Who we are

We, White & Co Solicitors, are a Data Controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. The person responsible for your data protection at White & Co is Alison White who is a Director of the firm. As the Data Controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing personal information as in accordance with this privacy notice. It is of great importance to us to maintain security of your data and your privacy rights. This notice sets out details of your rights and obligations.

Why we need to collect, use and process personal information

We collect personal information from you for several reasons. Most of the information we collect from you is mandatory, on the basis that we have a legal obligation under Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to obtain and retain this information. We are also entitled to collect this information in pursuit of our legitimate interests. It is important you understand that we will be processing your personal data for the reasons set out below.

  • to perform our contractual obligations for clients
  • to provide legal advice, take and follow your instructions
  • to comply with any legal obligations placed upon us
  • to protect clients, employees and any other individuals
  • for promotion and marketing, to include changes to our website
  • for fraud prevention purposes
  • to take any legal action if necessary
  • to improve our client services

The information we may collect, hold and process about you

This includes but is not limited to the following –

  • Title
  • Full name
  • Permanent residential address
  • Telephone contact number(s);
  • Email address
  • Date of birth
  • Nationality
  • National insurance number
  • Supporting information to verify your identity and address
  • All communications to and from you by telephone, email, post or otherwise
  • Details of your family members, including children, where relevant
  • Your occupation
  • Any documents sent to us in association with your legal matter

We may, in certain circumstances, need to collect, process and hold sensitive personal information. Due to the nature of this personal information we will always seek your consent prior to requesting it for processing.

How we use your personal information

  • To process your request for legal advice
  • To advise and assist you regarding your legal matter
  • To undertake conflict checks
  • To comply with legal or regulatory requirements
  • To send you details by post, email, telephone or any other electronic means, of applications, products and services we supply which we believe may be of interest to you, but only if you have given us prior consent
  • to represent clients in their legal matters, carrying out our contractual duties to do so
  • to verify your identity
  • to process job applications
  • to monitor client satisfaction
  • to inform you if there is to be any change in the service we provide you

How we collect information

You may give us information by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by:

  • Telephone
  • Email
  • Post
  • by any other electronic means.

This includes information you provide when you:

  • Search our website
  • Attend appointments or seek legal advice throughout your matter
  • Contact us to seek legal advice whether by telephone, email, social media or contact form on our website
  • Enter a promotion and/or participate in a survey or any other interaction with our website (including occasions when you report a problem with the websites) or social media sites

We may also receive and send personal information from and to third parties with whom we are entitled to share that information with. This may include but is not limited to the following –

  • Solicitors
  • mortgage companies
  • local authorities
  • pension companies
  • barristers and other employees at their Chambers
  • professional experts
  • other parties involved in your case and court proceedings
  • Court staff
  • The Legal Aid Agency
  • Police Disclosure Unit
  • The Law Society
  • Solicitors’ Regulation Authority
  • HMRC
  • Payroll

Data retention

We may retain information about clients at the conclusion of your matter and we have legal obligations to do so. For example, we are legally obliged to retain your file and information for a minimum of 6 years or until a child in proceedings reaches 18. Where we have acted for you in relation to your Will, we will retain information for a minimum of 30 years.

This information will only be held for as long as is necessary to meet any legal, regulatory or fraud prevention requirements and for our lawful business processing. We regularly review our records to ensure that we only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Information Notice. Please note: where we no longer need your personal information, we will dispose of it in a secure manner (without further notice to you). We will also ensure that your data is not processed outside of the European Economic Area, without notification to you in advance.

Marketing

From time to time, where you have provided consent, we may use your personal information to contact you by telephone, post, email or by any other electronic means, with details about our products and services, which we feel may be of interest to you.

Security and storage of information

The security and storage of your personal information is very important to us. The personal information we collect from you is stored by us on secure servers, protected through a combination of physical and electronic access controls, firewall technology and other security measures

Although we use market standard security software to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted by you to our websites and email and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Your information and your rights

Under the new data protection legislation, you have several additional rights regarding your information and how it is used alongside existing rights already in place. These are as follows –

  • To be informed about how we obtain and use your information
  • To ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you
  • To have your information rectified in the event there is anything that we hold which is incorrect
  • To request us to restrict processing of your personal data
  • To request to have your information erased (right to be forgotten) in certain circumstances, for example, where we no longer need to retain the information
  • To object to the processing of your information (e.g. for direct marketing purposes)
  • Where the processing of your information is based on your consent, the right at any time to withdraw that consent
  • To ask who we have sent information to/received information from and the nature of that information
  • To ask us to send you, or another organisation, certain types of information about you in a format that can be read by a computer
  • To lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the supervisory authority responsible for data protection matters. You cannot opt out of receiving regulatory or legal information or updates.

If you would like to use any of your rights, please contact Alison White or Carla Kennedy who will be able to advise you of the next steps and whether your request can be complied with.

Other sites and social media

If you follow a link from our websites, applications or services to another site or service, this Privacy Information Notice will no longer apply. We are not responsible for the information handling practices of third party sites or services and we encourage you to read the privacy information notices appearing on those sites or services.

Changes to our Privacy Information Notice

We may change, modify or adjust this Privacy Information Notice from time to time; however we will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Information Notice. Any changes we may make to our Privacy Information Notice will be detailed to you.

Electronic mail containing personal information

You may, from time to time, send personal information to us electronically. We are not responsible for the way in which you handle personal information. Please refer to clause 11 of this Privacy Information Notice regarding the security of information not sent via secure means.

Contact us

We take your privacy and protection of your personal information very seriously. If you have any questions, comments or queries about the way we are collecting or using your personal information please Alison White or Carla Kennedy. if you have any concerns at any time about how your information/requests are being handled you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office https://ico.org.uk/concerns/