Privacy Policy & Disclaimer

At Ryans Solicitors, accessible from www.ryanslaw.co.uk, one of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy document contains types of information that is collected and recorded by Ryans Solicitors and how we use it.

If you have additional questions or require more information about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us.

This Privacy Policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information that they shared and/or collect in Ryans Solicitors. This policy is not applicable to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.

Information We Collect

The personal information that you are asked to provide, and the reasons why you are asked to provide it, will be made clear to you at the point we ask you to provide your personal information.

We will collect details such as your name, address, telephone number and email address; information to enable us to verify your identity (such as your date of birth or passport details); information relating to the matter on which you seek our advice; information enabling us to perform credit or financial checks; financial details where relevant; and information about your use of our IT and communications systems.

Depending on the nature of your instructions, we may also collect: National Insurance and tax details; bank or building society details; details of your online presence; details of your spouse, partner or dependants; employment status and employment records (including special category data where relevant); nationality and immigration documents; pension arrangements; racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious beliefs (for discrimination claims); trade union membership; personal identifiers (for company incorporation); and medical records (for personal injury claims).

How Your Personal Data Is Collected

We collect most of this information from you directly or via our secure online client portal. However, we may also collect information:

• from publicly accessible sources, for example Companies House or HM Land Registry;
• directly from a third party, including your bank or building society, other financial institutions or advisors;
• your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
• consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
• your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
• sanctions screening providers;
• credit reference agencies;
• client due diligence providers;
• via our website based upon our use of cookies (see our cookies policy);
• via our information technology systems, including case management, document management and time recording systems, door entry systems and reception logs, and automated monitoring of our websites, CCTV and communications systems.

How and Why We Use Your Personal Data

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

• to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
• where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We use your personal data to provide legal services, conduct client identity and sanctions checks, comply with professional and regulatory obligations, ensure business policies are followed, improve efficiency and quality, protect commercially sensitive information, prevent unauthorised access to our systems, maintain client records, complete statutory returns, market our services, and undertake credit reference checks.

The above does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

Promotional Communications

We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services or products.

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes. This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations for marketing purposes. You have the right to opt out at any time by emailing compliance@ryanslaw.co.uk.

Who We Share Your Personal Data With

We routinely share personal data with:

• professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, for example barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
• other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, for example your mortgage provider, HM Land Registry or Companies House;
• credit reference agencies;
• insurers, brokers and legal funding providers;
• external auditors or accountants;
• our bank;
• external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect it. We may also disclose information to law enforcement agencies and regulators to comply with our legal obligations, or to potential buyers during a re-structuring (usually in anonymised form).

Where Your Personal Data Is Held

Information may be held at our offices and with third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above. Some of these third parties may be based outside the UK; where this occurs we put safeguards in place to protect your personal data.

How Long Your Personal Data Will Be Kept

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you in order to:

• respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
• show that we treated you fairly;
• keep records required by law.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Like any other website, Ryans Solicitors uses cookies. These cookies are used to store information including visitors’ preferences, and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimise the user’s experience by customising our web page content based on visitors’ browser type and/or other information.

For more details please see our Cookies Policy.

GDPR Data Protection Rights

We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

• The right to access — request copies of your personal data. We may charge a small fee for this service.
• The right to rectification — request correction of inaccurate information or completion of incomplete information.
• The right to erasure — request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to restrict processing — request that we restrict processing, under certain conditions.
• The right to object to processing — object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to data portability — request that we transfer your data to another organisation or to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

Children’s Information

Another part of our priority is adding protection for children while using the internet. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity.

Ryans Solicitors does not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

Keeping Your Personal Data Secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

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

How to Complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.

The GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.