cookies & privacy policy

last updated 25 May 2018

BY USING THIS WEBSITE, OUR SERVICES AND BY GIVING YOUR INFORMATION TO US, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE HOW WE WILL USE AND PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AND YOUR PERSONNEL AS DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Purpose of this Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains what personal information we may collect about you, how we may use it and what we do to keep it secure.  We also explain your rights in respect of your personal information and how to contact us.

Who we are

Lawmatix Limited (law:matix) is a specialist law firm and the operator of this website. law:matix is the controller in respect of all personal information provided by you or which is provided on your behalf or which we may otherwise obtain about you, for example, as a result of providing our services.  This means that we are responsible for complying with prevailing data protection laws - most notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (as amended).

The personal information we collect

In order to provide you with services, we may collect personal information about you from our website, from telephone conversations, emails, written or  verbal communications and any other means you use to communicate with us.  We expect to keep a record of your contact information and details of any services we provide to you.  We may also record details of any disability, health needs or dietary requirements you may have at the time of booking a place or accepting an invitation to one of our events to enable us to ensure your safety and comfort.

We may require additional information for money laundering checks such as date of birth and personal address and may also require you to provide copies of documents evidencing these.

We may supplement the information that you provide with other information that we obtain from our dealings with you.

How we may use personal information

All personal information that we obtain about you will be held, used and protected by us in accordance with the latest data protection law and this privacy policy.

We will primarily use your personal information to provide our services to you to administer any account you have with us (including tracing and collecting any debts), for obtaining professional indemnity insurance, in connection with our receipt of accountancy services and for fraud prevention purposes.

Any information that we receive from you specifically for money laundering checks will only be processed for the purposes of preventing money laundering and/or terrorist financing unless the law permits us to use it for other purposes or you provide us with consent.

We may also use your information, for example, to improve the quality of the services we offer and for market research.  We may maintain a personalised profile of your role and interests so that we can inform you of services or events that may be of interest to you.

Legal basis for processing

In most cases, in order to provide our legal services, it will be necessary for us to use your personal information to advise you and otherwise comply with outr contract with you or your organisation and also to comply with our professional code of practice.

We have legal obligations to carry out money laundering checks and to have professional indemnity insurance.  Our use of your personal information for these activities is, therefore, to comply with those obligations.

Where we use your personal information for direct marketing, it will be on the basis of you having given your consent to this.

In all other cases, use of your personal informaton will be on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests to do so in order to comply with our professional obligations when providing our legal services and your fundamental rights and freedoms are not overridden by this.

Disclosing your personal information

We will not normally share your personal information with any other organisation unless we need to do so to carry out your instructions (such as instructing Counsel or referring you to other professional advisers).  However, some of your chosen services and events may be provided by or held at premises of third parties and we may need to provide limited information to them to enable you to take part. 

Occasionally, we may appoint other organisations to carry out some activities on our behalf.  These include, for example, money laundering checks and courier services.   In these circumstances, we will ensure that your information is properly protected and that it is only used in accordance with this privacy policy.

Events and opportunities

From time to time we would like to send you copies of newsletters and information about our services and events by mail, email or phone.  We will only do so with your consent.

You can change your mind at any time by telephoning us or sending us an email asking to be unsubscribed. 

Use of personal information outside the European Economic Area

Except in the context of any services we provide on instructions, we would not usually expect to transfer your personal information outside of the European Economic Area.  However, if this does become necessary we will take proper steps to ensure that your information is properly protected.

Security of information

We take the security of your personal information seriously.  We have security procedures in place to ensure that our paper and computer systems and databases are protected against unauthorised use, loss and damage.

Retention

We expect to keep all client files for 7 years after our last instruction on the particular matter. After this, we will keep your contact details on file whilst you remain a law:matix client contact unless you ask us to delete them sooner.

Amending your information

If the information we have about you is incorrect, please let us know and we will amend it. 

Your rights in respect of your personal information

You have the right of access to your personal data and, in some cases, to require us to restrict, erase or rectify it or to object to our processing it and the right of data portability.  You also have the right to withdraw your consent to direct marketing at any time. 

You can exercise your rights by contacting us at privacy@lawmatix.com. 

In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office if you think our processing of your personal information infringes data protection law.  You can find information on how to do this at www.ico.org.uk.

Cookies

Like most other website operators, we may use standard technology called ‘cookies’ on this website.  Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive and they are used to record how you found us, which pages you look at on each visit and to enable us to develop our site to meet our users interests.    We may also use cookies to enrich you experience by allowing us to tailor what you see to what we have learned about your preferences during your visits to our website.  Sometimes we may use the services of third parties (such as Google Analytics) and they may use cookies on our behalf in order to provide their services.  If that is the case, we will update the table below.

By using our website you agree that we can use THE COOKIES DESCRIBED IN THIS POLICY on your device unless you adjust your browser accordingly to refuse cookies.

The cookies we currently use are as shown below:

Preventing use of cookies

Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser to prevent cookies being stored.  With experience, you can usually choose to switch off all cookies or to allow only certain ‘trusted’ sites to place cookies.

For further information on cookies, how to see what cookies have been set and how to switch them off see www.allaboutcookies.org  or www.aboutcookies.org.

Changes to this privacy policy

Privacy laws and practice are constantly developing and we aim to achieve high professional standards.  Our policies and procedures are, therefore, under continual review.  We may, from time to time, update our security and privacy policies and suggest that you check this page periodically to review our latest policies.

Comments, complaints and how to contact us

If you would like any further information or have any concerns or complaints about our privacy policy or how we are handling your personal information,  please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@lawmatix.com