Your privacy is very important to us at G & A Legal and we are committed to protecting it.
We are bound by, and comply with the Australian Privacy Principles, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) APP Guidelines.
This Privacy and Confidentiality Policy (‘the Policy’) explains how we use, disclose and collect personal information that is provided to us in the usual course of investigating potential legal claims, acting for those who retain us and conducting our overall services.
We generally collect the following personal information:
• Your name;
• Your contact details (ie your address, email address and phone number);
• Details regarding the matter you are involved in, including the details of any third parties;
• Details about your occupation;
• Details about your interests in areas of legal practice;
• Other information necessary to identify you and your enquiry.
We may also need to collect sensitive information. Sensitive information is a subset of personal information, such as information concerning racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political organisation, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a profession or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual orientation and practice, criminal record or health information.
We only collect sensitive information where it is reasonably necessary with your consent, or if required or authorised by or under law to do so.
We usually collect the above information from you personally: via telephone, our website, or by email or written correspondence.
We may also need to collect information from other sources, such as:
• Your employer;
• Your family members, legal guardian and or anyone you have authorised to deal with us on your behalf;
• Anyone seeking our services in relation to their dealings with you.
• If you visit our website, we record your server address, the date and time of your visit, the pages you have visited and the documents you have downloaded. We use and disclose this information in anonymous form for the purpose of our statistical analysis and to improve the functionality of our websites;
• If you make payment of a tax invoice on our website, all transactions processed by us meet industry security standards to ensure that your payment details are protected;
If you are concerned about providing confidential information to us via our websites or any other online means, please contact us.
We collect, hold and use personal information for the purposes for which it was provided to us, for related purposes or as permitted or required by law, such as
• Providing legal services and advice;
• To identify and assess whether we can act on your behalf. We will not consider acting for an individual if they do not properly identify themselves, as this could lead to a conflict of interest in the future;
• Responding to our clients’ enquiries and providing our clients with assistance and advice as required;
• Processing enquiry forms you may complete on our website and allowing you access to interactive features or secure areas of our web site;
• Managing relationships with clients, businesses and third parties;
• Recruiting staff;
• Conducting effective management of our business.
We may contact you at any time by mail, e-mail, SMS and telephone. You can opt out of receiving these communications.
We also comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) which imposes restrictions on sending e-mails and other types of commercial electronic messages.
Personal information that is provided to us is stored on computer and paper based files as appropriate. We endeavour to keep all information safe by taking reasonable precautions to protect information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Where appropriate we use secure transmission facilities. However, no transmission or information over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure and we do not warrant the security of any information transmitted by or to us over the internet.
We hold all legal files for a period of seven (7) years after the conclusion of the matters unless we are instructed to the contrary. In some cases, we may be required to retain documents for a longer period of time.
We take reasonable steps to protect your information when your visit our web sites and disclose information online, including: educating our staff about the importance of client confidentiality and privacy protection, username and password protected access to all of our Information Technology and telephone systems, anti-virus protection on all Information Technology systems, release of your files will only be effected by an Authority signed by you, effective document destruction (when legally appropriate), controlled security access to our office premises and secure on-site and off-site physical storage of archived information.
In addition to our websites, which we control directly, we also use and provide links to other web sites which are controlled by third parties. If you use or follow a link to the following web sites, please be aware that they have their own Privacy Policies and that we cannot accept any responsibility for their use of information about you.
We utilise cloud computing services for e-mail storage and to store information that we collect. We use Microsoft’s Office 365 and LEAP for this purpose. We use data encryption (where access can only be obtained through a secure username and password system) to protect confidential information from unauthorised access and inadvertent disclosure.
See Microsoft’s general Privacy web site and links and for further information about Office 365’s Cloud Privacy.
See LEAP Legal Software’s Privacy Policy for further information.
Compulsory Disclosure by Law
All personal information is kept confidential unless we are required to disclose information by law: for example, in connection with a court order or statutory notice.
Third Parties
We may also need to disclose your information to the following:
• Your authorised representative;
• Barristers/experts and any other relevant third parties who may be involved in your matter;
• Credit reporting bodies/providers;
• Government regulators (ie, NSW Police, ASIC);
• Other legal parties and or their advisors;
• Referees whose details are provided to us by job applicants;
• Contracted service providers of G & A Legal such as:
o business and litigation support service providers;
o information technology providers;
o data storage and archive providers;
o function and event organisers;
o marketing and communications agencies;
o delivery, mail and shipping agencies;
o business advisors (such as recruitment advisors, accounts, auditors and lawyers).
Some of the third parties with whom we share personal information may be located outside of Australia. While such third parties will often be subject to privacy and confidentiality obligations, you accept that where lawful, such obligations may differ from or be less stringent than the requirements of the privacy laws in Australia. In those cases, we are not responsible for imposing the laws of Australia and you may not be able to seek remedies under those laws.
You generally have a right to access the personal information we store about you unless it is subject to legal privilege. We will need to verify your identity before we are able to provide you with any personal information.
If the information we hold about you requires correction, please first contact the member of staff who is responsible for your legal matter so that the information can be updated accordingly.
If you wish to access the personal information we hold about you, please first contact the member of staff who is responsible for your legal matter.
We will generally provide you with access to your personal information, subject to some exceptions permitted by law. We will also generally provide access in the manner that you have requested (eg. by providing photocopies or allowing files to be viewed), provided it is reasonable and practicable for us to do so. We may however charge a fee to cover our reasonable costs of locating the information and providing it to you.
Except in the case of more complicated requests, we will endeavour to respond to access and correction requests within 30 days.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or wish to make a written complaint about a breach of this Policy, please contact the member of staff who is handling your matter in the first instance.
If you make a privacy complaint, we will respond to let you know how your complaint will be handled within 7 days. We will ask you for further details, consult with other relevant parties and keep records regarding your complaint.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your enquiry you may contact us further to advise of your concerns, and if we are unable to reach a satisfactory resolution you may wish to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (The Privacy Commissioner).
G & A Legal website and the material on our website, including but not limited to, all articles, texts, graphics, images and publications (“the material”) is offered for general information purposes only. The material is not offered as and does not constitute specific legal advice or opinion. You should not act upon any of the material without seeking the advice of a qualified solicitor who specialises in the particular area of expertise and jurisdiction that you require. The accuracy of the material is not guaranteed.
Your use of our website is not intended to create nor does it create a solicitor/client relationship between yourself and G & A Legal.
G & A Legal is not responsible to you or anyone else for any loss suffered in connection with the use of our website or any of the material on the site.
All copyright in any material vests in G & A Legal. You are welcome to view or print the material on our website for personal use only however, you may not otherwise reproduce the material on our site without expressed permission.
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