Please read the following information carefully. This privacy notice contains information about what data we collect and store about you and why. It also tells you who we share this information with, the security mechanisms we have put in place to protect your data and how to contact us if you have a complaint.
Who we are?
RLE LAW collects, uses and is responsible for personal information about you. When we do this we are the ‘controller’ of this information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable data protection laws.
Director Responsible for Data Protection
Victoria Jones
RLE Law
4 Derwen Road
Bridgend
CF31 1LH
Email: Victoria.Jones@rlelaw.com
Tel: 01656 656861
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number Z2583994.
What do we do with your information?
Information collected by us
When carrying out work on your behalf we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:
- Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
- Date of birth.
- Gender.
- Marital status and dependants.
- National Insurance number.
- Bank account details.
- Copy of any Identification documents providing to enable us to carry out our AML obligations.
We may also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of more sensitive personal information:
- Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.
- Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records that you may provide during the course of your transaction.
- Information about criminal convictions and offences.
We may also record phone calls for the purposes of staff training, mitigation of disputes and the collection of consent from data subjects.
Information collected from other sources
Information may be passed to us by third parties in the course of providing our legal services. The processing of this information will be necessary for the progression of your legal matter and to enable us to act in your best interests as your legal representative.
As a law firm we have an obligation to make you aware of anything that is relevant to your matter. When we obtain information about you from a third party rather than from you directly, we will notify you of any relevant information within a reasonable period, and provide you with details including the type of data and source it came from. Typically these sources may include:
- Other parties involved in the legal proceedings (such as the solicitor acting on the other side).
- Financial institutions (such as banks involved in financing the transaction).
- Other professional services firms (such as accountants and tax specialists).
- Government bodies (such as HM Land Registry for details of your property).
- Public sources where this relates to you or your organisation (for example Companies House).
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
- You have consented in writing to the processing for that purpose: (e.g. you have asked us to send your data to a particular body or person eg a different solicitor’s firm or a member of your family).
- It is necessary for the performance of a contract you are entering into; (e.g. we need your contact details for invoice purposes).
- It is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject; (e.g. we must comply with money laundering legislation by obtaining and storing proof of your identity).
It is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests: (e.g. we need to enter your details into a new computer software package). We will hold and use personal information about you in the following ways:
- Provide you with information about our seminars, events and legal topics that might be of interest to you. If you are an existing client or a business contact we will do this on the basis that we are pursuing legitimate interests in trying to provide you with information and updates. If you are not an existing client or a corporate contact and have requested this information from us, we will do this in order to fulfil your request.
- Verify your identity and establish the source of funding in any transaction.
- Carry out appropriate anti-fraud checks (by conducting online searches using a third party identity provider). Please note that this will not affect your credit rating.
- Communicate with you during the course of providing our services, for example providing you with advice and dealing with your enquiries and requests.
- Prepare documentation to complete transactions and commence legal proceedings on your behalf.
- Carry out obligations arising from any contract entered into between you and third parties as part of your legal matter.
- Refer you to another department within RLE Law about additional legal services which may benefit you.
- Statistical purposes so we can analyse figures to help us manage our business and plan strategically for the future.
- Seek advice from third parties in connection with your matter, such as legal Counsel.
- Respond to any complaint or allegation of negligence against us.
- Prevent money laundering or terrorist financing in accordance with financial crime regulations.
Whether information has to be provided by you, and why?
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
Legal reasons we collect and use your personal information
The legal grounds for processing your personal data are as follows:
- It is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, or to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you. The retainer between you and RLE Law, which is made up of our terms of business and engagement letter, sets out the terms of the contract and the services we will provide.
- It is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests, except where our interests are overridden by the interests, rights or freedoms of affected individuals (such as you). To determine this we shall consider a number of factors, such as what you were told at the time you provided your data, what your expectations are about the processing of the data, the nature of the data, and the impact of the processing on you.
- It is necessary in order to comply with mandatory legal obligations to which we are subject under EU or UK law.
Who will we share your personal information with?
Based upon the services you need we may pass your details to selected people or organisations (data processors) to carry out certain activities on our behalf. For example, personal information you provide may be disclosed to our agents, who may keep a record of that information.
We may pass your information to any third parties where required to do so in the course of providing legal services, or where we are obliged by law. This will include, but is not limited to:
- A court or tribunal where we are acting for you in a dispute or litigation.
