Privacy Policy

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This privacy notice contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

Joseph James Law collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we collect that personal information, we are responsible as ‘controller’ and we are therefore regulated under UK Data Protection Legislation and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which applies across the European Union.

What Personal Information We Collect and Use

We may collect and process the personal data about you that we receive when you make an enquiry to us, via our website, telephone, letter, email, in person or via any other method of communication.

This will include (amongst other things) your contact information such as your name, address, date of birth and accident and injury details and any other information relevant to your enquiry or case. Some personal data that you provide will be sensitive personal data such as details about your health, racial or ethnic origin or religious beliefs; we need your express consent to process this data.

By providing us with your details you are authorising us to process your personal data to enable us to provide information or assistance to you, and we will use and store your information for that purpose.

How we Use Your Personal Information

We require this information from you to provide you with a service. If you are contacting us about a potential legal case or matter, then we will use your personal information to consider:

• Whether we are able to accept instructions from you and provide you with legal services
• Provide legal services
• Help us to verify your identity to prevent fraud and to prevent money laundering

We may also use your personal information for the purpose of dealing with your enquiry to:

• Respond to claims, exercise and defend our legal rights
• Contact you via the contact methods you have chosen to provide, including via text message, telephone, email and by post
• Contact you regarding your claim and other services that may be of interest to you
• Administer our website, including ensuring that we can enable your use of the services on our website (including enquiries and complaints about our website) and improve your browsing experience by personalising the website
• Internal record keeping
• Periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided
• From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail

Who We Share Your Personal Information With

If we accept instructions from you then during the provision of our services we may:

• Pass your personal information on to third parties in order to assist us in the investigation and progress of your case such as medical experts, the Court or the other party in your case
• External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice
• All third parties, external firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality and to keep your details securely and use them only to fulfil the service they provide us on your behalf. They are also required to dispose of the details in line with data protection legislation
• We may outsource the taking and making of telephone calls, data inputting, processing new enquiries, and chasing documents from you to a specialist and supervised company

You also need to be aware that the firm has responsibilities under money laundering legislation to make reports in certain circumstances (for example if the transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing). If a disclosure is made the firm may not be able to tell you this has occurred and why. Where a report is required the firm cannot be held responsible for any loss, damage or delay resulting from compliance with the legislation.

We do not specifically transfer your data to countries outside of the European Union. However, some of our third-party service providers may provide services which mean your data is transferred outside of the European Union. In any case, we ensure that there are appropriate security measures in place such as technical security, including encryption and restricted access to your data. The only circumstance in which this may happen is if one of our third-party data processors backs up their systems (to keep their data secure) outside of the European Union. In any event, we have strict contracts in place to make sure your data is kept safe and your data is always under our control. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for further information.

We will not sell, assign, disclose or rent your personal data to any other external organisation or individual except for where the law requires us to disclose it, or where it is necessary to disclose the information to comply with a regulatory or legal process, or if we believe such an action is necessary to protect and defend the rights, property and personal safety of our company name and its website.

We will retain your personal information for a period of 6 years, from the conclusion of your enquiry or case which we consider a legitimate time period taking into consideration applicable UK law.

Failure to Provide Data to Us

Please be aware, in order to be able to complete our services for you, we do require certain personal information to be provided to us from yourself. If this data is not provided, we may not be able to fulfil our contract with you. In this event, we will explain what data is required and why. If you do not wish to provide us with this, we have the right to terminate your contract with us in accordance with our Terms and Conditions, which you agree to upon signing these.

Legitimate Interests

We rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis for processing. Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you, the data subject, is party, and to take steps at the request of you, prior to entering in to a contract. We will only process your personal data in a way that you reasonably expect.

