AMMAL SOLICITORS
DATA PROTECTION & PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated July 2024:

Introduction :

Ammal Solicitors (‘We’, ‘Us’) is a law firm, a Sole Practitioner Solicitor Practice, provides legal advice and assistance to clients. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (ID 611365) and The Law Society of England & Wales.

Ammal Solicitors (“AS”, “we”, “us”) respect the privacy and legal rights of the individuals and organisations we deal with.

For the purpose of the relevant Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) from 25^th May 2018, the data controller in respect of any personal data controlled by the firm is Ammal Solicitors.

The terms and information set out hereby are subject to periodical changes. You should therefore read and understand this whenever you visit our website or before providing us with any personal data about yourself. 

This policy information (together with our Website terms and any other documents referred to in it) explains how we make use of personal data we collect from or about you or which you provide to us.

This Policy page provides information about how we collect and use data from our service users and visitors to our website. This should be read in conjunction with the information contained in the Register of Fee Payers published electronically by the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO).

To use our website, you must consent to this policy and our terms of use.

The personal data that we process to provide these services relates to its clients and other individuals as necessary, including staff and suppliers’ staff.

This policy sets out our commitment to ensuring that any personal data, including special category personal data, which we process, is carried out in compliance with data protection law. We ensure that good data protection practice is embedded in the culture of our firm.

Our other data protection policies and procedures are:

• Record of processing activities
• Privacy notices (website, clients, employees)
• Data retention policy
• Data subject rights procedure
• IT security policies

‘Data Protection Law’ includes the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679; the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and all relevant EU and UK data protection legislation.

Scope

This policy applies to all personal data processed by Ammal Solicitors and is part of our approach to compliance with data protection law. All our staff are expected to comply with this policy and failure to comply may lead to disciplinary action.

Data protection principles

Ammal Solicitors complies with the data protection principles set out below. When processing personal data, it ensures that:

• It is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’)
• It is collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes (‘purpose limitation’)
• It is all adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’)
• It is all accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date and that reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (‘accuracy’)
• It is kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed (‘storage limitation’)
• It is processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’)

Ammal Solicitors will facilitate any request from a data subject who wishes to exercise their rights under data protection law as appropriate, always communicating in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form and without undue delay.

Process/procedures/guidance

Ammal Solicitors will:

• Ensure that the legal basis for processing personal data is identified in advance and that all processing complies with the law
• Not do anything with your data that you would not expect given the content of this policy and the fair processing or privacy notice
• Ensure that appropriate privacy notices are in place advising staff and others how and why their data is being processed, and, in particular, advising data subjects of their rights
• Only collect and process the personal data that it needs for purposes it has identified in advance
• Ensure that, as far as possible, the personal data it holds is accurate, or a system is in place for ensuring that it is kept up to date as far as possible
• Only hold onto your personal data for as long as it is needed, after which time Ammal Solicitors will securely erase or delete the personal data – Our data retention policy sets out the appropriate period of time which can be found also in our engagement letter, if you are a client.
• Ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to ensure that personal data can only be accessed by those who need to access it and that it is held and transferred securely

Ammal Solicitors will ensure that all staff who handle personal data on its behalf are aware of their responsibilities under this policy and other relevant data protection and information security policies, and that they are adequately trained and supervised.

Breaching this policy may result in disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal. Obtaining (including accessing) or disclosing personal data in breach of our data protection policies may also be a criminal offence.

Data Subject Rights

Ammal Solicitors has processes in place to ensure that it can facilitate any request made by an individual to exercise their rights under data protection law. All staff have received training and are aware of the rights of data subjects. Staff can identify such a request and know who to send it to.

All requests will be considered without undue delay and within one month of receipt as far as possible.

Subject access: the right to request information about how personal data is being processed, including whether personal data is being processed and the right to be allowed access to that data and to be provided with a copy of that data along with the right to obtain the following information:

• The purpose of the processing
• The categories of personal data
• The recipients to whom data has been disclosed or which will be disclosed
• The retention period
• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office
• the source of the information if not collected direct from the subject, and
• The existence of any automated decision making

Rectification: the right to allow a data subject to rectify inaccurate personal data concerning them.

Erasure: the right to have data erased and to have confirmation of erasure, but only where:

• The data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was collected, or
• Where consent is withdrawn, or
• Where there is no legal basis for the processing, or
• There is a legal obligation to delete data

Restriction of processing: the right to ask for certain processing to be restricted in the following circumstances:

• If the accuracy of the personal data is being contested, or
• If our processing is unlawful but the data subject does not want it erased, or
• If the data is no longer needed for the purpose of the processing but it is required by the data subject for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or
• If the data subject has objected to the processing, pending verification of that objection

Data portability: the right to receive a copy of personal data which has been provided by the data subject and which is processed by automated means in a format which will allow the individual to transfer the data to another data controller. This would only apply if Ammal Solicitors was processing the data using consent or on the basis of a contract.

Object to processing: the right to object to the processing of personal data relying on the legitimate interests processing condition unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests of the data subject or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Special category personal data

This includes the following personal data revealing:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Political opinions
• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Trade union membership
• The processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person
• An individual’s health
• A natural person's sex life or sexual orientation
• Criminal convictions or offences

Ammal Solicitors processes special category data of clients and third parties as is necessary to provide legal services for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Ammal Solicitors processes special category data of employees as is necessary to comply with employment and social security law. This policy sets out the safeguards we believe are appropriate to ensure that we comply with the data protection principles set out above. We also has a data retention policy which sets out how long special category data will be held onto.

Type of Data, How & Why we have it

For the purpose of acting on your instructions and dealing with your legal matters, we will need to collect, process and store your personal data which includes any information that can be used to identify a living person.

Personal data is the general information that you voluntarily provide us, such as your name, address, gender, date of birth, contact details, financial information etc and could also include sensitive information such as your racial or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, political opinions, health data, trade union membership, philosophical views, biometric and genetic data.

Mostly, we need only your basic personal data for identity checks to identify you.

We may obtain personal data from you, when you contact us using any means of communication (in person, call, email, post, our online form, social media etc). We may also get your personal data from third parties as authorised by you or from third parties in the course of our retainer with you such as medical professionals, Accountants, Banks, other firms etc. We may also collect and retain personal data obtained from public sources about you or your organisation, such as Companies House.

We may use any personal data we obtain for a number of purposes, as below, the list is not exhaustive:

• To verify your Identity, source of funds, to communicate with you
• To provide you legal advice, Prepare representations, liaise with third parties, attend hearings, conduct litigation etc on your behalf
• Instruct legal and non-legal experts- Barristers, Interpreters, Accountants, Experts etc

Who can access your data held with us

We will, normally, only use your information within ourselves. We may, however, will require to disclose or share your information to third parties like HMRC, Courts, Land Registry, Banks, other side Solicitors, Barristers, Non legal experts etc, while carrying out your legal work. We may also need to make any disclosure required by law or regulation. We will ensure that the third parties comply, strictly and confidentially, with our instructions and they do not use your personal information for their own purposes unless you have explicitly consented to them doing so.

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Responsibility for the processing of personal data

If you have any concerns or wish to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR, then you can contact the data protection lead in the following ways:

Name: Shaima Ammal, Principal Solicitor- Data Protection Officer

Address: Ammal Solicitors, Belmont, Belmont Road, Uxbridge UB8 1HE

Email: shaima@ammalsolicitors.co.uk

Telephone: 020 3371 9066

Monitoring and review

This policy was last updated on 1^st July 2024 and shall be regularly monitored and reviewed, at least every two years.