Privacy & Cookies Policy

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At Seagull Legal Services we are committed to respecting the privacy of all visitors to our website, our clients, our personnel and contacts.  Please read the following privacy policy to understand how we use and protect the information that you provide to us or that we obtain or hold about you and to understand what your rights are in relation to information that we hold.

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What information do we process?

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Using our website contact forms

If you submit your personal information to us by completing and submitting a contact form on our website, we will use your information to: - Contact you to respond to your request for contact. - Send information to you about our business and its services, where you have given us consent to do so.  Upon receipt of your personal information, we will open an enquiry file to hold the information that you have submitted to us. We do this so that we can use your information as described above. Please see the section of this notice below titled ‘If you make an enquiry for details on how we handle enquiry data’.  Where you consent to us sending information to you about our business and its services, we will keep your contact details for as long as you provide your consent for us to use your contact details in this way. Please see the section titled Your data protection rights below for information on how you can withdraw your consent to receive marketing information from us.

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Automatically

We may also collect information automatically about your usage of our websites using cookies and other technology (for full details of what we use see the section below on "Cookies"). To that effect, we use your IP address (a series of numbers that identifies a computer on the internet) to collect, among other things, internet traffic data and data regarding your browser type and computer. If you do not want to receive cookies, you may reject them by using your browser settings (for help with how to do this see the section below on "Cookies").

 

For legal work

If you seek an estimate of costs for legal work or become a client of the firm, we will also need information to confirm your identity e.g. your date of birth, your address, and contact information for you and other parties to the matter. The information that we need will be explained to you by our lawyers and/or set out in our letter of engagement depending on the nature of your matter.

Our lawful bases for using your information in this way are as follows:

• Performance of a contract where you make an enquiry about our legal services. We use your data to provide you with the information you need to make decision on whether to use our legal services which are subject to contract.

• For our legitimate interests in promoting our services to you; and

• Your express consent (where required by law).

We will not share information received via our contact form with any third party unless you expressly authorise us to do so, or we are required by law.

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From third parties

We may also receive information about you from third parties such as estate agents, accountants, banks, surveyors, medical professionals, courts, regulatory bodies and other advisors and specialists related to your matter. Our clients and matter contacts may also provide us with information about you if you are involved in a matter or dispute with one of our clients or have a connection with them such as being a partner or other family member of a client.

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How do we use this information?

We will use your information for the specific purpose(s) for which it has been provided to or collected by us e.g.:

• to provide information that you may request regarding the services that we offer e.g. whether we can assist with certain legal advice

• to contact you to introduce you to our expert lawyers

• to provide our clients with legal services including referring them to other specialist advisers both in the UK and overseas

• to comply with our statutory and regulatory obligations

• to verify your identity for anti-money laundering or anti-fraud purposes

• to administer your application for a vacancy

• to deal with your feedback, query or complaint

• to contact you for your views on our services

We also use your information to administer, support, improve and develop our business generally and to enforce our legal rights.

Information gathered through cookies and similar technologies are used to measure and analyse information on visits to our websites, to tailor the websites to make them better for visitors and to improve technical performance. We will not use the data to identify you personally or to make any decisions about you.

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Processing grounds

We must have a lawful basis for processing your information; this will vary on the circumstances of how and why we have your information but typical examples include:

• the activities are within our legitimate interests as a law firm seeking to engage with and provide services to prospective and current clients and personnel

• you have given consent for us to process your information e.g. in relation to certain marketing activities

• we are carrying out necessary steps in relation to a contract to which you are party or prior to you entering into a contract e.g. because you wish to instruct us to carry out legal services for you

• the processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject e.g. for us to certify your identity under our anti-money laundering requirements including carrying out electronic ID checks

• to protect your vital interests e.g. if you were unfortunate enough to fall ill or suffer an injury on our premises

 

Automated Processing/Profiling

We do not undertake any automated processing or data profiling.

 

Disclosure of your information

Some of the information you provide to us will be held on our computers in the UK and will only be accessed by or given to our staff working in the UK. Some of the information you provide to us may be transferred to, stored, and processed by third party organisations which process data for us and on our behalf. These third parties may be based (or store or process information) in the UK or elsewhere including outside of the EEA. As with many law firms, these third parties may include third party IT platforms (including cloud-based platforms), suppliers of administrative and support services and suppliers of other specialist products.  We may also transfer your information to other organisations or professional advisers with whom we are working on client matters or to whom we are referring you for additional or separate advice.

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We may also be obliged to disclose data under certain laws or by court order or other competent regulatory body or may be permitted to disclose it under applicable data protection laws.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

 

Protection of your information

We have in place administrative, technical and physical measures on our website and internally designed to guard against and minimise the risk of loss, misuse or unauthorised processing or disclosure of the personal information that we hold.  Where we transfer information to third parties to enable them to process it on our behalf, we ensure that the providers meet or exceed the relevant legal or regulatory requirements for transferring data to them and keeping it secure.  We will also ensure that where information is transferred to a country or international organisation outside of the UK / EEA, we will comply with the relevant legal rules governing such transfers.  We keep your personal information no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Information for clients is provided in our engagement letter and terms of business including details on how we keep secure personal data received from clients about their partners or other family members, third parties or similar individuals.

 

Your rights

You have certain rights in relation to your personal information, although those rights will not apply in all cases or to all information that we hold about you. For example, we may need to continue to hold and process information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights. We will tell you if the rights do not apply if this is the case when you contact us.

You have the right to request that we:

• Provide you with a copy of your personal information that we hold

• Update your personal information where it is out-of-date or incorrect

• Delete personal information that we hold

• Restrict the way in which we process your information

• Consider any valid objections to our processing of your personal information

• Provide information you have given to us to a third party provider of services (where our lawful basis for processing is consent and where processing is automated)

We will respond to your request (including providing information on whether the rights apply in the certain circumstances) within the applicable statutory time frame. If we are not sure of your identity, we may require you to provide further information in order for us to confirm who you are.

 

How to contact us

If you would like to get in touch to discuss this policy, how we use your personal information, to exercise your rights or to provide feedback or make a complaint about use of your information, please contact us as follows:

 

Paul Hills

Seagull Legal Services

3rd Floor, Queensberry House, Queens Rd, Brighton & Hove, Brighton BN1 3XF

Email: legal@seagulllegalservices.co.uk

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You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office via https://ico.org.uk/  for information, advice or to make a complaint.

 

Cookies

Cookies, also known as browsers or tracking cookies, are small text files that are added to your computer when you visit a website. They help websites to perform certain functions e.g. to know who you are if you log into a restricted part of a website, for shopping carts, and for tracking purposes.

 

We use cookies on our website.

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Manage cookies

Shortly after arriving at our website we will add an 'opt-in' tracking cookie to your computer unless you specify otherwise. If you would like to opt-in or opt-out of using cookies then you can do so by using your cookie settings. You can review your cookie settings at any time.  If you do opt-out then an opt-out preference cookie will be added to your computer, however if you delete all your cookies or use a different device then you will need to set your cookie preference again.  If this is your first visit and you navigate away from this website page without specifying your cookies preference, then an 'opt-in' tracking cookie with be added to your computer.  Please note that you cannot opt-out of the deployment of cookies that are necessary for delivery of our website or services to visitors.

 

Changes to our privacy notice

This privacy notice is reviewed regularly, and we encourage you to check it frequently for any changes.