Privacy Policy

Trethowans LLP is a ‘data controller’ for the purposes of your personal data. This means that we determine the purpose and means of the processing of your personal data. You will find our contact details at the end of this notice.

The type of personal data we collect depends on our relationship with you (for example you may be our client or an individual with whom we have a business relationship) and the method by which we collect the personal data.

The lists below sets out the personal data (including special category personal data) we will or may collect from you.

If you are our client, we will ask you for the personal data we reasonably require to enable us to act for you and provide legal advice. If you do not provide the personal data we ask for, this may delay or prevent us from acting or continuing to act for you. Depending on the circumstances, we may have to stop acting for you but you will still have to pay any unpaid fees and disbursements incurred on your behalf up to that point as set out in our General Terms of Business.

For information on why we use this personal data, please see below: ‘How and why we use your personal data’ and ‘How and why we use special category personal data’.

Personal Data We Will Collect

Your name, address and telephone number

Information to enable us to check and verify your identity e.g.

• your date of birth or passport details
•  information obtained from an online identity check with an anti-money laundering service provider e.g. number of credit/store cards or unsecured loans held
• your passport, photocard drivers’ licence, bank statement or recent utility bill

Electronic contact details e.g. your email address and mobile phone number

Information that you (or a third party) gives us (including special category personal data) relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation

Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing us on a purchase transaction

Personal Data We May Collect

Your National Insurance number to enable us to check and verify your identity
Details of relevant court orders if you instruct us e.g. on a family matter or in litigation

Details about your education and/or qualifications e.g. if you instruct us on a matter in which your education and/or qualifications are relevant

Your employment status and details including salary and benefits if you instruct us e.g. on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant

Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), e.g. if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant

Your wills and arrangements for your estate e.g. if you instruct us to update your wills

Your financial details (e.g. pension arrangements, bank/ building society details, assets, valuations, borrowings, investments, tax details) if you instruct us e.g. on a matter to which your financial situation is relevant, in a business transaction or in relation to financial arrangements following the breakdown of a relationship
Information relating to your housing (e.g. tenancy/lease) e.g. if you instruct us on a property litigation matter

Your National Insurance number or NHS number e.g. if you instruct us on a matter in which those details are relevant

Your nationality and immigration status and information from related documents, such as your passport or other identification, and immigration information e.g. if you instruct us on an employment matter

Personal identifying information, such as your hair or eye colour or your parents’ names e.g. if you instruct us to incorporate a company for you

Accident records or other records (e.g. DWP/HMRC records) e.g. if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim

CCTV/video/photographs e.g. if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim, in criminal proceedings or other litigation

Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members if you instruct us e.g. on a family matter or a will

Information about your health/medical records e.g. if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim

Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs e.g. if you instruct us on a discrimination claim

Your trade union membership e.g. if you instruct us on a discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union

Your political opinions e.g. if we are acting for you in a matter in which this is relevant

Details of your criminal convictions or criminal proceedings e.g. if we are acting for you in criminal proceedings or an employment or family related matter in which criminal matters are relevant

Marketing and communications information, including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences

Personal data we will collect

Your name and telephone number

Information that you (or a third party) gives us (including special category personal data) relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation

Personal data we may collect

Your address

Electronic contact details e.g. your email address and mobile phone number

Personal data we will collect

Your name and address

Your email address

Information (including special category personal data) relevant to the matter in which you are involved e.g. if you are a witness or an opponent

Personal data we may collect

Your telephone number(s)

Your date of birth/age

Information to enable us to check and verify your identity e.g.

• your date of birth;
• information obtained from an online identity check with an anti-money laundering service provider e.g. number of credit/store cards or unsecured loans held;
• your passport, photocard drivers’ licence, bank statement or recent utility bill
  Financial information e.g. if you are providing a deposit for a family member in a property transaction

Details about your education and/or qualifications (including CV)

Employment information

Other professional information e.g. job title

Your bank details and VAT number

The name of the organisation you work for or represent

Marketing and communications information

Information that you (or a third party) gives us (including special category personal data) relating to our client’s legal matter

Personal data we will collect

Information you give us by filling in forms on our Website. This includes information you provide when you subscribe to our services, request further services, make an enquiry on our Website, request a call back, sign up for news, complete surveys undertaken by us for research purposes and report a problem with our Website e.g. your name, address and telephone number, electronic contact details (your email address and mobile telephone number) and information relevant to your enquiry

With regard to each of your visits to our Website, we will automatically collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns, although this data will not identify you

Also see below :‘Visitors to our Website’

We collect most personal data from you. However, we may also collect information:

• from publicly accessible sources e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
• from an anti-money laundering service provider, SmartSearch;
• directly from a third party e.g.
  – your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
  – consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to our client’s matter;
  – your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
  – your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
  – DWP, HMRC;
  – from a referrer (e.g. your accountant); and
  – other parties involved in the legal proceedings (e.g. other solicitors, witnesses or courts); and
• via our information technology systems e.g. our case management, document management and time recording systems.

