Privacy Policy

Data protection, privacy and confidentiality statement

Your privacy is important to us.  By providing information such as your name and email address via the forms you are consenting to us using your information as set out in this notice.

  1. What is the purpose of this notice?

Phoenix Legal Services is committed to protecting the privacy and security of all of our clients and contacts and of all visitors to our website.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you and how we protect the data that you provide to us or that we obtain or hold about you.  It also provides information on your rights in relation to the data that we hold, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

If you are a client, you should read this notice alongside our Terms and Conditions of Business.

Phoenix Legal Services is a private limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 4867682.  Our registered office is at Southgate House, Wood Street, Cardiff CF10 1EW.  We are regulated by the Costs Lawyers Standards Board.

Phoenix Legal Services is a data controller. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

Our Costs Manager will oversee compliance with this privacy notice and their details are available on our website: www.phoenixlegalservices.co.uk.  They can also be contacted on 029 2066 8664. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the Costs Manager. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

  1. Data protection principles

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

·         Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.

·         Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.

·         Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.

·         Accurate and kept up to date.

·         Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.

·         Kept securely.

  1. The kind of information we hold about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.

There are special categories of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you, depending upon your relationship with us:

  • Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
  • Date of birth.
  • Marital status and dependants.
  • Next of kin and emergency contact information.
  • National Insurance number.
  • Business name.
  • Job title or profession.
  • Bank account details.
  • Tax status information.
  • Copies of your driving licence or passport.
  • Employment information.
  • Tax records.
  • Social services history.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

  • Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.
  • Trade union membership.
  • Health records.
  • Information about criminal convictions and offences.
  1. How is your personal information collected?

We collect personal information from you and the following third parties:

  • Your legal representatives.
  • Opponents and their legal representatives.
  1. How we will use information about you

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

·         To perform the retainer or contract, we have entered into with you.

·         To effectively represent you in any matter in which you have instructed us.

·         Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

·         Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

·         Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).

·         Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

·         With your permission and/or where permitted by law for marketing purposes.  You will always have the opportunity to opt out of such communications.

  1. How we use particularly sensitive personal information

Special categories of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

·         In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.

·         Where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in line with our data protection policy and other regulatory requirements.

·         Where it is needed in the public interest.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

  1. Information about criminal convictions

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations and provided we do so in line with our data protection policy.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

We may also process such information about members or former members in the course of legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

  1. Data sharing

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We will only store or transfer your data within the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. This means that your personal data will be fully protected under the GDPR or to equivalent standards by law.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal information?

Third parties includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents). The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: counsel, IT consultants, our case management system provider, costs software package providers and accountants.  Only limited information is made available to them for the purposes of undertaking their obligations to us.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers?

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

When might you share my personal information with third parties?

We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

  1. Data security

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures 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. Details of these measures may be obtained from the Costs Manager.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

  1. Data retention

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.  In any event we will not retain your data for longer than 7 years.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer a client we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data protection policy and applicable laws and regulations.

  1. Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a ‘subject access request’ or ‘SAR’). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the Costs Manager in writing.

Automated decision-making and profiling

We do not use your personal data in this way.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact the Costs Manager. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

  1. Changes to this policy

We may change this policy from time to time.  This may be necessary if the law changes or if we change our business in a way that affect personal data protection.  Any changes will be made available by publication on our website: www.phoenixlegalservices.co.uk.

You have a right to access your information, if you would like to request a copy of your information or would like to change the information we hold about you please contact us at enquiries@phoenixlegalservices.co.uk.

If you currently receive marketing information from us which you would prefer not to receive in future please let us know by emailing enquiries@phoenixlegalservices.co.uk.

Accreditations and Affiliations