Descriptions
“We”, “us”, “our” O’Connor Ruddy & Garrett Solicitors
“You”, “your” You
Brief Summary
- We will not sell or give your information to marketers.
- We will not spam you with unwanted communications.
- We will not disclose personal information in breach of the Privacy Act or our duty of confidentiality as solicitors to our clients.
- We use electronic systems (including email, cloud computing and data retrieval/storage). Some computers providing those services (and hence your personal information) may be overseas.
- We use contractors (which may include overseas contractors), and your personal information may disclosed to those contractors. Those contractors are prohibited from using that information except in providing services to us, and they are legally bound to keep personal information confidential.
What is a Privacy Policy?
The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) requires that we implement procedures that cover the collection, use and disclosure of personal information that we may hold about you. This is in addition to our duties and professional obligations as solicitors that govern the manner in which we deal with personal information we may hold about our clients. The Privacy Act establishes the Australian Privacy Principals that govern standards, rights and obligations concerning:
- The collection, use and disclosure or personal information;
- Governance and accountability;
- Integrity and correction of personal information; and
- The rights of individuals to access their personal information.
Why do we Collect your Personal Information?
We only collect personal information about you when that information is necessary in fulfilment of our functions or activities. This includes:
- Identifying you when you communicate with us;
- Providing legal services to our clients;
- To comply with any law or legal obligation (e.g. disclosure of documents in legal proceedings);
- To provide and advertise to the public of products and services reasonably complementary to legal services; and
- For the efficient operation and management of our business.
Depending on the type of matter in which we act, we can require varying levels of information. For example, in a personal injuries claim will likely require extensive personal information including details of age, earnings, health and so on. In a commercial matter however, we may not require any of that type of information.
How do We Collect your Personal Information?
Ordinarily we will collect your personal information directly from you, through means such as (but not limited to):
- Obtaining instructions from you (in person, by telephone or electronic communication);
- With your authority, contacting other organisations that provide services to you to obtain information about you;
- Your entering data into our website; or
- From another party during the course of legal proceedings or a legal transaction.
Once collected, your personal information will be stored by us:
- Physically (such as documents and records at our offices and with third-party storage providers); and
- Electronically (such as on internal servers, external servers and on third-party data storage providers – access to which is limited by secure login access).
If you do not provide us with the information we ask for, then we may be unable to properly provide legal services, meaning that you or a client of ours may not receive assistance being sought from us, or we may be unable to provide you with information or assistance we consider relevant to you. In some instances, if we cannot obtain necessary information, then we may be unable to accept (or continue to accept) instructions to act for you.
How do We use your Personal Information?
We will use and disclose your personal information as required in the course of providing legal services to clients, which includes matters such as supplying legal services to clients, conducting conflict of interest searches, organising safe custody of your documents, payment and invoicing matters, enabling your access to website services, providing you with legal news updates, conducting feedback surveys, and sending marketing communications.
From time to time, we may be required to disclose personal information to other parties. For example, In the course of legal proceedings, disclosure laws may require us or our clients to collect and provide documents (which may include personal information) to other litigants and the court – which may include providing a copy of documents to restricted categories of persons. We may also be required to disclose personal information under other laws, such as Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing legislation.
If we ever sell our business or form a new entity to carry on our business, the personal information we hold will be transferred to the new owner/entity, however that entity will be required to protect the personal information as if they had originally collected it under this policy.
Access and Corrections to your Personal Information
We will provide you with access to your personal information that we hold, at your request. In facilitating such requests, we will endeavour to do so as promptly as the circumstances permit. You are only permitted to access your own personal information, and will not be granted access to personal information of another person. We reserve the right to charge you fees for the providing access to your personal information, which will be advised at the time of your making that request.
We will not provide you with access where we are not required to do so under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and reserve the right not to provide you with access to personal information where it relates to existing or anticipated proceedings between you and us, or for other exceptions as provided by the Australian Privacy Principles. If we deny your request, we will notify you in writing of the grounds of our refusal.
Compliance
If you have any grievances concerning our Privacy Policy or use of your Personal Information, you can address your grievance (outlining details of the Australian Privacy Principal you consider we have breached and reply contact details) to us at:
- The Privacy Officer, O’Connor Ruddy & Garrett Solicitors, GPO Box 2060, Brisbane QLD 4000.
Once received, we will investigate your grievance and, if required, we will contact you to discuss the issues raised by you. Within a reasonable time and once we have reviewed your grievance, we will respond to you in writing. If you remain dissatisfied, then you address your complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner.
We may alter the terms of our privacy policy from time to time. The current version of our Privacy Policy will be published on our website at www.orglaw.com.au.
