We aim to provide our clients with a high-quality service. If you are unhappy with any aspect of the service or if you wish to discuss an invoice we have delivered, you should contact us in the first instance. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint, but we would prefer to resolve any problem in a quicker time frame if possible. If we have not resolved it within this time, you can ask the legal Ombudsman to consider the matter.
What will happen if you make a complaint to us?
We will send you a letter or email acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 10 working days of receiving it.
We will then investigate your complaint and will review your matter file.
We will invite you to discuss the matter by phone or video conference and hopefully resolve your complaint or send a detailed letter or email setting out our views on the complaint, which will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. We will seek to do this within 20 working days of sending you the acknowledgment letter.
Within 5 working days of any meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
After any further communication and if you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 about your complaint. Its remit and procedures are described on their website (www.legalombudsman.org.uk).
You will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within 6 years of the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining (or if outside this period, within 3 years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it). For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or by email at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
You also have at all times a right to complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) details of which are set out here: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/
If a complaint relates to an invoice we have delivered, you may also be entitled to apply to the court for an assessment of the invoice under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If a client wishes our charges to be reviewed by the court, they must apply to the court within 1 month of the date the invoice was delivered to them. If the invoice has been paid, more than 12 months has elapsed, or a judgment has been obtained in respect of the costs covered by the invoice, the court will not order the invoice to be assessed unless special circumstances apply. If the court makes an order in such circumstances, it may attach conditions to the order in respect of the costs of the assessment. Our entitlement to charge interest in respect of an unpaid invoice may not be affected by any complaint submitted to the Legal Ombudsman or by any application that is made to the court for assessment of the invoice.
This Privacy notice explains how we collect, store and otherwise process your personal information in the course of our business and the reasons for doing so. It also explains who we share this information with, the security mechanisms that we have put in place to protect such information and how you can contact us in the event that you need further information.
In the course of our business we may collect, use and be responsible for personal information about you. When we do this, we are the 'controller' of this information for the purposes of the GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.
WHAT DOES OUR DATA PRIVACY POLICY COVER?
Our Data Privacy Policy applies to your use of our website and personal data that we collect from you in any other interactions that you have with us outside of our website in the use of our services or visiting our office.
PERSONAL DATA
Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively, “the Data Protection Legislation”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier’.
Personal data is, in simple terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.
USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will collect only the minimum amount of your personal information necessary for the purpose for which we collect it.
POSSIBLE AREAS OF INFORMATION COLLECTED FROM YOU
a. Personal details;
b. Family details;
c. Lifestyle and social circumstances;
d. Goods and services;
e. Financial details;
f. Education, training and employment details;
g. Physical or mental health details;
h. Racial or ethnic origin;
i. Political opinions;
j. Religious, philosophical or other beliefs;
k. Trade union membership;
l. Sex life or sexual orientation;
m. Genetic data;
n. Biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person;
o. Criminal or regulatory proceedings;
p. Outcomes and sentences, and related security measures whether in the UK or other jurisdictions;
q. Other personal information relevant to instructions to provide legal services, including data specific to the instructions in question.
IINFORMATION COLLECTED FROM OTHER SOURCES
The same categories of information may also be obtained from third parties, such as other legal professionals or experts, members of the public, your family and friends, witnesses, courts and other tribunals, suppliers of goods and services, investigators, government departments, regulators, public records and other resources.
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:
to provide legal services to clients, including the provision of legal advice and representation in courts, tribunals, arbitrations and mediations;
to keep accounting records and carry out office administration ;
to take or defend legal or regulatory proceedings or to exercise a lien over material for unpaid fees;
to respond to potential complaints or make complaints;
to check for potential conflicts of interest in relation to future cases;
to carry-out anti-money laundering and terrorist financing checks;
to fulfil equality and diversity and other regulatory requirements;
to procure goods and services;
to publish and comment on legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals;
as otherwise required or permitted by law.
LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
(i) NON-SENSITIVE INFORMATION
In categories (a) to (f) and (q) above which does not fall into the special category of sensitive information, we rely on the following as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal information:
If you are a professional or a lay client, we are entitled by law to process the information where necessary for the performance of a contract for legal services to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into such a contract; or
we are entitled by law to process the information for our legitimate interest, your legitimate interest and/or the legitimate interests of a third party in carrying out the processing for the purposes set out above; or
we are entitled by law to process the information where the processing is necessary to protect your vital interests or of another natural person where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent.
(ii) SENSITIVE INFORMATION
In categories (g) to (p) above, we rely on the lawful basis set out above in relation to non-sensitive information and, in addition, on the following lawful basis set out in Article 9 GDPR in relation to sensitive information.
We are entitled by law to process the information where:
the processing is necessary for legal proceedings, legal advice or otherwise for establishing , exercising or defending legal rights; or
where the processing is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another natural person where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent; or
where the processing relates to information that you have manifestly made public.
In certain circumstances processing of data (whether sensitive or non-sensitive) may be necessary:
in order that we comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject (including carrying out anti money laundering or terrorist financing checks).
to publish and comment on judgments or other decisions of courts or tribunals
SHARING PERSONAL INFORMATION
If you are a client, some of the information that you provide will be protected by legal professional privilege unless and until it becomes public in the course of any proceedings or otherwise. As solicitors we have an obligation to keep this information confidential, except in circumstances in which it otherwise becomes public or is disclosed as part of a case or proceedings.
