At Stewarts, we are committed to protecting your privacy. Set out below is an explanation of how we use your information.
Contents of this page
- The purpose of this notice
- Visitors to our website
- How we use your information
- If you fail to provide personal information
- Information about criminal convictions
- Sharing your information
- How we keep your information secure
- Retention of your information
- How you can access or correct your information
- Data controller details
The purpose of this notice
This notice applies to anyone whose personal data we collect, including clients – current, former and prospective clients – suppliers, professional contacts, visitors to our website and other third parties.
It is important that you read this notice, so that you are aware of how and why we are using your information.
‘Personal data’ is any information that can be used to identify a natural person. It includes identifiers such as your name, address or email address. Some of the information we collect may be ‘special categories’ of personal data’ such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and information about your health, including any medical condition and medical records.
This notice does not form part of any contract or retainer. We may amend this notice at any time.
Collection of your information
Visitors to our website
The information that we collect, process and store during normal use of the site is used to monitor and analyse how parts of the site are used. Such use does not result in any personally identifiable data being collected, processed or stored. If you submit information to us via our website we may collect information about your usage, such as the pages you view, links you click on and other actions, to personalise your experience, including providing you with tailored content.
You have the option on certain pages within this site to submit personal information (‘personal data’) to us by email and online enquiry forms. The remainder of this privacy notice may apply to you if you submit your information online.
The information you provide us about yourself when you submit your information and when you interact and correspond with us by other means including in person, in writing or by telephone, will be shared with the relevant department, partner or employee within Stewarts to the extent necessary to perform the service you have requested. We may also contact you for feedback on the service you received from us.
Your information will be kept confidential by Stewarts unless we are required by law or our professional regulatory obligations to disclose it. If you provide us with confidential information as part of your enquiry, this shall not constitute a retainer between us and shall not in itself prevent us from acting for anyone else.
Other individuals
If you provide us with your personal data other than through use of our website or if we obtain your personal data from another party or from information you have made public, we will collect, process and store your information for the purposes set out in this notice.
We may monitor, record, store and use any telephone or other communication with you in order to check any instructions given to us and to help us to provide our services.
How we use your information
Purposes of processing and lawful basis
We process your personal data for various purposes including:
- To provide you with the information, products, and/or services you request
- The provision of legal or other services, including dealing with claims and legal proceedings, under a retainer or contractual agreement or to take certain steps to enter into a retainer or contract
- Compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations
- Marketing activities and communications
- Events management
- Operation of our legitimate business interests and that of third parties, including pursuing business and strategic objectives;
- Recruitment and employment
- Network and information security
‘Special category personal data’, which is sensitive data pertaining to things like your health, ethnic origin or sexual orientation, will also be processed for one or more of the following purposes:
- With your explicit consent
- To carry out our legal and regulatory obligations under employment, social security or social protection law
- Where it is substantially in the public interest (such as workforce and job applicant diversity monitoring in order to ensure equality of opportunity and treatment)
- To establish, exercise or defend legal claims
- In the course of dealing with a complaint, claim or legal proceedings on your behalf
- With your explicit consent
We are required under UK data protection legislation to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. This ensures that we process your data “fairly, lawfully and transparently”. We rely on the following lawful bases. Only one will apply to any given processing activity; it will depend on the purpose of the processing and the nature of the data being processed:
- Your consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes. In certain circumstances a third party may have authority to consent on your behalf;
- To provide our services to you in order to perform our contract or retainer with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract or retainer;
- To comply with our legal obligations;
- processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or that of a third party.
Where we are processing special category data we are also required to meet an applicable condition. The conditions we rely on are:
- Your explicit consent to the processing of your special category data for one or more specific purposes;
- Carrying out our obligations and exercising specific rights in the felid of employment, social security and social protection law;
- Processing personal data manifestly made public by you;
- To establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
- For reasons of substantial public interest
What personal data we collect
The personal data we collect may include but is not limited to the following:
- Personal identifiable information such as your name, date of birth, address, telephone numbers and email addresses
- Information pertaining to family members, next of kin, litigation friends and others
- Copies of government issued identity documents such as a passport or driving licence
- Financial information such as bank account details, bank statements, information regarding savings, investments and assets, copies of tax returns
- IP address, geolocation and similar information
- Information about your use of our website, information and communications systems
- Social media profiles, photographs and communications
- Any other information or communication collected from you, a third party or from publicly available sources that constitutes personal data
If you fail to provide personal information
If you fail to provide information when requested, we may not be able to deliver the services you have requested or perform certain aspects of it or we may be prevented from complying with our legal or regulatory obligations.
