Dawson Hart Solicitors' Privacy Notice

We at Dawson Hart respect your personal data and this Notice sets out how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data.

Our use of your personal data complies with the General Data Protection Regulations.

The primary reason we collect and hold your personal data is to enable us to act on your behalf in accordance with the instructions that you give to us. The type of personal data we will hold will include your name, address and telephone number; documents to verify your identity; email address and information necessary and relevant to the legal matter in which you have instructed us.

How your personal data is collected

We collect most of this information from you directly or from public sources, or from third parties with your consent.

Our "Lawful Reasons" For Processing Your Personal Data

The "General Data Protection Regulation" (GDPR) is the primary piece of legislation defining your rights over our processing of your personal information. The GDPR requires us to declare which of six "lawful reasons" we are relying on when we are processing your personal data:

We operate on the basis of "consent" when sending newsletters (you will not receive a newsletter unless you have explicitly opted in to receive one).
We operate on the basis of "legitimate interest" when communicating with you in other ways (e.g. when responding to your enquiry).
We operate on the basis of legal obligation where we are obliged to process personal data.
We operate on the basis of contractual necessity where processing is needed in order to enter into or perform a contract.

Visitors to Our Website

This part of our privacy policy is written for the benefit of general visitors to the website. Your privacy is important to us. By providing personal information such as your name and e-mail address via the forms on this website, you agree to us contacting you with regard to the information provided.

Some forms on our website also include a check box asking you for permission to add you to our mailing list. This is an opt-in mailing list and your personal information will be used solely by us (and all such emails include a link for opt-out).

How we use your Personal Data provided via the website

We use the data you provide via this website to:

communicate with you; for example, we use contact details such as an email address or phone number when responding to enquiries made via online forms
monitor website trends; for example, we use Google Analytics to help us aggregate traffic so we can monitor how the website is being used
operate our business more effectively; for example, we seek feedback and use this to help improve our services

How long we keep Personal Data provided via our website

Personal data may be stored by the website for a period of up to 90 days after which time it is removed automatically.

Our Use of Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to monitor how our website is being used so we can make improvements. Our use of Google Analytics requires us to pass to Google your IP address (but no other information) - Google uses this information to prepare site usage reports for us, but Google may also share this information with other Google services. In particular, Google may use the data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. Related information:

Marketing, News and Invitations

We will only use your personal data to send you emails with details of our news, offers or invitations to events if you have clearly opted in to receiving such communication.

We will always treat your personal data with respect and your details are never passed on to a third party for marketing or promotional reasons.

If, having opted in to receiving such communication from us, you decide you no longer wish to receive them, all our emails have an unsubscribe link which you can use which will mean you will not be contacted by us again.

Our Clients

Who we share your personal data with

In order to represent you it is likely we will have to share your data with relevant third parties, to include but not limited to barristers, experts, other solicitors, HM Land Registry, Companies House.

We only allow third parties to to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they comply with data protection laws.

Where your personal data is stored

Your personal data is stored on our paper files at our offices and electronically on our IT systems

How long your personal data will be stored by us

We will keep your personal data for a period of time after we have finished advising or acting for you. We do this so that we can:

respond to any queries you may have;
enable us to carry out checks for conflicts of interest in accordance with our professional regulations;
show that we treated you fairly; and
keep records required by law.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.

There are different retention periods for different types of data and therefore, when your matter has completed we shall write to you confirming how long your data will be retained by us.

Your rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

The right to be informed.
The right of access.
The right to rectification.
The right to erasure.
The right to restrict processing.
The right to data portability.
The right to object.
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

For further information on each of the rights please see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation - https://ico.org.uk/fororganisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please contact us and your request shall be referred to our Data Protection Manager, Nicola Harding. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data or to exercise any of the above rights. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. We will try to respond to all requests within one month but if your request is complex, then we will inform you of our revised timeline for response

Keeping your personal data secure

We have policies in place to to prevent your personal data from being lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. Your personal data is only shared with those people who have a legitimate need to access it.

In the unlikely event of a suspected data security breach we will notify you and, if appropriate, the regulator as soon as possible.

Transfer of Personal Data

From time to time, in order to deliver our services to you, it may be necessary to pass personal data, such as your name and email address, to other services that we use; for example to send out newsletters and other communications (both electronic and print). However, your personal data will remain in the EU or countries considered by the EU to have equivalent policies such as Jersey, Guernsey, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada. Companies based in the USA that have certified with the EU-US Privacy Shield programme are also considered to be permitted destinations by the EU (this includes popular US products like Gmail, DropBox and MailChimp).

Complaints

We aim to resolve any concern you may raise about our use of your personal data directly with you. The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to complain to the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at www.ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone: 0303 123 1113.