It may be necessary to share your information with:
data processors such as email providers, data storage providers and website providers ;
other legal professionals;
experts and other witnesses;
prosecution authorities;
courts and tribunals;
lay and professional clients;
your family and associates;
in the event of complaints, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman;
other regulatory authorities;
current, past or prospective employers or employees;
education and examining bodies;
professional advisers and trade or professional bodies i.e. The Law Society or SRA;
providers of outsourced functions such as book-keeping and accounting services and fee collection,
public sources, such as the press, legal directories, public registers and law reports ; and
the general public in relation to the publication of legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals.
We may be required to provide your personal information to regulators such as the SRA, the Financial Conduct Authority or the Information Commissioner's Office. In the case of the Information Commissioner's Office, there is a risk that your information (including privileged information) may lawfully be disclosed by it for the purpose of any other civil or criminal proceedings, without your consent.
We may also be required to disclose your personal information to the police or intelligence services where required or permitted by UK law.
TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA)
We will usually only store or transfer your personal data within the UK. This means that it will be fully protected under the Data Protection Legislation. Where it is necessary to store or transfer your data within the European Economic Area, your personal data will also be fully protected under the Data Protection Legislation.
This privacy notice is of general application and as such it is not possible to state whether it will be necessary to transfer your information out of the EEA for any particular purpose. However, if you reside outside the EEA or that purpose involves persons or organisations or courts and tribunals outside the EEA then it may be necessary to transfer some of your personal information out of the EEA for that purpose. If you are in a country outside the EEA or if any instructions that you provide come from outside the EEA then it is inevitable that information will be transferred out of the EEA. Some countries and organisations outside the EEA have been assessed by the European Commission and their data protection laws and procedures have been found to provide adequate protection for your information. However, most do not. If your information has to be transferred outside the EEA, then it may not have the same protection as it would and you may not have the same rights as you would within the EEA.
STORAGE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will normally store all your personal information until the expiry of any applicable limitation period. If you are a client, this will be 6 years from the latest of (1) the date on which the last item of work is carried out for you, (2) the date for the last fee payment is received or (3) the date on which all outstanding fees are written off. This is because it may be needed for potential legal proceedings. At this point, the need for any further retention will be reviewed and the information will be marked for deletion or for retention for a further period. The further retention period is likely to occur only where the information is still needed for legal proceedings, regulatory matters or active complaints. Deletion will be carried out (without further notice to you) as soon as reasonably practicable after the information is marked for deletion.
We will store indefinitely that element of your information that is needed to carry out conflict checks. This is likely to be limited to your name and contact details and the name of your case. Information relating to anti-money laundering checks will be retained until 6 years after the end of the business relationship between you and us.
YOUR RIGHTS
Under the Data Protection Legislation, you have a number of rights that you can exercise in certain circumstances:
ask for access to your personal information and other supplementary information;
ask for correction of mistakes in your personal information or to complete missing information that we hold on you;
ask for your personal information to be erased in certain circumstances;
receive a copy of the personal information that you have provided to us or have this information sent to a third party
object at any time to processing of your personal information for direct marketing;
object in certain other situations to the continued processing of your personal information;
restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
request not to be the subject of automated decision -making which produces legal effects that concern you or affect you in a significant way. We do not use your personal data in this way.
For more information about your rights under the GDPR, you should refer to the guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office.
If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact us by email. We will respond within 30 days from when we receive your request.
COMPLAINTS
The GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office if you are in the UK or with the supervisory authority of the EU member State where you work or normally live or where the alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.
The Information Commissioner’s Office contact details are as follows:
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
FUTURE PROCESSING
We do not intend to process your personal information except for the reasons stated within this privacy notice. If this changes, this privacy notice will be amended and placed on the firm's website.
USING OUR WEBSITE
Our website content is for general information and whilst we aim to update it regularly, if any of the information is out of date at any time, we are not obliged to update the information. We are not liable for the accuracy, timelines, completeness, or suitability of the website contents. You use our website, entirely at your own risk as we do not make any representations or warranties of any kind. The content of our website does not represent legal and/or financial advice on which reliance should be placed. We will not be liable for any loss or damage. You access our website entirely at your own risk.
Our website may include links to other sites. We do not have control over these other sites and our links do not imply recommendations or endorsements. Prior written consent is required to link to any pages within our website.
Do not introduce viruses, trojans, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware connected to our website. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access. Unauthorised use may lead to a claim for damages or be a criminal offence which we will report to law enforcement authorities and your right to access our website will cease.
By accessing this website you are consenting to the collection, use and disclosure of your information in accordance with this privacy Policy. If you do not consent to the same, please do not access or use the Service.
Your use of our website and any dispute arising out of such use are governed by, and will be construed in accordance with, with the law of England and Wales. Any rights not expressly granted in these terms and conditions are reserved.
CHANGES TO PRIVACY NOTICE
We continually review our privacy practices and when we do, the amended policy will be placed on our website.
CONTACT DETAILS
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information that we hold about you, you should contact the Principal of the firm by email in the first instance: anakanellos@furlong.com.