At South West Family Law we understand that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of all of our clients and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a way that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

Our Privacy Statement sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you or others, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.  Please do not send us any of your information if you do not want it to be used in the ways described.

What information do we collect?

South West Family Law collects, uses and is responsible for personal information about you. When we do this, we are the ‘controller’ of this information for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws.

We collect and process a range of information about you. This may include:

• your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
• your date of birth and gender
• information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts
• details of your bank account and national insurance number
• information about your remuneration, tax, and entitlement to benefits such as pensions
• information about your assets including those of your spouse / partner
• information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK
• the terms and conditions of your engagement with South West Family Law
• information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which South West Family Law needs to make reasonable adjustments, and
• (in some cases) information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation and religion or belief
• CCTV images of you outside of the South West Family Law offices

We may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be collected through the questionnaire you have completed; obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you (such as benefit nomination forms); from correspondence with you; or through interviews and meetings that we have.

South West Family Law only seeks personal information about you from third parties (such as employers, doctors, HMRC, and benefits offices) with your consent.

Why do we process personal data?

We need to process data to enter into a legal services contract with you and to provide you with the appropriate range of legal services.

In some cases, South West Family Law needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to meet its obligations under anti money laundering legislation and to comply with the requirements of its regulator (currently the SRA).

In other cases, we have a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the client relationship. Processing client data allows us to:

• Ensure the right parties are engaged to provide you with the optimal legal services through the court system and to provide you with advice most appropriate to your case.
• Liaise effectively with government agencies such as the child protection agency or child maintenance enforcement agency
• Effectively represent you when dealing with other solicitors and third parties eg expert witnesses and counsel
• Ensure the options for your case direction are presented in full, for example mediation and collaborative law
• Respond to any complaints by you

Where we process other special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion or belief, details about your health (where relevant) this is done not only for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring, but also to fulfil the terms of engagement with you.

Who will we share your personal information with?

Your information may be shared internally, including with solicitors, support and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

We also share your data with third parties that process data on our behalf in connection with their IT and case management systems.

We will share personal information with law enforcement agencies if required by applicable law.

We will not share your personal information with any other third parties (such as the court, barristers or other law firms) without notifying you in advance.

We will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You have some obligations under your legal services contract to provide South West Family Law with data under the implied duty of good faith. Failing to provide the data may mean that you are unable to exercise your statutory rights during and at the end of your case.

Certain information, such as contact details, identity documents for anti-money laundering checks and payment details are required as part of our entering into a legal services contract with you. If you do not provide other information as required, this will hinder our ability to administer your case efficiently.

How do we protect data?

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including in your case matter file, in South West Family Law’s case management systems, and in other IT systems (including the South West Family Law email system).

We take the security of your data seriously. We have internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees in the performance of their duties.

Where South West Family Law engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions. The third party will be under a duty of confidentiality and obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.

For how long will we store your data?

South West Family Law will retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary to ensure we can fulfil our business requirements and to comply with our regulatory requirements. After that period we will confidentially destroy all data. We will typically hold all other personal data for the duration of your matter and for a further 6 years after your matter concludes. In some cases however we retain personal data for a longer period to enable us to adequately address and assist with any query or dispute that may arise in the future (such as a request to vary an existing order). This includes private children’s proceedings, cases involving a financial order for child maintenance, and cases involving a financial order for spousal maintenance payable beyond a 6 year period. We will notify you of the specific period for which your data will be retained by us in our file closure letter.

The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 require us to keep client identification records and documents for 5 years from the end of our business relationship. At the end of the 5 year period the Regulations require us to delete this personal data unless certain exceptions apply. As stated above, in most instances we retain complete files, including personal identification documents, for over 6 years. We do this because the data may be required by us should we be sued, or should some other action be brought against us in relation to the matter for which we were instructed by you.

By ensuring our business records are adequate we can maintain the requisite levels of insurance to protect our clients. 

Your rights

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, you have a number of important rights that you can exercise free of charge. In summary, these rights are to:

• Access to your personal information and other supplementary information
• Require us to correct any mistakes or complete missing information we hold on you
• Require us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
• Receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us or have this information be sent to a third party, this will be provided to you or the third party in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format
• Object at any time to processing of your personal information for direct marketing (note South West Family Law does not currently engage in direct marketing)
• Object in certain other situations to the continued processing of your personal information
• Restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances

If you want more information about your rights under the UK GDPR, please see the Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office on Individual’s rights under the UK GDPR.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights please contact Peter Howe at South West Family Law.

How to make a complaint

The UK General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office who can be contacted by calling 0303 123 1113.

Future processing

South West Family Law does not intend to process your personal information for any reason other than stated within this privacy notice. If this changes, we will inform you by letter or email.