Privacy Policy and Data Protection
Introduction
This note sets out Mitchells Roberton’s privacy policy and explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use our services.
Mitchells Roberton Ltd will be a “controller” of the personal information that you provide to us when you instruct us to act on your behalf unless otherwise stated.
Is information we collect from you confidential?
Information supplied to us by you will be dealt with in confidence. It will only be disclosed where reasonable and necessary to carry out the work you have instructed or if we are legally required to do so.
What about data protection?
We fully abide by the data protection principles under the data protection laws. Your personal data held by us on any relevant filing system is available to you on request.
What information do we collect about you?
We collect information about you when you first contact us or engage our services. We also collect information when you provide any information we request or which you provide voluntarily. On our website, we collect usage information using cookies. We will hold some or all of the following personal information about you in our files, in our practice management system and on our client database: name and address; date of birth; contact telephone number(s); email address(es); National Insurance Number; financial information we require in connection with your transaction. We may also obtain additional personal information to enable us to properly provide our services. We will use the information as appropriate in carrying out the instructions you give us.
Why we need your personal information – contractual purposes
We need to collect our clients’ personal information so that we can perform our services. We will use our clients’ personal information to:
- Provide you with legal advice, for example by communicating with you by email, letter and/or telephone
- Represent you as your solicitors in connection with the matter you have instructed us about
- Respond to and communicate with you regarding your questions, comments, support needs or complaints, concerns or allegations in relation to complaints and disciplinary procedures.
- Manage any money processed on your behalf.
We may ask you for additional personal information during the course of our solicitor / client relationship, which shall be collected, stored and used in accordance with this privacy notice.
If you do not provide us with all of the personal information that we need, this may affect our ability to provide you with legal advice and / or represent you as your solicitors.
Why we need your personal information – legitimate purposes
We also process our clients’ personal information in pursuit of our legitimate interests to:
- Manage our relationship with you
- Promote our services by sending communications with information for upcoming events and to keep you informed of legal developments and developments within our firm
- Invite our clients as guests to our events, including seminars and client hospitality events
- Email you about other products and services we think may be of interest to you
- We will not share your information for marketing purposes with any third party
- In providing our services, we may send your details to, and also use information from credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies
You have the right to object to us using your personal information for the above legitimate purposes. If you wish to object to any of the above processing, please contact us on data@mitchells-roberton.co.uk. In complying with your objection, we may not be able to undertake the tasks above for the benefit of you as a client.
Why we need your personal information – legal obligations
We are under a legal obligation to process certain personal information relating to our clients for the purposes of complying with our obligations under:
- Law Society of Scotland Practice Rules
- Money Laundering Regulations
- Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
Who we share your personal information with
We may be required to share personal information with statutory or regulatory authorities and organisations. Such organisations include the Law Society of Scotland and HMRC, for the purposes of compliance with statutory obligations.
We may also share personal data with our professional advisors and suppliers for the purposes of taking advice and obtaining searches, serving official documents etc.
These suppliers may process personal data on our behalf as “processors” and are subject to written contractual conditions to only process that personal data under our instructions and to protect it.
In the event that we do share personal data with external third parties, we will only share such personal data strictly required for the specific purposes, and we will take reasonable steps to ensure that recipients shall only process the disclosed personal data in accordance with those purposes.
Your continued relationship with us will be evidence that you consent to our use of your personal information for these purposes.
Right to Erasure
If you do not wish to receive any information from us or if you want us to remove your details from our database then please confirm this in writing to our Data Controller or by emailing data@mitchells-roberton.co.uk at any time.
If at any time during the course of our relationship with you, you require to provide us with personal information about a third party you should only do so after any required consents to this disclosure have been obtained from that third party as that personal data may thereafter be used or stored by us. It is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the relevant sections of the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other legislation applicable to the information in question.
Marketing
We would like to send you information about our services which may be of interest to you. If you have consented to receive marketing, you may opt out at a later date. You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please tell us by letter, telephone or email to data@mitchells-roberton.co.uk.
Access to your information and correction
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email data@mitchells-roberton.co.uk or write to Data Controller at Mitchells Roberton, George House, 36 North Hanover Street, Glasgow G1 2AD. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate. We will not usually charge you to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights).
Cookies
When you use our website, text files known as cookies are placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser but in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.
Other websites
Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to our website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.
Changes to our privacy policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on our website. You can request a paper copy to be sent to you at any time.
How to contact us
Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you: by email (data@mitchells-roberton.co.uk) or write to Data Controller at Mitchells Roberton, George House, 36 North Hanover Street, Glasgow G1 2AD.
Ownership of Files and Data
When a matter has been completed, we will return, upon request, any documents belonging to you. Our working papers including all correspondence received and sent and all other papers and documents will remain in our ownership.
Retention and Destruction of Files and Data
By instructing us to carry out work on your behalf, you consent to destruction of files and data without further reference to you after that work is completed and you consent to us keeping files and data for such periods as we consider desirable to discharge our legal obligations, for our professional duties to you and our legitimate business interests.
If you make an enquiry but do not become a client
If you provide personal data during the course of an initial enquiry but decide not to instruct us to act for you, we will retain your data for up to 12 months. If you do not become one of our clients and we have not contacted you within 12 months of your enquiry, we will delete your personal data from our system.