Privacy Policy

FLYNN SOLICITORS DATA PRIVACY NOTICE 

This document outlines Flynn Solicitors’ policy in relation to Data Privacy to fulfil our obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (2018). The purpose is to inform you how we use your personal data, and the policies and procedures we apply in processing your data.

 

1. Who We Are

Throughout this document, “we”, “us”, “our” and “ours” refers to Flynn Solicitors, The Old Mill, Off Main Street, Carrigaline, Co Cork. You can contact us at this address by post or by email at info@flynnsolicitors.ie

Our Data Protection Representative is Declan Flynn.

 

2. The information we collect about you

We gather your information for a number of reasons for example, how to contact you and to ascertain your identity, as required under our Anti Money Laundering Guidelines imposed by our Regulator, The Law Society of Ireland.

In order to provide you with a thorough quality legal service, we need to understand the circumstances of your case so we can offer you sound legal advice, this can include collecting information in relation to your finances, your marital status, PPS numbers, employment status etc. Therefore, the information we collect may be categorised under various categories.

• Identity & contact information

Name, date of birth, copies of ID including 2 photographic pieces of ID and two utility bills, PPS number (or foreign equivalent), email details, addresses, nationality, home status and address, email address, work and personal phone numbers, marital status, family details, tax residency and tax related information.

 

• Financial details/personal circumstances

In certain types of cases in which we may act for you, such as property transactions, will drafting, debt collection matters, employment disputes or family law matters we will collect the following details about you; bank account details, income details, personal guarantees, your employment status and employment details of your partner, life assurance details, bank account Statements, details of loan offers, information relating to power of attorney arrangements, credit history, details of mortgage brokers/financial advisors, details of assets, details of financial dependants

• Sensitive categories of data

We may hold information about you which includes sensitive personal data, such as health, sexual orientation or criminal conviction information. We will hold this data when we need to for the purposes of providing you with legal advice or where we have a legal obligation to do so. Examples of when we use this type of data include:

 

• Medical information, for example, where we act for you in a personal injuries matter or where you apply for life insurance, income protection or mortgage protection in the course of buying a property.
• Sexual Orientation, for example where we act for you in a Family Law matter relating to dissolution of a Civil Partnership.
• Criminal Convictions, we may process this information in the context of compliance with our anti-money laundering obligations.

 

• Other personal information
• We may collect CCTV footage and image recordings, for example, in relation to a personal injuries case.
• We may collect and use your information even though you are not a client for example, you may be a beneficiary in an estate for which we act, a spouse of a client or a director and so forth.

 

3. When do we collect information about you?

• When you instruct us to act in a matter for you or when you contact or are contacted by us in relation to a matter.
• When information is publicly available about you we may use this information where it is relevant to the management of your file.
• If you give us information about someone else, or someone gives us information about you, we may add it to any personal information we already hold and use it in the ways described in this Data Privacy Notice.
• When you use our website to complete and submit an Enquiry Form.
• We collect information through our third-party website provider about your internet activity using technology known as cookies, which can often be controlled through internet browsers. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, see our Cookie Policy, which is available on our website.

 

4. How we use your information?

We use your information:

 

• To provide our products and services to you, and to fulfil our contract with you

To provide our service to you and perform our contract with you, we use your information to provide legal advice, manage your file and conduct a matter on your behalf. We use your information to;

• brief third parties such as Barristers, Engineers, insurance companies and Medical Experts who may be required to provide opinions.
• Conduct file reviews of all matters you may have instructed us to act for you in.
• draft and issue correspondence, communications and proceedings in a matter you may have instructed us to act for you in, in order to conduct proper management of your case.
• process payments that are paid to you or by you, for example, if you purchase a property, we will process your deposit and sale funds with third parties such as solicitors and lending institutions.
• contact you by post, phone, text message, email, fax but not in a way contrary to your instructions to us or contrary to law.
• monitor and record our conversations when we speak on the telephone (for example, to check and record your instructions to us).

 

• To manage our business for our legitimate interests

To manage our business, we may use your information to:

• Manage and respond to any complaint.
• Carry out a credit review.
• Recover debts owed relating to unpaid fees.
• Engage agencies to trace you (for example, where the address you have provided is no longer accurate and we are required to come off record on a case).
• Compile and process your information for audit purposes or risk assessments, for example data protection risk assessments.

