Privacy

We ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

Who we are

We, Rushford & McCarville LLP, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

The personal information we collect and use:

Information collected by us

In the course of our business, when you engage with us in relation to the legal services that we offer, we may collect personal information about you. Such information may include: –

• Information such as your name, basic details about your employment and your relationship status, your National Insurance Numbers and other forms of formal identification, including a picture portrait of you;
• Contact information such as your postal and email addresses and your telephone numbers;
• Payment related information, such as bank and payment card details;
• Other financial information such as pension details and share holding numbers.
• Depending on the nature of our relationship to you, and the nature of any instructions from you, this may also include information about your health, which sometimes includes your medical records, tax reference numbers and background information provided by you or collected as part of our regulatory requirements or services.
• Sometimes we collect information about you from third parties in the course of discharging our professional obligations and in the ordinary course of our business, such as HMRC and other government bodies, your bank, doctor and hospitals.
• We may also collect other information that you have provided to us.
• We may collect some of the above information through your use of our website.

How we use your personal information

We collect, retain and use personal information in the course of providing legal services to our clients. We need personal data about our clients in order to fulfil our contractual obligations to them. We cannot provide legal services without personal data, some of which includes sensitive information, particularly in matters concerning the breakdown of a marriage and in cases involving children.

We also process personal information as part of our due diligence procedures including anti-money laundering and conflict checks, and in so doing, we are complying with our legal obligations.

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share certain personal information with legal representatives of parties on the other side of a transaction, with government bodies such as HMRC and with the Court.

We may share your personal information with suppliers of services ancillary to the services that we provide to our clients, for example our insurers, and in conveyancing transactions, for example, with companies providing insurance.

This data sharing enables us to discharge our professional obligations to you and our other legal and regulatory duties.

Rarely, some of those third-party recipients may be based outside the European Economic Area. The exception to this is where we store your data. We are based in the UK. Each client matter has its own hardcopy file made up of legal documents, other documents specific to a particular case and correspondence. As such, we have a hard copy of personal data, but we also use electronic systems for case management, document management and storage.

Some of our systems use Microsoft products. As a US company, it may be that using their products result in personal data being transferred to or accessible from the US. However, we will allow this as we are certain personal data will still be adequately protected (as Microsoft is certified under the USA’s Privacy Shield scheme).

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

We will not share your personal information with any third party that is not relevant to the matter in relation to which you have instructed us.

How long your personal data will be kept

We hold data in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations. We shall also retain data for a minimum of 6 years in order that we may defend legal claims against our firm or provide information to clients to assist with bringing or defending legal claims.

Certain information may however, be kept for longer. For example, if we are storing client property deeds and other documents such as Wills and correspondence in relation to Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, we shall keep those until they are either delivered to clients or in the instance of death, to the personal representatives of the deceased client.

We shall destroy and delete personal data in accordance with our data protection policy.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We use your personal information on the following legal bases: –

• To fulfil our contractual obligations in the provision and use of legal and other services.
• With the consent of our clients.
• For the purposes of our legitimate business interests as described above.
• In compliance with legal and regulatory obligations.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation you have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:

• fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your personal information
• access to your personal information and to certain other supplementary information that this Privacy Notice is already designed to address
• require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold
• require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations
• receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations
• object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing
• object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you
• object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information
• otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, 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, call or write to us
• let us have enough information to identify you
• 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 the information to which your request relates

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know 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.

How to complain

Please contact James McCarville or Gillian Rushford, who we hope can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.

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.

Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was updated and published on 16 March 2018 and last updated on 24 May 2018.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you. – 01980 612 366 – Brewery House, 84 High Street, Newport Pagnell, MK16 8AQ – mail@rmllp.co.uk

Do you need extra help?

If you would like this notice in another format please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ above)