This page explains how Howe + Co uses any information you give to us via our website, and the ways in which we protect your privacy. (NB It is not intended to be a privacy statement in relation to information submitted to Howe + Co by any other means.)
This privacy notice provides information, in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA 2018’) and UK General Data Protection Regulation ('UK GDPR'), about how Howe + Co collects, stores, processes, and shares your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us in the event you have a query.
For the purposes of the DPA 2018, Howe + Co is responsible for your data as a data controller.
The data we collect
In the course of providing legal services to you, the personal data we may collect, process, store, and use from you includes:
personal data including your full name, date of birth, National Insurance Number; contact details such as your addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses; special category data such as data revealing your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, health, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership; information to enable us to check and verify your identity e.g. your date of birth and passport details; information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation. The legal basis by which we process your personal data
Our lawful bases for processing your personal data:
Legitimate Interest – Howe + Co has a legitimate interest in our clients’ personal data in order to provide legal services and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. Contract – We will process your personal data in order to perform our contract with you and to take steps at your requests. Processing of your special category data
In order to provide legal services, we process the following data as it relates to your:
racial or ethnic origin; religious or philosophical beliefs; commission or alleged commission of any offence; health; sexual orientation. Our lawful condition for processing your special category data is:
Legal Claims – Processing of your special category data is necessary for the purpose of your legal proceedings, providing you legal advice, and for us to establish or defend your legal rights.
How your personal information is collected
We collect your personal data from the following sources:
from you; from professionals we may engage in relation to your matter; from third parties with your consent e.g. your doctor, medical professional, employer; from third party publicly accessible sources. Who we may share your personal data with We may share your personal data with:
professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts; our insurers and brokers; external auditors, e.g. in relation to Lexcel accreditation and the audit of our accounts; external service suppliers that we use to make our business more efficient; our bank. 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 on occasion transfer your data to a country outside the UK. However, we will only transfer information to a third country either where the commissioner has made a decision that your personal data is properly protected, or where we put in place adequate safeguards by entering into an agreement with the processor, or where an appropriate exception applies. We will ensure that our contractors follow the same procedures.
We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
Data retention
We will keep your personal data for a specified period 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. Further details on this are available in our Data Retention Policy which your solicitor can provide you with information on.
We will securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our Data Retention Policy. All digital data (including emails and electronic copies of documents) may be retained on our servers.
Your rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
access and obtain a copy of your data on request; require us to change incorrect or incomplete data; require us to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; object to the processing of your data where we are relying on our legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and ask us to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override our legitimate grounds for processing data. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the solicitor with conduct of your case in the first instance. Please note that the rights may be subject to exemptions under the Data Protection Act 2018.
Queries
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, our Compliance Officer can be contacted at the following address:
Martin Howe Howe + Co Solicitors 1010 Great West Road Brentford Middlesex TW8 9BA Email: [email protected] Telephone: 020 8840 4688
