Privacy policy

This policy explains the type of data we may collect about you, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

This document is being provided to you in line with our obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force on 25^th May 2018. Please take time to read this policy. If you have any questions about how we use your information, please contact our Data Protection Officer at the details below.

1. What information do we collect about you?

We may collect personal information from you in the course of our business, including when you contact or request information from us, when you engage our services or through your use of our website,

The personal information that we collect includes:

• data to identify you, including your contact information, such as your postal address, email address and phone number(s)
• financial information details/ financial circumstances,
• your marital status
• Identification and background information provided by you or collected as part of our business acceptance processes
• Information about you provided by others e.g. government agencies/ doctors.
• Information you provide to us for the purposes of attending appointments, including access.
• Any other information relating to you which you may provide to us

2. How we obtain your personal information

•  We collect information from you as part of our business acceptance processes and others as necessary in the course of providing legal services.
• We gather information about you when you provide it to us, or interact with us directly, for instance engaging with our staff or contacting us through our website or through email communications.
• We collect your personal information while monitoring our technology tools and services, including our websites and email communications sent to and from Harte Coyle Collins Solicitors
• We may collect or receive information about you from other sources, such as keeping the contact details we already hold for you accurate and up to date using publically available sources

3. How we use your personal information

We will collect and process personal information about you in a number of ways, including through your use of our website and in the provision of services by us.

Legal and other services

We collect, create, hold and use personal information in the course of and in connection with the services we provide to you. We will process identification and background information as part of our business acceptance, finance, administration and marketing processes, including anti-money laundering, conflict and financial checks.  We will also process personal information provided to us by you for the purposes of the work we do for you.  This information may be disclosed to third parties to the extent reasonably necessary in connection with that work.

Use of Harte Coyle Collins Solicitors’ website

Some of facilities on our website invite you to provide us with personal information, such as our email queries facilities.  The purpose of these facilities is apparent at the point that you provide your personal information and we only use that information for those purposes.

On what basis we use your personal information

We use, and share your data where:

• You have agreed or explicitly consented to using the data in a specific way
• To perform a contract, such as engaging with an individual to provide legal or other services
• For the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or proceedings
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations
• Use is necessary to protect your “vital interests” in exceptional circumstances.
• For legitimate business purposes.

4. How long we keep your personal information

Your personal information will be retained in accordance with our data retention policy. This policy is based on the requirements of applicable data protection laws.

5. Who we share your personal information with

We may share your personal information with certain trusted third parties in accordance with contractual arrangements in place with them, including:

• Our professional advisers and auditors
• Third parties engaged in the course of the services we provide to clients and with their prior consent, such as barristers, doctors, local councils, government agencies, courts and tribunals services, banks and other lending institutions and technology service providers such as case management services
• IT service providers to Harte Coyle Collins Solicitors ,
• To comply with legal or regulatory requirements. We will use reasonable endeavors to notify you before we do this, unless we are legally restricted from doing so.

6. How we protect your personal information

We use a variety of technical and organisational measures to help protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction consistent with applicable data protection laws.

We cannot guarantee the complete security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. We have implemented strict internal guidelines to ensure that your privacy is safeguarded at every level of our organisation.  We will continue to update policies and implement additional security features as new technologies become available

Although we will do our best to protect your Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your Data transmitted to our Site. Any transmission of Data is at your own risk. Once we receive your Data, we will use appropriate security measures to seek to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure.

7. Which countries we transfer your personal information to

• Sometimes we will need to share your personal data with third parties outside the European Economic Area (EEA), such as Australia or the USA.
• We have procedures in place to ensure your data receives the same protection as if it were being processed inside the EEA. For example, our contracts with third parties stipulate the standards they must follow at all times.

8. Your rights regarding your personal information

• You are entitled to request details of the information we hold about you and how we process it.
• Have inaccurate/incomplete information corrected and updated.
• To restrict our processing of that information, to stop unauthorised transfers of your personal information to a third party and, in some circumstances, to have personal information relating to you transferred to another organisation.
• To withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.

Your withdrawal of any previously given consent could mean that we are unable to perform the actions necessary to achieve the purposes set out above (see ‘How we use your personal information’) Please note that even after you have chosen to withdraw your consent we may be able to continue to process your personal information to the extent required or otherwise permitted by law, in particular in connection with exercising and defending our legal rights or meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.

9. Updating personal information

We must ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. Therefore, please advise us of any changes to your information by contacting our office or by emailing info@hartecoylecollins.com

10. How to contact us and/ or our Data Protection Officer

If you have any questions about how we use your information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer by mail at Harte Coyle Collins Solicitors, 9-15 Queen Street Belfast BT1 6EA or by contacting 02890278227

11. Updates

We will update our policy from time to time. Any updates will be made available through our website.

12. Consent

By consenting to this privacy notice you are giving us permission to process your personal data as identified above.