Data Controller or Processor

If We are provided with personal information under contract via a third party, it is likely We will be acting as a Data Processor or acting as Joint Controllers. If this is not the case, then We will be acting as the Data Controller.

To progress your enquiry, we will ask for your consent based on your acceptance of this privacy policy and understanding how we process your personal data.

The Data We collect about you

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed.

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you including:

• Identity Data including; your name, title, gender, marital status, date of birth, health records, employment records and property information.
• Contact Data including; address, email address, telephone numbers.

• Financial Data including; bank account details.
• Service related Data including; information that is generated in the course of the progression of your matter or services we provide, purchases of services made by you, your preferences, feedback and survey responses.
• Technical Data including; IP address, search items, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths.
• Usage Data Including; information about how you use our website and services.
• Marketing and Communications Data including; your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.

Collecting personal information

We ask you for personal data only when it is needed to provide services you have enquired about or asked Us to provide, to respond to your requests for information or to enable Us to carry out our legal obligations in connection with instructions you may have given Us.

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

• Direct Interactions – You may give use us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data when you:
  • Enquire about our services.
  • Interact with Us via Our website personal message service.
  • Subscribe to our publications.
  • Request marketing to be sent to you.
  • Enter a competition, promotion or survey.
  • Give us feedback or contact us.
• Automated technologies and interactions – As you interact with our website we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technology. For further information, please see our cookie policy.
• Third parties or publicly available sources – We will receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
  • Analytics providers such as Google.
  • Search information providers based inside or outside the EU.

• Identity, Contact, Financial and Service Related Data from referral sources; and
  • Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register.

Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person’s consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with this policy.

We may also record phone calls for the purposes of staff training, mitigation of disputes and the collection of consent from data subjects.

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.

Using personal data

Personal data submitted to us through our website, phone calls, emails or in person will be used for the purposes specified in this policy.

We may use your personal information to:

• act upon, process and progress instructions given by you to us;

(b) allow us to comply with our legal obligations in acting upon your instructions;

(c) enable your use of our services;

(d) send you information;

(e) process payments;

(f) send statements, invoices and payment reminders to you, and collect payments from you;

(g) send you non-marketing commercial communications;

(h) send you email notifications that you have specifically requested that form part of the service;

(i) send you our email newsletter, if you have requested it (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require the newsletter);

(j) deal with enquiries and complaints;

(k) keep our website secure and prevent fraud;

(l) verify compliance with the terms and conditions governing the use of our website (including monitoring private messages sent through our website private messaging service).

(m) We will not supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party’s direct marketing without your express consent.

(n) All our website and financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider, Worldpay. We will share information with our payment services provider only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website, directly, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds.

(o) We do not use any automated decision-making processes or profile of you based on the data you provide.

(p) Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending upon the types of information we receive).

We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground We are relying on to process your personal data.

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which We collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If We need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, We will notify you and We will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of service experience or other transactions.

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy.

Disclosing personal information

We may disclose your personal information to any of Our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, consultants, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy and in the delivery of Our services.

We may disclose your personal information to any member of Our group of companies insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy as defined in Section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.

We may disclose your personal information:

(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;

(b) in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;

(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk;

(d) to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and

(e) to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.

(f) except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

International data transfers

We do not transfer any personal data outside of the EEA, should this requirement change then we will contact you again to obtain your explicit consent to the transfers. 

Retaining personal information

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes We collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if We reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

There is no statutory period defined in legislation, so our retention period is based on 7 years retention unless there is a legal or business requirement to retain the data in excess of 7 years.  Further details of our retention policy can be found below and full details of our file storage /destruction policy are available on request.

Security of personal information

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

All communications via our website, payment transactions, electronic documents and database records will be protected by encryption technology. You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential; we will not ask you for your password (except during authenticating access to electronic systems).

Amendments

We may update this policy from time to time to keep up to date with legal requirements and the way we operate our business. If We decide to change our privacy policy we will place any updates on this web page and the privacy sections of any relevant Platforms.

You should check this page regularly to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.

If at any point we decide to make fundamental changes to our privacy policy, we will seek to inform you by notice on our website or on the relevant section of any other Platform or email.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:

• The right to be informed about the collection and the use of personal data.
• The right to access personal data and supplementary information.
• The right to have inaccurate personal data rectified, or completed if it is incomplete.
• The right to erasure (to be forgotten) in certain circumstances.
• The right to restrict processing in certain circumstances.
• The right to data portability, which allows the data subject to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.
• The right to object to processing in certain circumstances.
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
• The right to withdraw consent at any time (where relevant).
• The right to complain to the Information Commissioner.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact Us.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, We may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, We could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Third party websites

Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.

We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties if you register with them independently. If you follow any link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.

Data protection registration

We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

Our data protection registration can be found here: https://ico.org.uk

Our details

We are registered in England and Wales under registration number Z4737214 and our registered office is at Gorse Stacks House, George Street, Chester CH1 3EQ.

Our principal place of business is at Gorse Stacks House, George Street, Chester CH1 3EQ.

