Full Privacy Notice

We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

Our Privacy Policy

This firm processes your data in accordance with the terms of the Data Protection Act 2018, the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the relevant provisions relating to the General Data Protection Regulation contained within the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (UK GDPR). We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint. Unless otherwise indicated, references in this Data and Privacy Notice to the GDPR refer to the UK GDPR.

We know that there's a lot of information here, but we want you to be fully informed about your rights, and how our firm uses your data. We hope the following sections will answer any questions you have but if not, please do get in touch with us.

Key terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

We, us, our	These expressions refer through the document to Johnson Astills
Our Information Compliance Manager	Our Information Compliance Manager is Emma Mitchell who can be contacted at our Leicester office or by email legal@johnsonastills.com
Personal data	Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual
Special category personal data	Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership Genetic and biometric data Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation

Personal data we collect about you

The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of advising and/or acting for you.

Personal data we will collect

Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us

Your name, address and telephone number

Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details

Electronic contact details, e.g. your email address and mobile phone number

Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation

Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you

Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction

Your National Insurance and tax details

Your bank and/or building society details

Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, e.g. if you instruct us on a family matter or a will

Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, e.g. if you instruct us on a matter in which your employment status or income is relevant such as determining eligibility for funding or exemptions from payment of fees

Your nationality and immigration status and information from related documents, such as your passport or other identification, and immigration information, if you instruct us on a matter to which this is relevant

Details of your pension arrangements, e.g. if you instruct us in relation to financial arrangements following breakdown of a relationship

Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), e.g. if you instruct us on a matter in which your employment records are relevant

Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g. for Legal Aid Application data

Your trade union membership, e.g. if you instruct us on a matter funded by a trade union

Personal identifying information, such as your hair or eye colour or your parents’ names, e.g. hair strand testing for forensic reports

Your medical records, e.g. if we are acting for you in a matter where they are required.

Your social services records, e.g. if you instruct us in relation to a family matter

Police records e.g. in relation to Criminal matters/convictions

Financial details relevant to completion of tax returns and other documents, e.g. in trust matters.

This personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

How your personal data is collected

You voluntarily give us your personal information for instance when:

you contact us via our website
provide a comment on our website
write a review
sign up to any newsletters
interact with us on social media platforms, and/or
use our services

Where we request information from you we will collect the information set out in the relevant web pages, or as explained to you over the telephone or face to face.

However, we may also collect information:

from publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House, the Bankruptcy & Insolvency register, or HM Land Registry;
directly from a third party, e.g.:
- sanctions screening providers;
- credit reference agencies;
- client due diligence providers;
- opponent’s solicitors;
from a third party with your consent, e.g.:
- your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
- consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
- your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
- your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
- Local Authorities
via our website – we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our cookies policy https://www.johnsonastills.com/site/help/privacy_help.html
via our information technology (IT) systems, e.g.:
- case management, document management and time recording systems;
- automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email, text and instant messaging systems.

How and why we use your personal data

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.:

to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

The table below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:

What we use your personal data for	Our reasons
To provide legal services to you	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet use	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Updating and enhancing client records	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services
Statutory returns	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you
Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies	For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. for credit control and to ensure our clients are likely to be able to pay for our services
External audits and quality checks, e.g. for Lexcel, CQS or other accreditations and the audit of our accounts	For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

We may use your data to notify you of our other services but only where we have your express consent to do so.

Regulatory

We also use data to communicate with our regulators or legislators and to obey laws, regulations and codes of conduct that apply to us.

Website enhancement and business development

We also use data to develop our business and services. In particular:

to respond to individual experiences shared with us and for editorial content
to enhance your online experience
to conduct research and surveys
to develop and manage our services including marketing of new or enhanced services
to research your views and experiences for research and editorial purposes, including through requests for feedback on our services
to understand your website journey, including what pages you have viewed and for how long
to administer and keep safe and secure our website and for internal operations, including data analysis, testing, statistical purposes.

Who we share your personal data with

We routinely share personal data with:

professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, translators, costs draftsmen, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, e.g. your mortgage provider, or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction, or Companies House;
credit reference agencies;
our insurers and brokers;
external auditors, e.g. in relation to Lexcel or CQS or other accreditations and the audit of our accounts;
The Legal Aid Agency, in cases where you are eligible for public funding (Legal Aid)
our banks;
external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. typing services, document collation, analysis suppliers, process servers, secure file storage and destruction companies, the company that securely hosts our off-site cloud storage servers;

We only do this where it is necessary for providing you legal services or for the effective operation of our legal practice. We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services. We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you. If we stop using their services, any of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, say if there were potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a merger or re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

We will not share your personal data with any other third party.

Where your personal data is held

Your data is stored and processed within the United Kingdom (UK). If we ever have to share your personal data with third parties and suppliers outside the UK we will seek your specific consent to do so.

