Free Legal Helpline Privacy Policy Notice

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and the European Economic Area. We issue this notice in compliance of our obligations.

Free Legal Helpline is a free to use service for anyone living in England or Wales.We aim to assist people who are suffering from any problems but have no whereto turn and don’t want to pay a solicitor unless its necessary.

We are not a law firm or a firm of solicitors. We do not and can not offer legal advice and you should consider us as an information portal where we can provide information which is publicly available to you.

If you do require legal advice or the services of a qualified solicitor, Free Legal Helpline can offer to arrange a consultation with a suitably qualified professional.

In order to complete our work, we must collect and maintain client and non client data. Our privacy policy notice will explain in detail when and why we collect information about you.

In addition we will explain how we use this data, the conditions under which we may disclose to others and how we keep it secure.

1.       About Free Legal Helpline

Free Legal Helpline is a Limited Company registered in England and Wales, Company Registration Number 10023467

We observe data protection legislation and are committed to protecting and respecting privacy and rights. Specifically, we act as a Data Controller in respect of the information gathered and processed by us.

We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office under registration number ZA401078. Our Data Protection Officer is Ms Sana Khan, if you have any questions or complaints please write to

Address: Floor 37, 25 Canada Square, London, E14 5LB
Email: marketing@freelegalhelpline.co.uk
Telephone: 0203 582 0793

2.       What Information Do We Collect About You?

The information that we request from you will always depend on the work we are conducting on your behalf. This information is for clients of Free Legal Helpline only.

We will ask for you for personal information including

A)     Personal data – encompassing all general personally identifiable information such as your name, address, Date of birth, national insurance number, criminal convictions and bank details

B)      Special data – this is sensitive information which can include; race/ethnicity, physical or mental health issues, access to medical records ect In practice Free Legal Helpline will never ask for or request special data. We will not request medical or any other records for you. If are made aware of any special data this is not recorded unless it is directly related to the advice you sought.

For example if a client calls us for a race or disability related issue, for example discrimination at the work place or a racial assault, then we will record this special data.

2.1 Minors

A minor would be any person under 18 years of age. Free Legal Helpline does work with any people under the age of 18 and we do not record any data on minors.

3.Where does Free Legal Helpline obtain information from

We obtain information relating to you from the following sources:

3.1 Yourself

The main source of information will be you, our client. We can obtain information using any method of communication including phone, email or letters or by any other form of communication.

3.2 Someone known to you

We may obtain information about you from someone else who is known to you. For example, if we are acting for the driver of a vehicle and they inform us there was a passenger in their car at the time who would also like us to act.

3.3 Third party information

Naturally people rely on others to record data about themselves to be recorded. This data can then be used for a number of reasons including, for example, taking legal action based on this evidence.Your GP will keep a full record of all your interactions and this could form the basis of the medical evidence used to make a personal injury claim.

In practice, the third parties from whom we can gather information about you from are limited to – financial institutions like banks and building societies, medical service providers like your NHS or privately run GP or Hospital or a panel of providers who recommend our legal services.

3.4 Website and online tracking

www.freelegalhelpline.co.uk is our web domain and it uses cookies are used to collect information about you such as your internet protocol (IP address) which is the address which connects any internet enabled device to the internet. Our cookies will track your engagement with our site including pages visited, items searched for, time to obtain response and any errors which occur.

This is done to help us monitor our sites performance and to make necessary changes to improve the functionality of the website. This data is shared with third parties such your internet service provider and others. You can change your cookies settings to prevent us from being able to do this.

3.5 Recordings

As standard Free Legal Helpline conducts call recordings for all our lines. You should be aware that we retain recorded calls for monitoring and training purposes.

4 Why is this information needed at all?

We require this information in order to assist with whatever problems you are facing.

5 Who will be given access to your personal data?

At Free Legal Helpline Solicitors, we greatly value your privacy. It is our standard course of conduct to never disclose or share your private data without your explicit approval and understanding. Typically the third parties with whom we will disclose your information are:

Court or Tribunal, Solicitors, instructing any expert including a barrister, non legal experts like a doctor to provide medical evidence, HM Land Registry, HM Revenue and Customs, translation services, auditors including our regulators the Solicitors Regulation Authority, financial institutions like a bank or building society, insurance companies, identification verification services, credit checks, any disclosure required by law including the prevention of financial crime.

We always reserve the right to disclose your personal details to any party if we believe you are in any danger and if we believe that the disclosure of the information is required.