In respect of our legitimate interests, we have a legitimate interest in keeping you updated about any further services offered by us which may be of interest to you both during and after the conclusion of your contract with us, including communication of any developments that may have an impact on your original service (e.g. a change in the law that will make additional services available to you). We will use the details you have provided to contact you including by telephone, email and post. If you do not wish for us to contact you in this manner, or by a specific method, you will be able to unsubscribe at any time to one or all contact methods and this option will be easy for you to complete.

We also have a legitimate interest in using your data to help us to review our services and obtain analytics in respect of our customer base.

We may share generic aggregated demographic information not linked to any personal identification information regarding visitors and users of our website with our business partners, trusted affiliates and advertisers for the purposes outlined above.

If you do not provide the personal information we have requested, it may affect our ability to provide the services that we are offering and you will be informed of this at the appropriate time.

We control the use of your data as you have directed.

To allow us to provide our services to you, the following third parties provide critical functions to our business and will process your personal information as directed by us and in accordance with strict data security arrangements:

• Our Services: during our services we will provide your data, under your specific instruction, to named health care providers. We will also provide a referral to any legal partner, at your request.
• Our Advertising: We use third party advertising services who provide analytical information about our advertising to help us improve this in the future. In any event, the data held by analytics firms is on an anonymised basis meaning they cannot identify you.
• Our Systems and IT: we use third party firms who provide essential storage arrangements (including call recordings), software and support to our infrastructure.
• Post and Printing: we use an outsourced print-house who manages our printing, they receive a copy of postal communication and print and send this on our behalf.
• Our Regulators: we may be required to provide your data to our Regulators, who are the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
• Our Professional Services: we use professional legal, consultancy and accountancy services to help us fulfil our legal obligations.

We have carefully selected our third parties due to their commitment to keeping your data safe, and all data is processed within the European Union and subject to the same legislation. If you request for us to stop processing your data, we will also communicate this to the relevant third parties if they are processing this on our behalf. If you have any concerns about the above third parties, please let us know and we can provide advice and support to help you manage your data preferences.

Third-Party Websites

There may be times when our website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third-party websites. We also do not have any control over those websites, therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Your Rights

You have a number of rights and you are in complete control. You can object or withdraw your consent to the use of your personal data at any time. You have the right:

• To be informed about the collection and use of your personal information
• To access your personal information
• To correct any mistakes in the information which we hold
• To the erasure of personal information
• To restrict processing of your personal information
• To move, copy or transfer your personal information
• To object to direct marketing
• To automated decision making and profiling.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individual’s rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

• Call or write to our Data Protection Officer or email us at info@josephjameslaw.co.uk
• Let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. client reference, full name, address) and;
• Let us know the information to which your request relates, including any account or reference numbers, if you have them

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can write to us on the address below:

Joseph James Law
Fast Track House
Pearson Way
Thornaby
TS17 6PT

Or, we can be emailed at info@josephjameslaw.co.uk

If you are dissatisfied with our response you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510

To learn more about your rights please see the ICO website.

Our Cookies Policy

A cookie is a small data file which asks permission to be placed on your laptop, computer, mobile or tablet. Cookies help us to analyse web traffic or lets us know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better service, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can change your internet browser settings if you prefer to block cookies. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

If you continue to use our website then we will assume that you are happy to accept cookies from our website.

You may also wish to visit: http://www.allaboutcookies.org for further information.

Can I Opt Out of remarketing?

You can opt out of the google analytics advertising features you use and you can find information on how to do this on Google’s website. You can also opt out of Facebook remarketing in your ad settings.

Consent

You can withdraw your consent (opt-out) for us to contact you at any time. Please note: if you have signed a contract to complete a claim, our contractual rights will still apply and we can contact you in relation to a cancellation fee or any outstanding monies owed to us.

Policy Amendments

We may, at times, update this privacy policy by posting a newer version to our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes, although anything that will affect you will be communicated directly to you.

Questions

Should you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us on:

Joseph James Law
Fast Track House
Pearson Way
Thornaby
TS17 6PT
Telephone: 0333 212 3877
Email: info@josephjameslaw.co.uk