Where typically data is may be transferred outside the UK

We may transfer personal data overseas. In particular, where a client matter involves obtaining legal or other professional advice from another country, our firm may need to transfer details about the client matter, including personal data, to a third party in that country.

Whenever we transfer any data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it and treated with the same security measures regardless of location, and in accordance with our internal processes and policies as well as regulatory and legal obligations. In particular, we ensure that at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

we will only transfer personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK by means of an adequacy decision or similar in accordance with UK adequacy regulations or otherwise comply with EU GDPR transfer restrictions, as applicable
where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contractual provisions which gives personal data the same protection it has within the UK and ensures a similar level of protection to the personal data as if it was processed within the UK, as applicable, and/or
we will require that any overseas third party to which we disclosure personal data to: (a) only use that personal data for the purposes for which it was disclosed (b) use all technical and organisational measures which are reasonable in the circumstances to secure that personal data (c) delete that personal data when it is no longer required, and (d) treat that personal data in accordance with this Data and Privacy Notice and the appropriate data privacy law.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:

to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
to show that we treated you fairly;
to keep records required by law.

This also protects you should you be unhappy with our services and want to complain or even contact us after your case ends.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Normally this is for six years after your case or matter ends – we will notify you if we believe that it is necessary for your data to be retained for longer than six years. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. Further details on this are available in our Client Care Guide. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

Your rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

Access	The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data – commonly referred to as a ‘data subject access request’ – this is free of charge in most cases. If we choose not to action your request, we will explain to you the reasons for our refusal.
Rectification	The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
To be forgotten	The right to require us to delete your personal data — in certain situations, for instance, if the information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected
Restriction of processing	The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data — in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data The right to require us to stop or restrict any consent-based processing of your personal data after you have withdrawn consent, or object and we have no legitimate overriding interest, or once the purpose for which we hold the data has come to an end In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data
Data portability	The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party — in certain situations
To object	The right to object: at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.
Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making	The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you
To withdraw consent	The right to change your mind at any time and withdraw consent that was previously given for us to use your personal data

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

email, call or write to our Information Compliance Manager—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. your full name, address and client or matter reference number);
let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

For further details on your rights, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/.

Keeping your personal data secure

We take protecting your data very seriously. The data you give us may be subject to Legal Professional Privilege and is often extremely sensitive and confidential.

With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it. We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully (along with Regulatory and other legal obligations to keep your data safe) and these are regularly assessed as part of our Quality Standards and compliance processes. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We protect our IT system from Cyber Attack. Access to your personal data is password-protected, and sensitive data is secured by encryption.

We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we carry out penetration testing to identify ways to further strengthen security.

Cyber Essentials is a Government backed scheme which helps organisations protect themselves against common online threats through a set of basic technical controls. Cyber Essentials ensures the Firm has sufficient security controls in place. With the assistance of the Firm’s external IT support, the Firm have been successfully awarded with the accreditation. The Firm’s Cyber Essentials certificate number IASME-CE-026087 can be viewed on https://www.cyberessentials.ncsc.gov.uk.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

Website or third party sources

We collect certain related technical information including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, logs (including, where available, the IP address and location of the device connecting to the online services and other technical information and identifiers about the device and the nature of the visit such as clickstream to, through and from our website) and other communication data, and the resources that you use.

On occasions, we acquire information from other companies, to collect information about how visitors to our website use the site. Information is also collected about how you arrived at our websites in the first place, including what links or adverts you have viewed or clicked on to reach us, or any search terms you have used. We do this to maintain and improve our website, getting a better understanding of visitor and client profiles and ultimately delivering a better experience. Information may be collected through the use of cookies or pixels.

CCTV

We have installed CCTV systems in some of our offices and personal data in form of images or CCTV footage may be recorded.

We operate CCTV in accordance with the ICO CCTV Code of Practice and are processing CCTV data in order to pursue our legitimate interests of:

promoting a safe working environment and monitoring health and safety at our premises

monitoring the safety and security of our premises
deterring and assisting in the prevention, investigation and detection of crime and/or serious breaches of policies and procedures, and
assisting with the identification and prosecution of offenders, including use of images as evidence in criminal proceedings.

CCTV is never used for any automated decision taking.

In all locations, signs are displayed notifying individuals that CCTV is in operation. Images captured by CCTV will not be kept for longer than is necessary and ordinarily, will not be retained for more than 30 days. However, on occasions, there may be a need to keep images for longer such as where a crime is being investigated.

We will only disclose images and audio to other authorised bodies such as the police or other law enforcement agencies for the purposes set out above.

Questions or Complaints

We hope that our Information Compliance Manager can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information. However, legal rights regarding privacy are the remit of the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and you will find more information about how to complain here: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ (opens in a new window; please note we can't be responsible for the content of external websites). You can also contact them by calling 0303 123 1113.