Privacy Notice

This privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from Clodes Solicitors when we request or hold personal information (“personal data”) about you; how you can get access to a copy of your personal data; and what you can do if you think the standards are not being met. 

Please read this privacy policy carefully and ensure you understand it.  By providing your personal information to us you are agreeing to us using your information as described in this policy.

2. To whom does this notice relate?

This document is relevant for the following people: 

• our clients;
• people who make enquiries about our services;
• people who visit our websites or who follow us on our various social media channels;
• people whose personal information is required in order to enable our clients to obtain legal advice
• people (and their representatives) who are involved in one of our client’s matters including witnesses and the other parties to litigation or on the other side of transactions;
• our regulators, insurers, auditors, professional advisers and certification bodies.

3. Personal Information we collect

We only process personal data that is relevant for the services we are providing to you.  The personal data which you have provided to us will be used for the purposes set out below. 

The usual personal data we process includes: 

• Your name, contact details such as address, telephone number, email address;
• Date of birth;
• National Insurance number;
• Criminal Convictions only if they relate to any current legal proceedings concerning you;
• Medical records if they relate to any current legal proceedings concerning you;
• Photographic ID such as passport or driving licence in order for us to conduct due diligence
• Financial information and information relating to any current or previous legal proceedings concerning you;
• Transaction data including details about payments to and from you and other details of services individuals have purchased from us
• Special category data, when relevant to your legal matter or to the matter of a client to whom you are involved in a matter which includes data concerning health, genetic data and biometric data, data concerning a person’s sex life and/or sexual orientation, personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs and trade union membership.

If you use Clodes Solicitors website we will process your personal data including technical information such as your IP address, web browser type, geographical location, operating system, the content you view and the search terms you use. Our website may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

4. How do we obtain your personal information

We obtain your personal information from the following sources: 

• You or your representatives including directly and via our website;
• Public records;
• Other parties you instruct us to contact;
• Other parties involved in your matter such as other parties in the litigation;
• We collect personal information while monitoring our website, email and social media communications. For information about our use of tracking devices and cookies including the analytics services provided by Google on our website, please refer to our Cookies policy. 

We know how important it is to protect customers’ privacy and to comply with data protection laws.  We will safeguard your personal data and will only disclose it where it is lawful to do so, or with your consent.

5. Purpose of processing and the lawful basis for the process

The purpose of Clodes Solicitors collecting and processing the personal data which you have provided to us is for the following purposes: 

• To provide legal advice including preparation and conduct of your matter;
• To undertake background checks including identity checks, conflict of interest checks, bankruptcy searches and anti money laundering checks;
• To prevent or respond to actual or potential fraud or illegal activities;
• Communicating with you;
• To assist with instructing experts in relation to your matter including but not limited to barristers, funders, medical experts;
• To make any manage payments including those due to us;
• To manage relationships with our clients;
• To ensure we uphold relevant standards set by our regulators, auditors and certification bodies;
• To look into any complaints or queries;
• To establish, exercise or defend our legal rights or for the purpose of legal proceedings in which we may be involved;
• To uphold our legal obligations;
• To analyse the use of our website.

 We will process your personal data for the following uses: 

• To identify you;
• Performing the terms set out in our terms and conditions;
• To provide you with the information you have requested about the services we offer;
• To notify you of any changes to our services;
• Applying for Legal Aid;
• Obtaining information from public bodies such as the Crown Prosecution Service, Court and Tribunals;
• To deal with your query or complaint;
• To improve and develop our business generally i.e in pursuing our legitimate interests such as in contacting you to market our services to you;
• To enforce our legal rights including collecting data to enable us to pursue or defend a legal claim of our own;
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations including processing personal data such as ID in order to conduct due diligence on you or legal practice rules
• In addition, we also collect “special categories of personal data” for the purposes of monitoring equality, this is a legal requirement for public authorities under the Equality Act 2010.  Special categories of personal data obtained for equality monitoring will be treated with the strictest confidence and any information published will not identify you or anyone else associated with you. 

The legal basis for collecting this information includes: (1) Necessary for performance of your contract with Clodes Solicitors, or to take steps prior to entering into that contract (2) necessary to comply with legal obligations to which Clodes is subject (3) Necessary for the purposes of  Clodes Solicitors’ legitimate interests in developing and growing its business (except where those interests are overridden by the interests or the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual).

