This Notice sets out what you can expect from House of Law in relation to the collection and use of your personal data. Please be assured that House of Law will at all times respect your privacy and look after your personal data. 

 

We are House of Law Limited, a limited company registered in England and Wales with registered number 09950284 whose registered office is at 3 Hardman Square, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3EB. We are the “data controller” of the personal information we hold for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Data Protection Act) which supplements UK GDPR and extends its application in the UK. We are committed to respecting the information you entrust to us and ensure that we keep it safe. 

In this notice, “we” and “us” refers to House of Law, “you” and “your” refers to those whose data is affected. 

 

Adrian Ohio is responsible for the privacy of your data and is our data manager. 

 

Personal data is defined in the UK GDPR as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, in other words an actual person as opposed to a company or organisation. Not only does it relate to everyday data such as your name, address and gender but also to less obvious data such as identification numbers, online identifiers and/or one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that person. It also covers personal data about you even though the connection is one by your business – for example your personal email address at your business. 

 

In addition, there is a further category of data referred to as special category data. This includes data such as race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation. 

 

 

The main use that we make of your information is in connection with the supply to you of our products and services, or where it's necessary as part of the management of your matter. 

 

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, for example: 

 

A legitimate interest arises where we have a business or commercial reason for using your data, provided always that it is not overridden by your own rights and interests. 

 

Specifically, we will use your data: 

 

In general, data may also be processed in the necessary pursuit of our legitimate interests and/or the legitimate interests of others and there may also be a need to process data in compliance with legal obligations, for example in relation to legal proceedings and/or compliance with requests by law enforcement agencies. In general, you should note that we will not tend to rely on consent as a basis for processing personal data and in those rare circumstances when we do, we will specifically obtain such consent in the course of collecting the data. 

 

Finally, please note that we on occasion use data to improve our levels of service for example by monitoring and/or recording calls for quality and accuracy purposes. 

 

As a legal services firm, most of the personal data we process is data relating to our contractual functions, powers and duties. This may include: 

 

We collect most of this information from you directly. You may give us your identity and contact details by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, telephone, email, social media or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you: 

 

However, we may also collect information: 

 

Please be aware that where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. If, however, you choose not to give us your consent for our mailing list, there will be no effect on your legal contract with us although we may be hampered in the extent to which we can keep you up to date with developments in your sector. 

 

We will routinely share your personal data with: 

 

We will only permit other service providers to deal with your personal data where we are satisfied that they take suitable measures to protect your personal data and in doing so we will impose contractual obligations upon them to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you in an agreed manner. 

 

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. 

 

There may also be a need to share personal data with other parties in connection with your instructions to us. Where relevant that information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations. 

 

We will not share your personal data with any other third party. 

 

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above. Information held in electronic format may be held on servers not based in our offices and some of these third parties may be based outside of the UK or the European Economic Area. Where this is the case we will always take care to protect your data and where relevant we will enter into appropriate agreements for the protection of your data. 

 

We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it in order to complete the purpose for which we collected it in the first place. 

When a legal case is concluded, we retain your file of papers up to a period of either 7 or 15 years from date of formal closure depending upon the nature of the transaction. Our retention schedule is as follows: 

 

 

Provided we have not identified any of your papers as being required for a longer term, we will aim to destroy all papers and data we hold about you upon the expiry of the 7 or 15 year period (as appropriate), unless we have a legal, regulatory or statutory obligation to dispose of /delete such papers/data prior to this period or unless the papers are the subject of an ongoing or anticipated claim against us. 

 

Information in relation to job applications which contain personal information will be retained for a period of 1 year after the application is made, after which it will be destroyed, unless it is in relation to someone to whom an offer of employment is made in which case the provisions applying to our employees will apply. 

 

Any person who requests that they receive marketing communications from us will be asked for re-consent every 2 years from the date of the original consent and can unsubscribe from those communications at any time during this period. 

 

We are under a general duty to keep personal data and information confidential. Where we share information, we take all reasonable steps to keep it secure, use it fairly and ensure that data protection safeguards are in place. We use secure portals and encryption tools when necessary to ensure data in transit is protected. 

 

Subject to the type of information held about you, and the reason we are holding it, the UK GDPR gives you certain rights in relation to your personal data. Those rights include: 

 

In most instances, we will provide the information to which you are entitled within one month of receipt of a valid request as is required by the UK GDPR. Please note, however, that requests which are complex or numerous may however take up to three months and requests which are considered manifestly unfounded or excessive will be refused. Please also be aware that, for reasons of confidentiality of information, we will need to take the necessary steps to ensure that any person requesting information or exercising their rights as set out above are who they say they are. 

 

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, namely the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) whose contact details are as follows: 

 

 

 

 

Where information has been requested we will always endeavour to provide it to you in the format requested unless doing so would put your information, or that of other people, at risk. Usually we will send an electronic copy but we can provide a hard copy by special delivery post to your residential address if you so request. 

 

Please note that you may not be entitled to see all the information held about you if an exemption applies. Examples of exemptions include information that: 

 

If an exemption applies we will explain which exemption applies and we tell you if we have removed any information from the copy we send you. 

 

This privacy notice was last updated in April 2023. We may make changes to it from time to time. When we do so, we will not be able to inform you directly but it will be apparent as a new version will be posted on this website showing a revised date.