Privacy Policy

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 The personal data we will or may collect in the course of advising and/or acting for you is as follows:

Personal data we will collect

• Your name, date of birth, address and telephone number
• Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, (e.g. passport and/or      driving licence details) and proof of address (e.g. utility bills and/or      bank statements)
• Electronic contact details, e.g. 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, e.g.     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
• Your information from related documents, such as your passport or other      identification

The personal data we request from you is to enable us to provide our service to you and to comply with our statutory obligations in respect of Anti-Money Laundering (AML), KYC and client due diligence. 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 through the form on our website or by corresponding by phone, email or otherwise when engaged to provide services.

However, we may also collect information:

• From publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
• Directly from a third party, e.g. credit reference agencies, client due diligence      providers;
• From a third party with your consent, e.g. your bank or building society, another financial institution or  advisor;
• Consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
• Via our information technology systems, e.g. case management, document management and time recording systems;
• Relevant websites and applications; automated monitoring of our websites and other      technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections,      communications systems, email and instant messaging systems.
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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, e.g:

• To comply with our legal and regulatory/statutory 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 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.

What we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:

· What we use your personal data for: 

Our reasons

• 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; Screening for      financial and other sanctions or embargoes;
• 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/statutory 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;
• Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control;
• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party;
• Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information;
• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party; and/or 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;
• Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems;
• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party;
• and/or 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/or 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/or for our      legitimate interests or those of a third party;

Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies

• For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party;
• External      audits and quality checks, and the audit of our accounts; including      lenders
• For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party; and/or 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, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services or products.

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 or share it with other organisations outside Victoria for marketing purposes.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by contacting us by post, email or telephone by contacting our Office Manager.

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, e.g. barristers or other experts as we deem fit to advance your case;
• Other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, HM Land      Registry or HMRC in the case of a property transaction or Companies House;
• Credit reference agencies;
• Insurers and brokers;
• External auditors and the audit of our accounts;
• Our bank;
• Our case management providers.

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.

Where your personal data is held - 

Information may be held at our office, 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 Society Regulations.

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. Further details on this are set out in our retention that gives these details (see “Retention Policy”).

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

Retention Policy –

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for legal, regulatory and tax purposes.

This policy sets out how long information will normally be held by us and when that information will be confidentially destroyed.

Responsibility – 

Our data controller at VSL is responsible for implementing and monitoring compliance with this policy. They will undertake an annual review of this policy to verify that it is in effective operation.

Our process

Information (hard copy and electronic) will be retained for at least the period specified in our Data Retention Period.

All information must be reviewed before destruction to determine if there are special factors that mean destruction should be delayed, e.g.:

• Potential      litigation
• Complaints
• Ongoing      cases

We will endeavour to delete hard copy and electronically held documents and information at the end of the retention period.

The above does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell OR share it with other organisations outside Victoria Solicitors for marketing purposes.

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).

These non-EEA countries may not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. We will, however, endeavour that the transfer complies with data protection law and all personal data will be secure.

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 (the right of access)

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

Restriction of processing

The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, e.g. 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 Regulations

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please email, call or write to us—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and:

• Let      us have enough information to identify you (e.g. 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.

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.