Information about criminal convictions
We will only collect information about criminal convictions if it is appropriate and where we are legally able to do so. Where appropriate, we will collect information about criminal convictions as part of our recruitment and employment process, if it is relevant to your role or required by a professional regulatory body that you or Stewarts are subject to or required by law and where we are legally able to do so, or as part of delivering legal services to you in relation to a claim or legal proceedings. We may collect this information through recruitment or background check providers, government or regulatory bodies or we may be notified of such information directly by you or a third party during the course of our relationship with you. We will use information about criminal convictions and offences in the following ways:
- For the purposes of providing legal services to you under a contract or retainer or to provide other services at your request
- To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including under employment law
- In the course of exercising or defending legal claims or proceedings
- For our legitimate business interests or that of a third party
Sharing your information
We may need to disclose your information to third parties, including other lawyers (including any lawyer or law firm listed on any panel or referral list that we may operate or participate in) and providers in order to perform the services you have requested or to refer you to other providers. We may also share your information for the purposes of operating our business or during the course of a sale or merger; marketing; recruitment and employment; network and information security; improving service delivery and other legitimate purposes permitted by data protection laws.
We may also share your personal data with Onward Together CIC (“Onward”). Onward is a separate Community Interest Company owned and operated by Stewarts.
If we transfer your personal data outside the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) we will transfer it to a country with an EU adequacy decision or otherwise will ensure that we comply with relevant data protection laws concerning third country transfers.
We ensure that any third party we share your personal data with will be bound to keep your information safe and confidential. We will have contractual arrangements in place that require the third party to comply with relevant data protection laws or we will seek your consent to transfer your information, unless an exemption applies. We will also share your information with any party that you specifically request us to.
Third parties with whom we share your data may further process your personal data. You should refer to the third party’s privacy information which will explain how it collects and uses your personal data.
Except as stated, we will not share your personal data with any other third party except where obliged by law or our regulatory obligations or by any regulatory regime that you may be subject to.
We will never sell your personal data to any third party.
Third parties may include:
- Other law firms and the courts
- Legal service providers
- Business services suppliers
- Background and identity check providers and credit check agencies
- Agents, consultants and contractors
- Insurance brokers and insurance companies
- Third party litigation funders
- Recruitment consultants and employment agencies
- Government, regulatory and other official bodies
If you provide Stewarts with a third party’s personal data, you are responsible for ensuring that you comply with any relevant data protection and privacy requirements. Any third party’s personal data will be used by us for the purposes stated above and processed in compliance with relevant data protection laws.
How we keep your information secure
We store the information you provide about yourself using appropriate systems. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your information and the resilience of our systems and services. We review our information security measures regularly to reduce the likelihood oF risks or breaches occurring, including accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to your personal data. Further information on information security at Stewarts can be made available on request.
Stewarts is Cyber Essentials Plus accredited.
Retention of your information
We will retain your personal data for as long as needed to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, unless you request that it be removed. We will also retain your information in order to comply with our legal obligations and business requirements. We will thereafter delete or securely dispose of your personal data in accordance with our retention policies.
How you can access or correct your information
It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes.
You may update the information you provided to us by contacting us at info@stewartslaw.com.
To protect your privacy and security, we may also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before updating your information.
You may opt out of marketing communications or update your preferences by contacting us or by following the link included in any marketing communication. This will not prevent us from contacting you directly in order to provide our services, such as corresponding with you by email about your case.
In accordance with data protection laws, you may request access to or removal of your personal data or you may object to processing by contacting dataprotection@stewartslaw.com. Please note that a request for removal of your information or any other restriction on our ability to process your personal data may mean that we are unable to provide you with the services you have requested.
Data controller details
Stewarts is a data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the retained law version of the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“UK GDPR”) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Stewarts is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number Z4940538. Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be contacted at dataprotection@stewartslaw.com.
For general enquiries about our privacy and data protection measures or if you require further details on any information contained in this privacy notice, please contact us by email: dataprotection@stewartslaw.com or by post.
We take protection of your personal data very seriously. If you have any concerns about how we process your information or about data sharing, please contact us in the first instance.
You may also be entitled to make a complaint to the ICO. The ICO can be contacted by post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF or by telephone: 0303 123 1113 or via their website: https://www.ico.org.uk.
EU Data Protection Representative
If you are an individual in the European Union or the EEA, you may contact the DPO at Stewarts directly or you may exercise your data protection rights in your own country by contacting our Data Protection Representative. Stewarts has appointed DataRep as its Data Protection Representative for the purposes of the GDPR. To contact DataRep by email or post see EU Data Protection Representative – Stewarts (stewartslaw.com).