Those legitimate interests include:

• enhancing the profile of our business;
• providing legal and related services to our clients;
• marketing our business and services;
• ensuring compliance with our policies and procedures;
• protection of our brand reputation, intellectual property and commercially valuable information;
• to ensure our services are delivered efficiently and reliably;
• to prevent and detect criminal activity;
• for security reasons;
• to pursue debts;
• to maintain/obtain accreditation so we can demonstrate that we operate at the highest standard;
• to defend legal claims against us (e.g. for negligence);
• to comply with relevant laws and regulations; and
• to ensure the health and safety of our staff and visitors.

Any information regarding your instructions to us about your case is privileged (in other word strictly confidential) and is not disclosed without your specific consent. 

We will not generally rely on consent as a basis for processing personal data. In the limited circumstances where we may rely upon consent, we will specifically obtain this. 

Were Clodes Solicitors unable to collect this personal information, we would not be able to conduct the activities above, which would prevent us from providing appropriate legal services and advice.

6. Who the information may be shared with?

We sometimes need to share the personal information we process with other organisations.  When this is necessary, we will comply with all aspects of the relevant data protection laws.  The organisations we may share your personal information with include: 

• Public authorities such as: HM Courts and Tribunals Services (HMCTS), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), Probate Registry and HM Land Registry.
• Non-public organisations such as: Credit reference agencies and our debt collection partners, our external auditors who review our files for training, compliance and quality, people who you ask us to share your personal data with such as family members etc and other Legal Practices connected with your matter including but not limited to barristers, medical professionals, insurance companies and translation agencies. 

There may be some limited circumstances where we may be legally required to share certain personal date such as if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority such as the National Crime Agency. 

You can contact our Data Privacy Manager for further information on the organisations we may share your personal information with.

7. Your data rights

You have the right to the following: 

• Right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data- This is why we are providing you with the information in this Privacy Policy;
• Right of access to the personal data we hold about you;
• Right to rectification if your personal data is inaccurate or incomplete;
• Right to erasure which allows you to request the deletion or removal of your personal data where there is no compelling reason for us to keep using it. This is not a general right to erasure; there are exceptions;
• Right to restrict processing of your personal data in certain circumstances;
• Right of data portability if the data is processed using automated means;
• Right to object to us processing your personal data for our legitimate business interests or for direct marketing purposes;
• Right to withdraw consent to processing (although if you do so, it does not mean that any processing of your personal data up to that point is unlawful);
• Right to make a complaint to the data protection authorities.

If you wish to exercise your rights, please do not hesitate to contact us. For more information on your legal rights please see the Information Commissioners Website (ico.org.uk).

8. Where do we hold personal data?

Your data will be stored at our offices and on our IT equipment or where your information is shared with a third party at their premises or on their IT equipment

9. Retention period for information collected

Your personal information will not be retained for any longer than is necessary for the lawful purposes for which it has been collected and processed. We are obliged by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority to retain your file for a period of six years. 

You can also contact our Data Privacy Manager for a copy of our retention policies. 

While we retain your personal data, we will ensure that it is kept securely and protected from loss, misuse or unauthorised access and disclosure.  Once the retention period has been reached, your personal data will be permanently and securely deleted and destroyed.

10. Transferring personal data outside of the EEA

We will only store or transfer your personal date within the European Economic Area (EEA) unless you or a third party with whom we must share your personal data are based outside the EEA.

11. Access to personal information

You can find out if we hold any personal data about you by making a “subject access request”.  If you wish to make a subject access request, please contact our Data Privacy Manager: Mr Damian Clode in writing at the following address: Clodes Solicitors, Regus House Malthouse Avenue Cardiff CF23 8RU. 

There is no change for subject access requests, and we will respond to your request within one month of receiving it. Excessive requesting for example repetitive requests may result in a fee being charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

12. When will we ask you for personal data?

We promise to inform you why we need your personal data and ask only for the personal data we need and not to collect information that is irrelevant or excessive. 

In relation to our website, you may access our Site without providing any personal data at all. However, to use all features and functions you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data. You may restrict our use of Cookies. For more information, our Cookie Policy. 

You can get more details on: 

• Agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information;
• Circumstances where we can pass on personal information without telling you, for example, to help us to produce anonymised statistics;
• Our instructions to staff on how to collect, use or delete your personal information;
• How we check that the information we hold is accurate and up-to-date; and
• How to make a complaint.

13. Complaints

When we ask you for information, we will comply with the law.  If you consider that your information has been handled incorrectly, in the first instance we ask that you contact our Data Privacy Manager. 

You can also contact the Information Commissioner at: 

Information Commissioner’s Officer, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Contact no: 0303 123 1113

ICO’s website: ico.org.uk

14. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated In July 2021. This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time, so you may want to check it each time you provide personal data to us.