- Government bodies (such as HM Land Registry or HM Revenue and Customs for property related work).
- The solicitors acting on the other side of your matter.
- Legal counsel or other experts to obtain advice or assistance on your matter.
- Other professionals and service providers (such as insurance brokers, where you wish to take out an insurance policy as part of a transaction).
- Organisations involved in any merger or business reorganisation we are dealing with.
- Any disclosures to law enforcement agencies where required by law (in particular the prevention of financial crime and terrorism).
- Our regulators including the SRA, Law Society of Scotland, and Law Society of Northern Ireland in connection with any ongoing regulatory investigation.
- Our professional indemnity insurer in the event a claim is made against us in order to defend ourselves.
- The bank or building society or other lender providing finance in the transaction.
- External auditors who may carry out independent checks of your file as part of our accreditations.
- A UK-based marketing service provider to enable us to send you legal insights and event information by email.
At the outset of your matter we may not be aware of all the other parties involved as this will depend on the specific nature of the work.
We will not disclose (or sell) your personal information to any other third parties for marketing purposes.
We will not share your personal information with any other third parties without your consent.
Transfer of your information outside the European Economic Area (EEA) -Article
It may be necessary to transfer your personal information outside the EEA or to an international organization. This would cover situations where we need to deal with international aspects of your matter and instruct overseas organisations to assist
These countries do not have same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. Where your personal data is being transferred outside the EU, we will undertake an assessment of the level of protection in light of the circumstances surrounding the transfer. We will make sure that any transfers are not repetitive and only limited to the minimum amount of information possible. In certain circumstances we may need to seek your consent unless there is an overriding legal need to transfer the information.
How long will we store your personal data?
We will only retain your information for as long as is necessary to:
- Carry out the legal work
- Establish or defend legal claims (for example negligence claims) that could be made against us.
- Comply with legal obligations under EU/UK law (anti-money laundering regulations say your identification and source of funds information must be kept for a minimum period from conclusion of the matter).
Typically we will store the information for 6 years from the date of your final bill.
Consent
We are relying on your explicit consent to contact your regrading other services we may offer you. You provided this consent when you sign our Consent Form.
You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, but this will not effect the lawfulness of any processing activity we have carried out prior to you withdrawing your consent. You can opt-out by contacting Emma Hardwidge by email at Emma.Hardwidge@rlelaw.com.
Your Rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a number of important rights that you can exercise free of charge. In summary, these rights are:
- Transparency over how we use your personal data and fair processing of your information;
- Access to your personal information and other supplementary information;
- Require us to correct any mistakes or complete missing information we hold on you;
- Require us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances;
- Receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us or have this information be sent to a third party, this will be provided to you or the third party in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format;
- Object at any time to processing of your personal information for direct marketing;
- Object in certain other situations to the continued processing of your personal information;
- Restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
- Request not to be subject to automated decision making which produce legal effects that concern you or affect you in a significantly similar way;
If you want more information about your rights under the GDPR please see the Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office on Individual's rights under the GDPR.
If you want to exercise any of these rights, please:
- Email, call our write to our the Director responsible for Data Protection Victoria Jones.
- Provide another information so that we can identify you. We may need to contact you to request further information to verify your identity;
- Let us have proof of your identity and address;
- State the right or rights that you wish to exercise;
We will respond to you within one month from when we receive your request.
How to make a complaint?
We hope that you are happy with our service and that we can resolve any issues or complaints that arise. Please get in touch if you have any concerns (see ‘Get in touch’ below).
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complain with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where the alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The UK supervisory authority if the Information Commissioner’s Office who can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.
Our Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
Future Processing
We do not intend to process your personal information for any reason other than stated within this privacy notice. If this changes, we will inform you in writing.
Changes to this privacy notice
This privacy was published on 3 March 2019 and last updated on 4 September 2024.
We constantly review our internal privacy practices and may change this policy from time to time. When we do we will inform you by e-mail.
Get in touch
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you, please contact Victoria Jones .
The best way to reach us is to email Victoria.Jones@rlelaw.com or alternatively, please call 016656 656861.
Alternative formats
If it would be helpful to have this notice provided in another format (for example: in another language, audio, braille) please contact us (see ‘Get in touch’ above).