We may obtain information about your general usage of our Website by using a cookie which is stored on your browser or the hard drive of your computer, although we do not use cookies to identify individuals. Usage information helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalised service. Some of the cookies we use are essential for our Website to operate.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. You can also indicate your preference to our Website to control its use of cookies. However, if you block cookies you may not be able to use all the features of our Website.

For further information about our use of cookies, please refer to our cookie policy.

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, for example:

• to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
• where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

The list below explains what we use your personal data for and our lawful basis for doing so, depending on our relationship with you.

Under data protection law, we can only use special category personal data where:

• we have a proper reason for doing so (see above: ‘How and why we use your personal data’; and
• one of the ‘grounds’ for using special category personal data applies.

There are a number of potential grounds for using special category personal data under data protection law. Generally, where we use special category data, we will do so on the grounds that this is necessary for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims, This includes using special category personal data, where necessary, for:

• actual or prospective court proceedings;
• obtaining legal advice; or
• establishing, exercising or defending legal rights in any other way.

Where this does not apply, we will only process special category personal data where processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest or with your explicit consent.

Where we rely on consent as a lawful basis to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. To do this, please telephone, email or write to us (see below: ‘How to contact us’).

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.

We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you, details about events and/or information about our services, including new services.

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for marketing purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you information about legal developments, events or our services. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.

You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by:

• emailing marketing@trethowans.com,writing to us at 1 London Road, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 3HP (for the attention of marketing) or calling us on 0845 302 4695; or
• using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in our emails.

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Depending on the circumstances, we may share your personal data with:

• professional advisers who we instruct on your/our client’s behalf e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
• other third parties where necessary to carry out your/our client’s instructions e.g. a mortgage provider or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction or Companies House;
• third parties where necessary for your/our client’s legal claim e.g. third party solicitors, opponents, insurers, courts;
• our insurers, brokers and professional advisers;
• an anti-money laundering service provider, SmartSearch, for the purposes of an online identity check;
• external auditors e.g. in relation to our Lexcel accreditation and the audit of our accounts;
• our bank(s);
• external service providers e.g. IT service and hosting provider; and
• external service providers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient e.g. typing services and telephone answering service.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible.

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including:

• to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you/our client or on your/our client’s behalf;
• to show that we treated you fairly;
• to keep records required by law to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this notice. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal data.

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including:

• to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you/our client or on your/our client’s behalf;
• to show that we treated you fairly;
• to keep records required by law to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this notice. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal data.

It is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) (which comprises the countries which from time to time comprise the European Union (EU) and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) e.g.

• with your and our service providers located outside the EEA;
• if you are based outside the EEA; or
• where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising.

These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.

The following countries to which we may transfer personal data have been assessed by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data: Andorra, Argentina, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay.

Except for the countries listed above, non-EEA countries are not considered to have sufficient data protection laws. We will, however, ensure the transfer complies with European and UK data protection law. We will do this by ensuring one of the following (or one of the other grounds set out in European and/or UK data protection law) applies:

• the transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between you and us;
• the transfer is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
• there are adequate safeguards in place between us and the organisation receiving it (e.g. by the use of European Commission approved contractual terms); or
• you have provided explicit consent to the proposed transfer after being informed of any potential risks.

Please contact us (see below: ‘How to contact us’) if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data outside of the EEA.

Although the UK officially left the EU on 31 January 2020, we are currently in a transitional period which substantially treats the UK as a member state of the EU and therefore the above provisions continue to apply to us until 31 December 2020. Once the transitional period comes to an end, all transfers of personal data outside the UK (including transfers from the UK to the EEA) will be subject to UK rules which seek to ensure your personal data is protected when it is transferred outside of the UK. At present it is unclear what those rules will be but we will endeavour to comply with such rules as and when they are confirmed and we will also update this privacy notice accordingly once those rules are confirmed.

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

We do not use personal data for automated decision making.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please email, write or telephone our Privacy Officer (see below: ‘How to contact us’) and let us have enough information to identify you e.g. your full name, address and client/matter reference number as well as what right you want to exercise and the personal data to which your request relates.

We have put in place reasonable and appropriate security measures to endeavour to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

For visitors to our Website, unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. We cannot therefore guarantee the security of your data transmitted via our Website; any transmission is at your own risk. Our Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites will have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

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

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your personal data. If you want to complain about how we have used your personal data, please email or write to our Privacy Officer ( see below: ‘How to contact us’). However, if we are not able to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you can complain to UK’s supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Further information about how to make a complaint to the ICO can be found on the ICO website www.ico.org.uk.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in the European Union state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time and when we do so, we will inform you via our Website. If any changes are likely to have an adverse impact on your rights under data protection law, we will use reasonable endeavours to notify you of the changes in advance in writing or by alternative means.

Please contact us by email, post or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you.

Our contact details are shown below:

If you would like this notice in another format (for example large print) please contact us (see above ‘How to contact us’).