Introduction

KT Family Solicitors (“we”) are committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of visitors to our website, our clients and contacts.  This privacy notice sets out how we obtain, use and protect the personal data we hold about you and to explain what your rights are in relation to the information that we hold.
What does “personal data” mean?
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified, either directly or indirectly.
The personal information we may collect about you
The information you give to us or we obtain from you may include:

• your name and title;
• contact information such as postal and email addresses and telephone numbers;
• your date of birth and National Insurance number;
• photographic identification and proof of address documents (to meet anti-money laundering requirements);
• bank account and other financial details;
• professional details such as job title, employment history, qualifications etc. usually included on a CV;
• in certain circumstances special category data which includes details relating to health (including disabilities), ethnicity, race, religious beliefs and trade union membership;
• the content of an enquiry form you submit through our website;
• CCTV footage from cameras in operation outside our offices;
• any other personal information we collect about you in the context or our work for you as clients or in the course of operating our business;
• information collected automatically each time you visit our website (see our Cookies Policy for further details).

We may collect the above information from any of the following categories of people:

• our clients and their employees or business partners;
• prospective employees or work experience students;
• the nominated emergency contacts for our employees and partners;
• other professionals such as accountants, surveyors or estate agents with whom we work in the context of providing legal services;
• our contractors and suppliers;
• those who submit enquiries through or use contact details on our website;
• any other visitor to our offices;
• other parties involved in legal matters or their solicitors;
• banks, building societies or other lenders;
• publicly available sources such as the Land Registry or Companies House.

Legal grounds for processing your personal information

Processing is any activity that involves your personal information. It includes obtaining, recording or holding the information, organising, amending, retrieving, using, disclosing, erasing or destroying it.

We can only process your personal information when the law allows it. Most commonly the legal grounds we will rely on are:

• to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
• to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation to which we are subject such as checking your identity for anti-money laundering purposes;
• we have a legitimate interest in doing so as a law firm which will include managing relationships with prospective and current clients, prospective and current employees, our contractors and suppliers, but only where our legitimate interests are not overridden by your fundamental rights or freedoms;
• to protect your vital interests such as if you were to fall ill or have an accident on our premises;
• where processing of special category personal data is necessary in the context of the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.

How we will process (use) your personal information

We may use your personal information for the following purposes

• to respond to any query you may submit to us;
• to carry out conflict checks (a regulatory requirement);
• to comply with our contractual obligation to clients to carry out the legal services as described in our engagement letters and terms of business;
• to verify your identity for anti-money laundering purposes, to include using a third party electronic verification provider (this will not affect your credit rating);
• to establish the source of funding in a transaction;
• to comply with any other professional, statutory and regulatory obligations we have;
• for administration or accounting purposes to manage our business;
• to administer our website;
• to process a job application you submit or is submitted on your behalf;
• to deal with your feedback on our services;
• to deal with a complaint;
• to provide you with updates on relevant areas of law;
• to invite you to a hospitality event;
• to contact you about other activities and events that we may organise.

Sharing your personal information

We may share your personal information with carefully selected third party organisations which store and process data on our behalf.  These third parties may include IT platforms, suppliers of administrative and support services and suppliers of other specialists products needed for the provision of our legal services.

We may also share your information with other third parties in the course of providing legal services to you, or where we are subject to a legal or regulatory requirement to do so. These third parties may include:

• the other parties involved in your matter or the solicitors acting for them;
• counsel, accountants or other experts to assist or advise on your matter;
• a court or tribunal if we act for you in a litigated dispute;
• government bodies such as HMRC or HM Land Registry;
• insurance brokers or providers where you may need to take out an insurance policy as part of a transaction:
• a bank, building society or other lender providing finance in a transaction;
• our regulators, the Legal Ombudsman and our professional indemnity insurers;
• external auditors, the Law Society or lenders who may carry out independent checks.

We will not share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Security of your personal information

We have put in place appropriate security measure to use our best endeavours 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 will also ensure that if we need to send your personal information to a country outside of the EEA, we will comply with the relevant laws and regulations governing such transfers.

We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal information breach and will notify you and our regulators where we are legally obliged to do so.

Storage and retention of your personal information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirement.

Your legal rights

You have certain rights in relation to your personal information, although these rights will not apply in all cases or to all information that we hold about you.  For example, we may need to continue to hold and process your personal information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.  Your rights are to:

• request access to your personal information that we hold, known as a subject access request;
• request rectification of your personal information where it is out of date or incorrect;
• request erasure of your personal information, known as the right to be forgotten;
• request restriction of the way(s) in which we process your personal information;
• object to us processing your personal information;
• request transfer of your personal information.

All requests should be directed to the Data Protection Manager whose details are set out under “Contact details and complaints below”.

We will respond to requests you may make in relation to the above rights within the relevant statutory timescales to include providing information on whether the rights apply in the particular circumstances.  We may ask that you provide us with evidence of your identity before we are able to respond to your requests.

Automated decision making

We will not use your personal information for automated decision making.

Changes to this policy and further information

We may make changes to this policy from time to time in the event of changes to our business, internal processes or applicable laws. We will not however make use of your personal data otherwise than for the purpose(s) for which is it was originally collected or than is permitted by applicable law.

Contact details and complaints

Contact details for questions about this privacy policy or requests to exercise your legal rights are as follows:

Data Privacy Manager: Kim Tucker – [email protected]

Address: Unit 7, Coped Hall Business Park, Royal Wootton Bassett, SN4 8DP

Telephone number: 01793 852800

You have the right at any time to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would however appreciate the opportunity to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so ask that you please contact us in the first instance.