You can contact us:

• By post, using the postal address given above.
• Using our website contact form.
• By telephone, on the contact number published on our website; or
• By email, using the email address published on our website.
• By online live chat.

Or you can contact our Data Protection Officer directly by email at pb@law.uk.com.

Annexe A

File Retention Schedules

• Matrimonial matters – 15 years.
• Litigation – 12 years.
• Drafting of Wills – 25 years.
• House purchases – 15 years.

Website policy

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy policy (together with Our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data We collect from you, or that you provide to Us, will be processed by Us. Please read the following carefully to understand Our views and practices regarding your personal data and how We will treat it.

For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the data controller is HM3 Legal of Gorse Stacks House, George Street, Chester CH1 3EQ.

Information we collect from you
We may collect and process the following data about you:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on Our website www.HM3.Legal (“Our Site”). This includes information provided at the time of registering to use Our Site, subscribing to Our service, posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for when you report a problem with Our Site.
• If you contact Us, We may keep a record of that correspondence.
• We may also ask you to complete surveys that We use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
• Details of your visits to Our Site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for Our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access.

IP Address
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to Our advertisers. This is statistical data about Our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

Cookies
Our Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of Our Site. This helps Us to provide you with a good experience when you browse Our Site and also allows Us to improve Our Site. For detailed information on the cookies We use and the purposes for which We use them see Our Cookie policy.

Where we store your personal data
The data that We collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for Us or for one of Our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the processing of your details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

[All information you provide to Us is stored on Our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted [using SSL technology].] Where We have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of Our Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although We will do Our best to protect your personal data, We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to Our Site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once We have received your information, We will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Uses made of the information
We use information held about you in the following ways:

• To ensure that content from Our Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
• To provide you with information, products or services that you request from Us or which We feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
• To carry out Our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and Us.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of Our service, when you choose to do so.
• To notify you about changes to Our service.

We may also use your data, or permit selected third parties to use your data, to provide you with information about goods and services which may be of interest to you and We or they may contact you about these by email, post or telephone.

If you are an existing customer, We will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale to you.

If you are a new customer, and where we permit selected third parties to use your data, We (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this.

If you do not want Us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the registration page of Our Site. [We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to Our advertisers, but We may provide them with aggregate information about Our users (for example, We may inform them that 500 men aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, women in SW1). We may make use of the personal data We have collected from you to enable Us to comply with Our advertisers’ wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience.]

Disclosure of your information
We may disclose your personal information to any member of Our group, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

• In the event that We sell or buy any business or assets, in which case We may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
• If HM3 Legal or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• If We are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply Our terms of use (as per below) and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of HM3 Legal, Our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Your rights
You have the right to ask Us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if We intend to use your data for such purposes or if We intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms We use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting Us at enquiries@law.uk.com.

Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of Our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Access to information
The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the GDPR.

Changes to our privacy policy
Any changes We may make to Our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.

Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to enquiries@law.uk.com.

Terms of Website Use
This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of Our website www.HM3Legal.co.uk (“Our Site”), whether as a guest or a registered user. Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site. By using Our Site, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please refrain from using Our Site.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Accessing our Site
Access to Our Site is permitted on a temporary basis, and We reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service We provide on Our Site without notice (see below). We will not be liable if for any reason Our Site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

From time to time, We may restrict access to some parts of Our Site, or Our Site in its entirety, to users who have registered with us.

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of Our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in Our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to Our Site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access Our Site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.

Intellectual Property Rights
We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in Our Site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from Our Site for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to material posted on Our Site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on Our Site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the materials on Our Site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or Our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of Our Site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use Our Site will cease immediately and you must, at Our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

Reliance of Information Posted
Commentary and other materials posted on Our Site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to Our Site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

Our Site Changes Regularly
We aim to update Our Site regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, We may suspend access to Our Site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on Our Site may be out of date at any given time, and We are under no obligation to update such material.

Our Liability
The material displayed on Our Site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, We, other members of Our group of companies and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude:

All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.

Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with Our Site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of Our Site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for:

• loss of income or revenue
• loss of business
• loss of profits or contracts
• loss of anticipated savings
• loss of data
• loss of goodwill
• wasted management or office time; and
• for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable, provided that this condition shall not prevent claims for loss of or damage to your tangible property or any other claims for direct financial loss that are not excluded by any of the categories set out above.

This does not affect Our liability for death or personal injury arising from Our negligence, nor Our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation

or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Information about you and your visits to our site
We process information about you in accordance with Our privacy policy. By using Our Site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

Viruses, hacking and other offences
You must not misuse Our Site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to Our Site, the server on which Our Site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to Our Site. You must not attack Our Site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and We will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use Our Site will cease immediately.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of Our Site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

Linking to our site
You may link to Our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage Our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on Our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.

Our Site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of Our Site other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

If you wish to make any use of material on Our Site other than that set out above, please address your request to enquiries@law.uk.com.

Links from our site

Where Our Site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Jurisdiction and Applicable Law
The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to Our Site although We retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country.

These terms of use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

Variations
We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes We made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on Our Site.

Your Concerns
If you have any concerns about material which appears on Our Site, please contact enquiries@law.uk.com.