WHO WE ARE

Charles Clarke & Co Solicitors collects, uses and is responsible for personal information about you. When we do this we are the Controller of this information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws.

Our Data Protection Officer is Mr Barrington Charles Edwards

WHAT WE DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Personal data collected by us

When carrying out our legal services, we obtain certain information from you that is personal data, which include by way of example but is not limited to:

• Your National Insurance number;
• Your Inland Revenue details;
• Bank statements;
• Utility bills or household bills;
• Your date of birth;
• Details of your name and former names.
• Your identity information – passport and/or driving licence.
• Your name, address, telephone numbers and email addresses
• Information about your personal circumstances, lifestyle and employment
• Information about your family or next of kin
• Details of your bank and mortgage arrangements
• financial details
• business of the person whose personal information we are processing
• education and employment details

The data is collected from you when you manually, orally or via a written document or questionnaire, provide that data to us. This personal information must be provided by you to us, to enable us to carry out the business service you have requested from us. Charles Clarke & Co Solicitors do not use data that has been provided to us indirectly. In other words, we do not observe, track you online or by smart devices.

WHY INFORMATION HAS TO BE PROVIDED BY YOU

Personal information must be provided by you to enable us to carry out the business service you have requested from us. When we collect information from you, we will inform you whether you are required to provide this information to us.

We rely on legitimate interest as the legal basis for processing your information. 

PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We process personal data to enable us to provide legal services including advising and acting on behalf of our clients.   We use a company called SmartSearch to carry out a secure ID check to verify the data provided to us. We also process personal information for:

• Maintaining our own accounts and records;
• Promoting our services;
• Supporting and managing our employees;
• Tax purposes;
• Court proceedings;
• Disclosure to the party on the other side of any contentious matter;
• Anti-Money Laundering.
• Legal and regulatory compliance

DATA SHARING

We have relationships with a number of third-parties that we routinely share personal information with. A list of these third-parties will be made available on request. Such parties include, by way of example:

1. HMRC (in relation to Stamp Duty Land Tax and the Land Registry).
2. The solicitors acting for any party against whom you are involved.
3. Any Court or Tribunal.
4. Any third parties instructed on your behalf.

We will share your personal information with law enforcement agencies, if required by applicable law.

We will not share your personal information with any other third-parties without your consent.

FUTURE PROCESSING OF DATA

We do not intend to process your personal information for any reason other than stated within this Privacy Notice. If this changes, we will inform you by updating this policy, making it clear on our website that the notice has changed and where it is appropriate to do so, we will send an email to our active clients.

DATA TRANSFER OUTSIDE OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA)

We will not transfer your personal information outside the EEA.

If this position changes and we commence work with a third party who is or has some of it activities outside of the EEA we will update this privacy notice and inform the clients this activity will affect. Any future transfer of data outside of the EEA should it be applicable will be subject to safeguards such as end to end encryption where it is possible, password protection and limited access to data at the receiving end by virtue of system designed. These safeguards are designed to protect your privacy rights and provide you with remedies in the unlikely event that your personal information is misused. You are entitled to obtain a copy of how your data will be protected should it become necessary for it to be transferred outside the EEA .

DATA STORAGE

We only keep your personal data for so long as is necessary to carry out the business service you have asked us to perform and to comply with the retention periods requested of us by law.

After the end of the relevant matter please let us know if you would like us to send your file of papers to you. Otherwise we will keep your file of papers in storage. After a period of one year after the date of the final bill we send to you for the matter, without further reference to you and by agreeing to our terms you authorise us so to do, we will normally take a digital copy of your file of papers, which will be stored up to six years. The paper file will thereafter be destroyed in accordance with guidelines.

Some documents we store may be treated differently to the file on your matter as a whole. For example, Will documents will be kept for as long as the testator is alive and for a further six years after the death of the individual. Most property deeds are now stored electronically, however, for those that are not we may store these indefinitely.

DATA SECURITY

Charles Clarke & Co has established processes and controls to protect your data. A summary of these measures is here:

• Appropriate anti-virus and cybersecurity software to ensure data cannot be held to ransom
• Offsite servers for business continuity and security of those servers
• Appropriate physical measures at each office such as locked cabinets and safes. We encrypt data when it is appropriate to do so
• We password protect data where it is appropriate to do so
• We limit access to cases internally.

For further information on how we protect your data please speak to your solicitor.

Data Breaches

You have the right to be notified of a data security breach concerning your personal data.

If you want more information about your rights under the GDPR, please see the Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on Individual’s Rights under the GDPR.

YOUR CONSENT

We are relying on your explicit consent to allow us to carry out the business service that you have asked us to perform and to directly market our products and services to you after the conclusion of your matter. You provide this consent when we provide you with a separate consent form at the beginnings of your matter and return it with your other engagement materials.

You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, but this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing activity we have carried out prior to you withdrawing your consent. You can opt out here by written correspondence to Charles Clarke & Co Solicitors, 77 High Street, London, SE20 7HW

YOUR RIGHTS

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have several important rights that you can exercise free of charge. In summary these rights are:

Right To Be Informed

You have the right to information about what personal data we process, how and on what basis as set out in this policy.

You have the right to access your own personal data by way of a subject access request (see below).

Right of Access

Data subjects can make a ‘subject access request’ (‘SAR’) to find out the information we hold about them. This request must be made in writing.

If you would like to make a SAR in relation to your own personal data, you should make this in writing to Charles Clarke & Co.  We must respond within one month unless the request is complex or numerous in which case the period in which we must respond can be extended by a further two months.

There is no fee for making a SAR. However, if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, we may charge a reasonable administrative fee or refuse to respond to your request.

Right to Rectification

You can correct any inaccuracies in your personal data. To do you should contact Charles Clarke & Co.

Right to Erasure

You have the right to request that we erase your personal data where we were not entitled under the law to process it or it is no longer necessary to process it for the purpose it was collected. To do so you should contact Charles Clarke & Co.

Right to Restrict Processing

While you are requesting that your personal data is corrected or erased or are contesting the lawfulness of our processing, you can apply for its use to be restricted while the application is made. To do so you should contact Charles Clarke & Co.

Right to Data Portability

You have the right to receive a copy of your personal data and to transfer your personal data to another Data Controller. We will not charge for this and will in most cases aim to do this within one month.

Right to Object

You have the right to object to data processing where we are relying on a legitimate interest to do so and you think that your rights and interests outweigh our own and you wish us to stop.

You have the right to object if we process your personal data for the purposes of direct marketing.

With some exceptions, you have the right not to be subjected to automated decision-making.

YOUR CONCERN

We hope that you are happy with our service and that we can resolve any concerns or complaints that arise. Please get in touch if you have any concerns (see ‘Contacting Us’ below).

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner Office (ICO). You can do this be contacting the Information Commissioner Office directly. Full contact details including a helpline number can be found on the Information Commissioner Office website (www.ico.org.uk). This website has further information on your rights and our obligations.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This privacy was updated and published on 11th November 2019.

We constantly review our internal privacy practices and may change this policy from time to time. When we do, we will inform you by updating this policy, making it clear on our website that the notice has changed and where it is appropriate to do so, we will send an email to our active clients.

ALTERNATIVE FORMATS

If it would be helpful to have this notice provided in another format (for example: in another language, audio, braille), please contact us.

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you, please contact us at:

PostAddress:
Charles Clarke & Co
77 High Street
London
SE20 7HW

Email:info@chcl.uk.com
Telephone:  020 8659 7227