Privacy Policy

Fullers Family Law Limited (‘Fullers’, ‘we’, ‘us’) respects the privacy and legal rights of the individuals and organisations we deal with.

This privacy policy provides information about how we collect, store and use personal data from our clients and the persons and organisations we deal with when providing services and administering our business.

Your personal data

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA 2018’) and the General Data Protection Regulations (‘GDPR’), the Data Controller in respect of any data controlled by the firm is Fullers Family Law Limited, a limited company under the laws of England and Wales, registered under number 8069084. 

Our registered address is 59 St Peter’s Street, Bedford MK40 2PR; telephone 01234 343134. 

We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 569016.

‘Personal Data’ means any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by data held by us. The DPA and GDPR regulate our use of your personal data. 

How do we collect your personal data?

Mostly we obtain personal data from you for the purposes of providing you with legal services or a quote for legal services when you provide information via our website, when you use our online client portal, contact us by telephone, visit our offices or when you correspond with us;

We  also may obtain personal data indirectly from other professionals, experts or other third parties or from publicly available sources such as Companies House in the course of our providing the services

The data we obtain may include:

• your name, address, contact details, date of birth,
• details of your finances, children, the opponent and your personal circumstances relevant to your family dispute,
• national insurance number, employment and medical details where they are relevant to your case. 

If you apply for employment with us or make an employment enquiry then we may obtain your data through you uploading your cv to our website or through you e-mailing us your cv. The data that you supply for these purposes may include name, address, contact details, referee details and employment and education history.

The bases of collecting and processing your data will be with your consent, and/or performance of contract and/or our legitimate interests as a business. 

Please note that if you are a third party and we are processing your information in connection with legal proceedings, and/or if legal professional privilege applies, then it is likely we are exempt from any requirement to inform you that we are processing your information.

How do we use your personal data?

We will use your personal data:

• to provide legal services;
• to perform identity or other regulatory checks;
• to engage the services of a third party (where instructed);
• for the purposes of operating our business (such as management information);
• to comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
• to consider your application or enquiry relating to employment with the firm. 

We will not use your personal data for marketing.

Who will have access to your personal data? 

Access to your personal data may be given to employees, contractors or agents of Fullers solely for the purpose of performing their duties or contractual responsibilities to you  or for the proper management of our business.

In providing clients with legal services, it may be necessary for us to share your personal data with other people and organisations such as

• experts or barristers instructed in the case or other third parties such as your doctor or bank with your consent 
• third parties providing us with support, cloud hosting, auditing and administrative services in connection with the legitimate business purposes associated with the operating of a law firm.

In addition, we may share your data to protect your or our legal rights, or because we are required to by law or by a regulator such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

We will only need to transfer any data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) where a party, or an asset, subject to proceedings is located outside the EEA.

How long do we keep your data?

Data is stored for a period of one year in respect of prospective clients who make an enquiry and/or have a free interview but do not instruct Fullers and for a period of seven years from the end of the case for those clients who do instruct Fullers after which time it will be destroyed. Records relating to children may be retained for longer where necessary.

If you make an enquiry in relation to employment, we will keep your information for three months. 

If you apply for a job role with us and are unsuccessful, we will keep your information for twelve months. 

Automated decision making 

We may use the personal information that you supply us with to carry out an automated decision-making process via a third party as to the validity of your identity, and as to whether you are a politically exposed person or on the sanctions list. If a query or issue arises in relation to those checks that might prevent us from providing legal services the decision will not be made automatically and we will make further enquiries of you. 

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. 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 are accredited for cyber essentials (a government-backed certification, awarded to companies who follow the core principles of cyber security). 

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.

Your rights in respect of the personal data we process

The GPDR provides for the following rights in relation to your personal data. Please note that these rights usually contain a number of exceptions:

• The right to be informed about the collection and use of your data
• The right of access to the data
• The right to update or correct data
• The right to have the data erased. We will not erase the data if it is still necessary for the purpose it was supplied, if there is still a lawful reason to process or retain the data or if one of a number of exceptions applies such as compliance with a legal obligation or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to receive the personal information we hold about you in a portable format if the processing has been done by automated means.
• The right to object to further processing 
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling 

Questions or complaints

If you wish to exercise any of the above rights or require further information about them, please contact: The Data Protection Officer (Martin Fuller) at the registered address above or via email enquiries@fullersfamilylaw.com. There is no charge for exercising your right of access but we may make a charge if additional copies are requested.

If you have any questions about this policy or have a complaint about how we have processed your data, please contact us on the address above so we may investigate your complaint. You also have the right to contact the ICO via www.ico.org.uk/concerns/ or on their helpline 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this policy 

We may amend this policy at any time by either notifying you or posting a revised version on our website.

This version of the policy is dated 30/07/2021.