Privacy

Western Legal respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. Here we outline the obligations which we have in managing the personal information we hold about our clients, potential clients, contractors and others.

This Policy outlines our obligations in managing personal information about our clients, potential clients, contractors and others. We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Personal information we collect and hold
Personal information’ is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not.

In general, the type of personal information we collect and hold includes (but is not limited to): names, birth dates, addresses, contact details, occupations, medical history and treatment, memberships and associations, financial and tax records, family situations and other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and marketing our services and meeting our legal obligations.

Some personal information which we collect is ‘sensitive information’. Sensitive information includes information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political affiliation, religious affiliation, mental health, disability, trade union or other professional or trade association membership, sexual preferences and criminal record, and other health information.

Personal information is generally collected and held about clients, associates and potential clients, suppliers and their employees, and prospective employees, employees and contractors.

How we collect and hold personal information
We will generally collect personal information by way of forms filled out by people, face-to-face meetings, interviews, business cards, telephone conversations and from third parties. We also collect personal information from our web site and the internet, through receiving subscription applications and emails. We also use third parties to analyse traffic at that web site, which may involve the use of cookies. Information collected through such analysis is anonymous.

In some circumstances we may be provided with personal information about an individual from a third party, for example a report provided by a medical professional or a reference from another person.

We hold personal information in secure and confidential files maintained in paper and/or electronic form. Sometimes personal information held by us is securely stored with third party data storage providers. We take all reasonable steps to protect personal information held by us from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, for example by use of physical security and restricted access to electronic records.

The privacy of your information is important to us and we will take reasonable steps to ensure that information about you is not subject to the danger of being lost, destroyed or damaged or of being accessed by unauthorised parties. However we cannot guarantee the security of information about you and do not accept liability if, despite our efforts, loss or damage arises from a failure to maintain privacy.

Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the purposes of:
(a) providing legal and related services including the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal or equitable claim, the utilisation of a confidential alternative dispute resolution process, and securing litigation and/or disbursement funding

(b) assessing and processing inquiries and requests for the provision of our services

(c) marketing, including direct marketing and market research and analysis

(d) the general conduct and management of our business, including provision and enhancement of our services and purchasing goods and services from others

(e) meeting our legal obligations.

If the personal information we request is not provided, we may not be able to provide the relevant service.

Access your personal information held by us
You have rights to access and seek correction of your personal information held by us, as set out in Australian Privacy Principles 12 and 13. Please address all requests for access and correction of personal information to admin@westernlegal.com.au