Data Protection Policy – Legal Affairs Solicitors

Legal Affairs Solicitors are required to maintain certain personal data about living individuals for the purposes of satisfying operational and legal obligations. We recognise the importance of the correct and lawful treatment of personal data; it maintains confidence in the organisation and provides for success. The types of personal data that Legal Affairs Solicitors may require include information about: prospective clients of the individual member firms. This personal data, whether it is held on paper, on computer or other media, will be subject to the appropriate legal safeguards as specified in the Data Protection Act 1998. Legal Affairs Solicitors endorse and adhere to the eight principles of the Data Protection Act. These principles specify the legal conditions that must be satisfied in relation to obtaining, handling, processing, transportation, and storage of personal data. Legal Affairs Solicitors and any others who obtain, handle, process, transport and store personal data for Legal Affairs Solicitors must adhere to these principles.

Principles

The principles require that personal data shall:

Be processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless certain conditions are met;
Be obtained for a specified and lawful purpose and shall not be processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose;
Be adequate, relevant and not excessive for those purposes;
Be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
Not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose;
Be processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights;
Be kept secure from unauthorised or unlawful processing and protected against accidental loss, destruction or damage by using the appropriate technical and organisational measures;
And not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area, unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

Satisfaction of principles

In order to meet the requirements of the principles, Legal Affairs Solicitors will:

observe fully the conditions regarding the fair collection and use of personal data;
meet its obligations to specify the purposes for which personal data is used;
collect and process appropriate personal data only to the extent that it is needed to fulfil operational or any legal requirements;
ensure the quality of personal data used;
apply strict checks to determine the length of time personal data is held;
ensure that the rights of individuals about whom the personal data is held, can be fully exercised under the Act;
take the appropriate technical and organisational security measures to safeguard personal data; and
ensure that personal data is not transferred abroad without suitable safeguards.

Legal Affairs Solicitors Designated Data Controller

Legal Affairs Solicitors has a Manager who is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Data Protection Act.

Legal Affairs Solicitors may be contacted and any questions or concerns about the interpretation or operation of this policy should be taken up in the first instance with the their Manager.

Subject access

All individuals who are the subject of personal data held by Legal Affairs Solicitors are entitled to:

Ask what information Legal Affairs Solicitors holds about them and why.
Ask how to gain access to it.
Be informed how to keep it up to date.
Be informed what Legal Affairs Solicitors is doing to comply with its obligations under the 1998 Data Protection Act.

Data security

The need to ensure that data is kept securely means that precautions must be taken against physical loss or damage, and that both access and disclosure must be restricted

Rights to access information

Subjects of personal data held by Legal Affairs Solicitors have the right to access any personal data that is being kept about them on computer and also have access to paper-based data held in certain manual filing systems. This right is subject to certain exemptions, which are set out in the Data Protection Act. Any person who wishes to exercise this right should make the request in writing to Legal Affairs Solicitors.

Legal Affairs Solicitors reserves the right to charge the maximum fee payable for each subject access request. If personal details are inaccurate, they can be amended upon request.

Legal Affairs Solicitors aim to comply with requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible, but will ensure that it is provided within 40 days of receipt of a completed form unless there is good reason for delay. In such cases, the reason for delay will be explained in writing to the individual making the request.

Retention of data