• external auditors, eg in relation to Lexcel accreditation, the audit of our accounts and statutory regulators;
• our bank;
• external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, eg IT and case management System providers;
• law costs drafts persons

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.

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

 We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you for six years. 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.

When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

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, e.g. 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:

• complete a data subject request form—available on our website at www.jordanssolicitors.co.uk/access-to-information; or
• email, call 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 certified copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill, ie no more than three months old); and
• let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

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.

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

From 25 May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation also gives you 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.