 

• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

We need to use your information to comply with legal and regulatory obligations including:

• Providing you with statutory and regulatory documents and information.
• Establishing your identity, residence and tax status in order to comply with law and regulation concerning taxation and the prevention of money laundering, fraud and terrorist financing.
• Preparing returns to regulators and relevant authorities including preparing income tax, capital gains tax, capital acquisition tax and other revenue returns, where there is a legal obligation to do so.
• Complying with requests from regulatory bodies, including The Law Society of Ireland.
• For other reasons where a statutory reason exists we do so, including use of your Personal Public Service (PPS) number (or foreign equivalent).
• Complying with court orders arising in civil or criminal proceedings, where legally obliged to do so.

 

• Where you have given us permission (which you may withdraw at any time)

Where you have given us permission we may:

• Send electronic messages or written correspondence to you about services offered by us.
• Use cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy on our website.
• Use information you have made public and combine with this with the activities outlined above.

 

5. Who we share your information with?

We only share your information with a select number of individuals and companies, and only as necessary.

Sharing can occur in the following circumstances and/or with the following persons:

• Your authorised representatives, these may include your broker/financial advisor, your attorney under a Power of Attorney and any other party authorised by you to receive your personal data.

 

• Third parties we need to share your information with in order to manage your file, such as Barristers, the Land Registry, The Companies Registration Office, Tracing Agents, Financial Institutions, Solicitors, Cost Accountants, Engineers and Architects.

 

• Statutory and regulatory bodies and law enforcement authorities. These include The Courts Service and those appointed by the Courts Service, government departments, statutory and regulatory bodies including the Data Protection Commission, NAMA, An Garda Síochána/police authorities/enforcement agencies, Revenue Commissioners.

 

• We may disclose your information to our agents and insurers and third parties for administration and regulatory, purposes, and to investigate or prevent fraud.

 

 

• Our service providers including IT and telecommunication service providers, software development contractors, computer maintenance contractors, document storage and destruction companies.

 

6. How long we hold your information

We hold your information for at least the Mandatory Period for Retention as specified by the Law Society of Ireland. This period varies depending on the type of legal file held with us.

 

7. The legal basis for using your information

The legal basis for the processing of this data is processing necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party.

Where we process special categories of data relating to you, e.g. health data that we may process in connection with a legal claim where we are acting on your behalf, our legal basis for processing will be that the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

There may also be limited circumstances where our legal basis for processing is your consent (where we have sought it and you have provided it to us), in which case you can withdraw your consent at any time.

 

8. Processing your information outside the EEA

As at the date of this Data Privacy Notice, your data is not transferred by us to be processed outside the EEA.

 

9. Your Rights under the GDPR

You have the following rights under the GDPR, in certain circumstances and subject to certain exemptions, in relation to your personal data:

 

• right to access the data – you have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data.

 

• right to rectification- you have the right to request that any inaccurate data that is held about you is corrected, or if we have incomplete information you may request that we update the information such that it is complete.

 

• right to erasure – you have the right to request us to delete personal data that we hold about you. This is sometimes referred to as the right to be forgotten.

 

• right to restriction of processing or to object to processing – you have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes, or to object to our processing of your personal data for particular purposes.

 

• right to data portability – you have the right to request us to provide you, or a third party, with a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used machine-readable format.

 

10. How to contact us

In order to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at the contact details at the start of this privacy notice.

If we are processing personal data based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing which took place prior to its withdrawal.

 

If you are unhappy with how we process personal data, we ask you to contact us so that we can rectify the situation.

 

You may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The Irish supervisory authority is the Data Protection Commission.

 

11. Requirement to process personal data

 

If you do not provide us with your information for the purposes described above, we cannot provide you with legal advice, represent you in legal proceedings or send you any updates we believe you may benefit from.

 

12. Automated decision-making and profiling

 

We do not use any personal data for the purpose of automated decision-making or profiling.

 

Version 1.0 – 25^th May 2018

Flynn Solicitors
The Old Mill,
Off Main Street,
Carrigaline,
Co.Cork,
Ireland,
P43 K194

Tel: 021 4374666
Fax: 021 4374667
Email: info@flynnsolicitors.ie