Privacy Policy

What is this policy?

Abbott Solicitors LLP takes privacy seriously and we are committed to protecting it.

This policy explains when and why we collect personal information about you, how this information is used, the conditions under which it may be disclosed to others and how it is kept secure.

This is our main privacy policy. We may provide additional, specific privacy information to you as you interact with us in different ways (e.g. that we will only use certain information for specific purposes). To the extent that any of that information differs from what we say below, those specific statements will apply in those circumstances.

This policy was last updated on 25 May 2020.

Who we are

Abbott Solicitors LLP is a Law Firm in England and Wales and is the data holder in relation to the processing of activities mentioned below. This means that we decide why and how your personal information is processed. Our registered address is Clody House, 90-100 Collingdon Street, Luton Bedfordshire, LU1 1RX (UK)

Our Head of Risk and Assurance is responsible for our Data Protection Function.

How we collect your personal information

When you use our services by visiting our office personally, website, interact with us online, or by phone, email or otherwise, the categories of information that we collect about you are as follows:

Personal information you give to us:

This is information about you that you give to us by entering information via:

Personal visit by handing over to us your personal documents, our website, our social media accounts, e.g. via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise, which is provided entirely voluntarily.

The basic personal information we may ask for, or you may choose to give us, includes your name, your address, email address and phone number. We may retain details of any enquiry you make to us and records of any correspondence with us. We will seek to minimise the information we ask for to that which is needed to perform the relevant function or service at the time.

The personal information we collect about you:

We automatically collect the following information when you interact with us: e.g. your personal visits and your visits to our site, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, and the resources you access.

We also automatically collect technical information, including anonymous data collected by the hosting server for statistical purposes, the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer or device to the Internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform.

If you are submitting this information as such our current/previous Client/representative or contact, you confirm that it is true and correct and that you will not provide us with any information which constitutes personal data unless you have ensured that you have obtained all necessary consents or other legal justification and/or provided any required notices to the data subject, or that you are otherwise permitted to provide such information to us, so that we can use it for the purposes and on the bases set out in this notice.

How we use your personal information

The purposes for which we use your information and the legal basis under data protection laws on which we rely to do this are explained below.

Where there is a legitimate interest.

We may use and process your personal information where it is necessary for us to pursue our legitimate interests as a business, or those of a third party, for the following purposes:

To verify the accuracy of data that we hold about you.

To create a better understanding of you as a Client, Professional or in any other capacity, so that we can customise the services we provide.

To correspond or communicate with you if you are our current /previous Client or a member of the public about our activities.

To conduct research and to compile management information for the management of queries, complaints, or claims.

To fulfil online delivery and security.

To allow you to participate in interactive features of our services when you choose to do so,

for network and information security in order for us to take steps to protect your information against loss or damage, theft or unauthorised access, for the prevention of fraud and other criminal activities.

To assess and improve our service through recordings of any calls with our Firms, operating and managing contracts with our suppliers and service recipients and for the establishment and defence of our legal rights.

Where there is a Legal Requirement

We will use your personal information to comply with our legal obligations

(i) To assist any public authority or criminal investigation body as required

(ii) To identify you when you contact us

(iii) To verify the accuracy of data we hold about you and

(iv) To comply with a request from you in connection with the exercise of your rights.

Data Anonymisation and use of Aggregated Information

Your information may be converted into statistical or aggregated data in such a way as to ensure that you are not identified or identifiable from it. Aggregated data cannot be linked back to you as a natural person. We may use this data for analytical and research purposes.

Others who may receive or have access to your personal information

Our Suppliers and Service Providers

We may disclose your information to our third-party service providers, subcontractors and other organisations for the purposes of providing services to us or directly to you on our behalf.

Such third parties may include Barristers, Experts, cloud service providers, hosting, email and content providers, administrative services providers, payment processing companies (who will process your debit/credit card securely if you pay us our professional Fees, Barristers’ or Experts’ Professional Fees or any fees for Home Office or HMCTS etc.) and research companies (who may contact you to gather information relating to your experience of us and our products and services or on topical, policy and strategic issues facing the profession).

When we use third party service providers, we only disclose to them any personal information that is necessary for them to provide their service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it other than in accordance with our specific instructions.

Other ways we may share your personal information

We may transfer your personal information to a third party if we are under a duty to disclose or share it in order to comply with any legal obligation, to detect or report a crime, to enforce or apply the terms of our contracts or our legal rights or to protect the rights, property or safety of our visitors and customers. We will always take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Where we store your personal information

On occasion, the information you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). By way of example, this may happen where any of our servers or those of our third-party service providers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EEA. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. Where possible, we will seek to work with service providers whose servers are located within the EEA.

If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this policy. These steps include imposing contractual obligations on the recipient of your personal information or ensuring that the recipients are subscribed to ‘international frameworks’ that aim to ensure adequate protection.

How long we keep your personal information

We keep personal information for as long as necessary to ensure we can deliver our services and in line with our published retention and disposal policy. This policy reflects legal requirements, our regulatory and compliance functions and other applicable considerations to determine the appropriate retention period.

