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Privacy Notice

Important Privacy & Transparency Notice

Made under General Data Protection Regulation 2018.

The purpose of this notice is to deal with the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which come into force on the 25th of May 2018. This policy explains how we collect, use, share and otherwise process your Personal Data in connection with your relationship with us as a client, acting for a client, applying for a position with us, or being generally interested in our services and our publications.

This notice is important and should be read by you and all clients of Blakewater Certus Solicitors. In this notice the words “our”, “us” and “we” refer to Blakewater Certus Solicitors Limited and “you”, “your” and “yours” refer to clients of Blakewater Certus Solicitors or associated individuals.

GDPR in ordinary circumstances requires every person whose data is held by a third-party to give their physical and positive acquiescence in the use of that data by any such third party.

There is a proviso to the legislation that such positive acquiescence does not need to be given by you to processing your information where there is a contract in place or proposed arrangements with you and/or to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Therefore given the proviso we believe that a notice to you (and our clients) would be sufficient without there needing to be a positive response from you or our individual clients as to the processing of your information. By visiting/using our website and/or working with us you expressly consent to the use and transfer of your personal data by Blakewater Certus Solicitors and its associated third parties.

Who controls your personal information

This notice tells you how Blakewater Certus Solicitors Limited registered office at 3 Richmond Terrace Blackburn BB1 7AT, as data controller, will deal with your personal information.

You can ask for further information about our use of your personal information or complain about its use in the first instance, by contacting Abdul Hafeez Darr, Blakewater Certus Solicitors 3 Richmond Terrace Blackburn BB1 7AT or by emailing ahd@blakewatersolicitors.com.

If you have any concerns regarding processing of your personal information, or are not satisfied with our handling of any request by you in relation to your rights, you also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Their address is: First Contact Team, Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.

What personal information we collect about you

We will collect and process the personal information that you give us by phone, email, or filling in forms on our website, post or emails. We also collect personal information from your appointed agent such as your trustee, broker, intermediary or financial adviser and from other sources, for verification purposes, such as credit reference agencies, information you have volunteered to be in the public domain and other industry-wide sources.

We will only collect personal information that we require to fulfil our contractual or legal requirements unless you consent to provide additional information. The type of personal information we may collect includes basic, contact, technical and financial information, confidential health and family information, claims and convictions information and, where you have requested other individuals be included in the arrangement, personal information about those individuals.

How we use your personal information

We and our selected third parties will only collect and use your personal information (i) where the processing is necessary in connection with processing your case; (ii) to meet our legal or regulatory obligations or (iii) for our “legitimate interests”. It is in our legitimate interests to collect your personal information as it provides us with the information that we need to provide our services to you more effectively including providing you with information about our products and services. We will always ensure that we keep the amount of information collected and the extent of any processing to the absolute minimum to meet this legitimate interest. Examples of the purposes for which we will collect and use your personal information are:

  1. to identify you when you contact us;
  2. to make and receive payments;
  3. to obtain feedback on the service we provide to you
  4. market our services to you;
  5. provide services under contract to you;
  6. provide services to others (in so far as this does not breach client confidentiality);
  7. comply with regulatory and other legal obligations; and
  8. protect us against potential claims.

We will contact you to obtain consent prior to processing your personal information for any other purpose, including for the purposes of targeted marketing unless we already have consent to do so.

Who we share your personal information with

Where necessary, we will share the personal information you gave us for the purpose of processing your case with the types of organisations listed below:

    1. lawyers and service providers;
    2. introducers and professional advisers;
    3. regulatory and legal bodies;
    4. survey and research organisations;
    5. credit reference agencies;
    6. healthcare professionals, social and welfare organisations; and
    7. other solicitors and insurance companies.

Or, in order to meet our legal or regulatory requirements, with the types of organisations described below:

  1. regulatory and legal bodies;
  2. central government or local councils;
  3. law enforcement bodies, including investigators; and
  4. credit reference agencies.

How do we transfer your personal information to other countries

Other than where required in order to provide services as required in individual client matters, data is rarely sent to third countries. Where it is, the relevant devices are password protected and encrypted wherever necessary.

How long do you retain my personal information

We will retain and process your personal information for as long as necessary to meet the purposes for which it was originally collected. These periods of time are subject to legal, tax and regulatory requirements or to enable us to manage our business. Ordinarily the Data is held for six years from the end of the relevant matter.

Your data protection rights

You have a number of rights under the data protection laws, namely:

      1. to access your data (by way of a subject access request);
      2. to have your data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
      3. in certain circumstances, to have your data deleted or removed;
      4. in certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of your data;
      5. to complain to a supervisory authority regarding the processing of your data (https://ico.org.uk/);
      6. a right of data portability, namely to obtain and reuse your data for your own purposes across different services;
      7. to object to direct marketing;
      8. not to be subject to automated decision making (including profiling), where it produces a legal effect or a similarly significant effect on you;
      9. to claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the data protection legislation;
      10. if we are processing your personal information with your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

What happens if you fail to provide your personal information to us

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we will not be able to provide our services nor marketing.

Blakewater Solicitors is pleased to announce its acquisition of Certus Solicitors LLP, 33 Manor Row, Bradford, BD1 4PS on the 1st October 2023.

Blakewater Solicitors new trading style is Blakewater Certus, under which we will be able to provide our clients with greater commercial & litigation services, with the same excellent client service and technical expertise which has come to define us.