Who we are

Our website address is: https://bwlawyers.co.uk

 PRIVACY NOTICE

Revision – September 2023

Introduction

 

  • We take your privacy seriously and this notice gives you information about your privacy rights and how we gather, use and share your personal information – that includes personal information we already hold about you now and any further personal information we might collect about you either from you or a third party. How we use your personal information will depend on the services we provide to you.
  • Our Data Protection Officer (DPR) is Roger Baldwin one of the partners and provides help and guidance to make sure we apply the best standards to protecting your personal information and can be reached by email at team@bwlawyers.co.uk or by post at 11 Finsley Gate, Burnley, BB11 2HA if you have any questions about how we use your personal information.
  1. Your Privacy Rights

 

You have the right to object to how we use your personal information.  You also have the right to see what personal information we hold about you.  In addition, you can ask us to correct inaccuracies, delete or restrict personal information or to ask for some of your personal information to be provided to someone else.  You can make a complaint to us via our Data Protection Officer as noted above.  Similarly, if you wish to object to our processing of your personal information or require access to your personal information you can do so by contacting us as noted above.  You have a similar right to make a complaint about how we have used your personal information.

We will not make any charge for responding to any request from you to exercise your privacy rights and we will respond to your request in accordance with our obligations under Data Protection Law.

  1. What Kinds of Personal Information We Use

 

3.1         We use a variety of personal information depending on the service we provide to you. For all services we need to use your name, address, date of birth and contact details to enable us to carry out the service to you.  We will more than likely require further information in the form of copy identification documents such as a passport, a driving licence in order to comply with current anti money laundering regulations.  We may also need your National Insurance number in order that we can deal with any HMRC requirements on your behalf.  We may also need health information in order that we can assist you with any personal injury claims or support you if you have a vulnerability.  For some transactions we need your bank details and, if making a payment to us, we may need your card details.

We may need details of your legal history and previous transactions / proceedings that you have been involved in.

Sometimes where we ask for your personal information (e.g. identity documents, National Insurance numbers etc) we will not be able to provide our services without that personal information.

  1. How We Gather Your Personal Information

 

We obtain personal information directly from you or from other organisations such as banks and building societies, or other people who know you.

We may also obtain some personal information by way of monitoring or recording calls for regulatory purposes, for training and to ensure and improve the quality of our services, to ensure the safety of our staff and clients and to resolve queries or issues.  We also use CCTV on our premises to ensure the safety and security of our staff and clients.

  1. How We Use Your Personal Information

 

To provide you with services and analyse your legal position we will need to know your name, address, date of birth, details of your current and previous countries of residence/citizenship and a copy of identification documents (such as a passport or driving licence).  We will need telephone numbers and email addresses to facilitate the smooth provision of our services to you.  We sometimes need health information in the event of any personal injury claims that we are involved in on your behalf, or to support clients who have a vulnerability.

We may need information in order to facilitate payments or money to and from you.

We will need certain information to comply with our legal obligations (e.g. to prevent financial crime involving fraud and money laundering).  We will give information to and receive information from Fraud Prevention Agencies, the Police and other Law Enforcement and Government Agencies, Banks and Regulators.

We may use information to carry out our own market research, to analyse, develop and improve our services to you in the future.

  1. Our Legal Basis For Using Your Personal Information

We will only use your personal information where it is permitted by the laws that protect your privacy rights.  We only use personal information where:

  1. We have your consent (if consent is needed)
  2. We need to use it to comply with our legal obligations
  3. We need to use it to provide our services to you
  4. It is fair to use the personal information either in our interests or someone else’s interests, or someone else’s interest where there is no disadvantage to you.

Where we have your consent, you have the right to withdraw it.

Special protection is given to certain kinds of personal information that is particularly sensitive.  This is information about your health status, racial or ethnic origin, political views, religious or similar beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation, genetic or biometric identifiers, trade union membership or criminal convictions or allegations.  We will only use this kind of personal information where:

  1. We have a legal obligation to do so (for example to protect vulnerable people)
  2. It is necessary for us to do so to protect your vital interests (for example if you have a severe and immediate medical need)
  3. It is in the substantial public interest
  4. It is necessary for the prevention or detection of crime
  5. It is necessary for insurance purposes; or
  6. You have specifically given us explicit consent to use the information.
  1. Share Your Personal Information With Or Getting Your Personal Information From Others

 

We are a firm of Solicitors providing legal services.  We are bound by rules of confidentiality.  We will only share information about you in the limited circumstances as detailed above.

  1. Where We Keep Your Personal Information

 

We keep your personal information in hard copy form in our paper files on site and/or also in scanned format or software format on our office computers and servers or hosted servers.

 

  1. How Long We Keep Your Personal Information For

 

How long we keep your personal information depends on the services we deliver to you.  We will never retain your personal information for any longer than is necessary for the purposes we need to use it for.  For the most part, we will not keep personal information for longer than 6 years after you last used our services.  We may however have to hold information for longer where necessary for active or potential legal proceedings, to resolve or defend claims, making remediation payments or where we are required to do so by third parties such as banks, building societies/lenders or our Regulators.

  1. Keeping You Up To Date

 

We may wish to communicate with you following completion of the present matter about services we are providing using any contact details you have given us for example, by post, phone, email, text messages or social media. You can withdraw consent to receive marketing if you wish.

If you do not wish to receive this information from us please advise by completing the relevant section in the client care letter.

  1. Data Protection and Personal Information Management Policy

We have a more detailed information which can be made available to you on request.