We do not retain personal information in an identifiable format for longer than is necessary.

​

Security and Links to Other Sites

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure unfortunately. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to our website and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal information, we put in place reasonable and appropriate controls to ensure that it remains secure against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, or unauthorised access.

Where we collect any sensitive personal information about your ethnic background, sexual orientation, political opinions, religion, trade union membership or criminal record, we will apply additional security controls to protect that data.

Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access an account, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This policy does not apply to those other websites so we encourage you to read their privacy statements. We would not be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites even if you access them using links that we provide. In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party website, we would not be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party website and recommend that you check the policy of that third party website first.

Cookies

Like many other websites, our website uses cookies (including Google Analytics cookies) to obtain an overall view of visitor habits and visitor volumes to our website. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent to your computer or device and stored on its hard drive to allow our websites to recognise you when you visit.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences.

Your rights

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information under data protection law. In relation to certain rights, we may ask you for information to confirm your identity and, where applicable, to help us to search for your personal information.

Except in rare cases where additional time may be required, we will respond to you within one month from either (a) the date that we have confirmed your identity or (b) where we do not need to do this because we already have this information from the date, we received your request.

Accessing your personal information

Under data protection laws you have a legal right to ask to see a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. Such requests are called

Subject Access Requests.

If you would like to make a subject access request, please request in writing.

You will also need to provide one form of identification and proof of your address, for example, staff pass, driving licence, utility bill, and if appropriate, any particulars about the source or location of the information you are requesting.

Please return your request to:

Information Compliance Manager

Abbott Solicitors LLP

Clody House,

90-100 Colldingdon Street

Luton – Bedfordshire

LU1 1RX

Or via email to info@abbottsolicitors.com

Further information about subject access requests can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.

We may not provide you with a copy of your personal information if this concerns other individuals or if we have another lawful reason to withhold that information.

Correcting and updating your personal information

The accuracy of your information is important to us and we are working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you.

In the meantime, if you change your name or address/email address, or you discover that any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please let us know by contacting us in any of the ways described at the end of this policy

Withdrawing your consent

Where we rely on your consent as the legal basis for processing your personal information as to how we use your personal information, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this policy.

If you would like to withdraw your consent or object to receiving any direct e-mail or any kind of correspondence to which you previously opted-in, you can do so using the unsubscribe tool in that communication (if it is an email), or by writing to us or calling us using the contact details at the end of this policy. If you withdraw your consent, our use of your personal information before you withdraw is still lawful.

If you have provided consent for your details to be shared with a third party, and wish to withdraw this consent, please also contact the relevant third party in order to amend your preferences.

Objecting to our use of your personal information and automated decisions made about you

Where we rely on our legitimate business interests as the legal basis for processing your personal information for any purpose(s), as to how we use your personal information, you may object to us using your personal information for these purposes by emailing or writing to us at the address at the end of this policy. Except for the purposes for which we are sure we can continue to process your personal information; we will temporarily stop processing your personal information in line with your objection until we have investigated the matter. If we agree that your objection is justified in accordance with your rights under data protection laws, we will permanently stop using your data for those purposes. Otherwise, we will provide you with our justification as to why we need to continue using your data.

Erasing your personal information or restricting its processing

In certain circumstances, you may ask for your personal information to be removed from our systems by emailing or writing to us at the address at the end of this policy. Unless there is a reason that the law allows us to use your personal information for longer, we will make reasonable efforts to comply with your request.

You may also ask us to restrict processing your personal information where you believe it is unlawful for us to do so, you have objected to its use and our investigation is pending or you require us to keep it in connection with legal proceedings. In these situations, we may only process your personal information whilst its processing is restricted if we have your consent or are legally permitted to do so, for example for storage purposes, to protect the rights of another individual or company or in connection with legal proceedings.

Transferring your personal information in a structured data file (Data Portability)

Where we rely on your consent as the legal basis for processing your personal information or need to process it in connection with a contract, we have entered into with you as to how we use your personal information, you may ask us to provide you with a copy of that information in a structured data file.

You can ask us to send your personal information directly to another service provider, and we will do so if this is technically possible. We may not provide you with a copy of your personal information if this concerns other individuals or we have another lawful reason to withhold that information.

Complaining to the UK Data Protection Regulator

We would like to be able to resolve all your concerns and we hope that we can do so. Where we have not been able to do this then you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are concerned about the way we have processed your personal information. Please visit the ICO’s website for further details: .

Changes to this policy

We may review this policy from time to time and any changes will be notified to you by posting an updated version on our website. We recommend you regularly check for changes and review this policy whenever you visit our website. If you do not agree with any aspect of the updated policy you must immediately notify us and cease using our services.

Contact us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcome.

Please direct any queries about this policy or about the way we process your personal information to the Risk and Assurance Manager, using the post and email details below.

If you wish to write to us, please write to us at:

Information Compliance Manager Risk & Assurance

Abbott Solicitors LLP Clody House,

90-100 Colldingdon Street

Luton – Bedfordshire

LU1 1RX

Our email address for data protection queries is : info@abbottsolicitors.com

If you would prefer to speak to us by phone, please call us on 01582 737952.