PLS Solicitors Privacy Policy

Please read the following information carefully

This privacy notice contains information about what data we collect and store about you and why. It also tells you who we share this information with, the security mechanisms we have put in place to protect your data and how to contact us if you have a complaint.

Who we are?

PLS Solicitors, PLS House, 2 Aegean Road, Atlantic Street, Altrincham, WA14 5UW, collects, uses and is responsible for personal information about you. When we do this we are the ‘controller’ of this information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable data protection laws.

Our Data Protection contact is Rob Thomas, Director.

What do we do with your information?

Information collected by us:

When carrying out legal activities relating to individual clients we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Telephone number
  • Date of birth
  • National Insurance Number
  • Email address

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

To enable us to provide you with requested legal services and to make you aware of our other legal services that may be of interest to you.

Whether information has to be provided by you, and why

We rely on the following legal bases for processing your information:

  • Necessary for the performance of a contract
  • Necessary for the compliance with a legal obligation
  • Legitimate interests (to inform you about other services we provide that may be of interest to you)
  • Necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

Who will we share your personal information with?

We have relationships with a number of third parties that we may share your personal data with. For a list of these third parties please contact Rob Thomas at the above address. This data sharing enables us to ensure that you receive a first-class professional service from us.

We will share personal information with law enforcement agencies if required by applicable law.

We will not share your personal information with any other third parties without your consent.

Transfer of your information outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

It may be necessary to transfer your personal information outside the EEA to one of our overseas branch offices to assist in the provision of our legal services to you. We only have one PLS owned/managed branch office in India.

We have carried out a Data Protection Impact Assessment to assess the risks involved in processing data in India; we have concluded from this assessment that the risk to personal data is low (the same level as our UK operations).

If you would like any further information please contact Rob Thomas.

How long will we store your personal data

We will retain your personal data for six years from the end of your legal transaction; this will enable us to answer any client care queries you may have at a later date.

Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a number of important rights that you can exercise free of charge. In summary, these rights are:

  • Transparency over how we use your personal data and fair processing of your information;
  • Access to your personal information and other supplementary information;
  • Require us to correct any mistakes or complete missing information we hold on you;
  • Require us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances;
  • Receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us or have this information be sent to a third party, this will be provided to you or the third party in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format;
  • 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 our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
  • Request not to be subject to automated decision making which produce legal effects that concern you or affect you in a significantly similar way;

If you want more information about your rights under the GDPR please see the Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office on Individual’s rights under the GDPR.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please:

  • Email, call or write to Rob Thomas at the above address;
  • Provide other information so hat we can identify you. We may need to contact you to request further information to verify your identity;
  • Let us have proof of your identity and address;
  • State the right or rights you wish to exercise.

We will respond to you within one month from when we receive your request. Please note if you wish to unsubscribe from any email we send, you can do so by following the instructions in the email. It may take five days for this to become effective.

How to make a complaint?

We hope that you are happy with our service and that Rob Thomas can resolve any issues or complaints that arise. Please get in touch if you have any concerns (see ‘Get in touch’ below).

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular, in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where the alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The UK supervisory authority if the Information Commissioner’s Office who can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

Our Security

If you require further information about how we protect your data please contact Rob Thomas at the above address.

Future Processing

We do not intend to process your personal information for any reason other than stated within this privacy notice. If this changes we will inform you by a communication method agreed with you when we took your initial instructions.

Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy was published on 25 May 2018 and last updated on 25 May 2018.

We constantly review our internal privacy practices and may change this policy from time to time. When we do we will inform you by an agreed communication method.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you, please contact Rob Thomas. The best way to reach us is to call us on 0330 024 4525 or alternatively, please email us at rthomas@pls-solicitors.co.uk.

Alternative formats

If it would be helpful to have this notice provided in another format (for example: in another language, audio, braille) please contact us (see ‘Get in touch’ above).

Contacting Us

If you have any questions or queries relating to this Privacy Policy then please contact us here.

PLS Solicitors Data Protection Officer: Daniel Hickey, Managing Director