6 Your rights

The data protection legislation we abide by guarantees the following rights to you:

6.1 Right to be informed 

Every client of Free Legal Helpline has the right to be informed. This notice and the information therein fulfill this obligation.

6.2 Right to access

Every client of Free Legal Helpline has the right to access the personal information held on file in relation to them. This is known as a ‘Subject Access Request’. This means that, unless we are forbidden from doing so by an overriding interest, we will make available to you all personal information held about you within 30 days free of charge.Please note this is not the same as requesting a copy of your file which will involve a cost.

If we are unable to provide you with a subject access request within 30 days, we will contact you to explain why and provide you with an alternative time frame.

To make a Subject Access Request please write to our Data Protection Officer who can be found at 1 Cranbrook Road, IG1

6.3 Right to Rectification

At Free Legal Helpline we pride ourselves on excellence however from time to time an error can occur which your data is recorded inaccurately. If you notice in error in the data we hold for you, such as the way your name is spelled or your date of birth, please contact us to notify us of the same. We will rectify any error immediately.

6.4 Right to be forgotten

Every client of Free Legal Helpline from the25^th of May 2018 on wards can ask for all their personal information to be destroyed. Provided that your request does not conflict with our record keeping obligations, we will erase all your personal data within 30 days.

6.5 Right to Object

At any time you have the right to object to your data being used in anyway unless it conflicts with an over riding obligation.

6.6 Right to Restrict Processing

As a client you are free to request that the use of your data be restricted.

6.7 Right to Data Portability

If at any time you request the transfer of electronic personal data to be passed on to any other party, please write to our Data Protection Officer.

6.8 Rights Related to Automated Decision Making

On our website we employ cookies which are a form of automated decision making. The website will monitor and track your behavior online with no human involvement. This process, while not necessarily being a form of profiling,will usually be used with a form of profiling with the purpose of profiling you based on your use of our website.

You have the right to request we cease using your data for automated decision making but this right does not apply where

- Automation is required for Free Legal Helpline to fulfill your instructions

- If you provide your explicit consent

- The automation is authorised by law

If you wish to make an objection to Free Legal Helpline using automated decision making in relation to your file please contact our Data Protection Officer.

7 How is your data protected?

Free Legal Helpline treats your private data very seriously and we go to great lengths to ensure:

-     Your personal information is treated in strict confidence and we employ sophisticated security methods to ensure the data is held securely

-     We use electronic protection including anti virus, firewalls and other protections

8 How long do we keep it for?

Your data is retained in confidence for a set period of time. This can vary from case to case but generally speaking we are obliged to hold files fora period of 6 years upon the completion of instructions.

In principal we only hold your data for as long as it takes to complete your instructions or for as long as we are required to keep your data by law.

There are cases where your data may be kept longer for example:

- Commercial transactions

- Deeds related to unregistered property

- Lifetime awards or trusts kept indefinitely from a personal injury award

9 Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way your data has been handled by Free Legal Helpline, we operate a complaints procedure for you to follow. You can make your complaint directly to our data protection officer who is:

Sana

Marketing@freelegalhelpline.co.uk

Phone number:

If you remain dissatisfied having raised your complain with us in the first instance, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office(ICO). You can contact the ICO as follows:

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk

10 Marketing Communications

Free Legal Helpline will contact you using the data held to market our services to you by email, phone, post or through our social media channels. We will not SMS messages or use your data without your consent. We will never pass or sell your details to any other party.

10.1 How do we collect your personal data

In order to provide our service, we collect your personal data in many ways. A non-exhaustive list of the ways in which we do this are:

-         You may submit an enquiry either through our website, other online means, by telephone

-         Through our social media activity

-         By completing a survey or questionnaire online

Before conducting any marketing we will ask your permission and will only begin once you have opted in to receiving marketing information

10.2       How We May Use Your Details

The following are examples, although not exhaustive, of how we may use your personal information for our legitimate business interests:

• Fraud prevention;
• Direct marketing;
• System security;
• To monitor and record information relating to the use of our services, to include our website;
• Identifying usage trends;
• Enable business development including sending legal updates, publications and details of events;
• Determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and advertising.

We may use your personal information for legitimate interests such as direct marketing or under reasonable expectation to provide you with information you would expect to receive or that would benefit or enhance our relationship with you. This information helps us review and improve our service.

10.3       Your Rights

You have the right to object to this processing.Should you wish to do so, please contact our Sana Khan

Address: Floor 37, 25 Canada Square, London, E14 5LB
Email: marketing@freelegalhelplin.co.uk
Telephone: 0203 582 0793

10.4       How We Protect Your Information

We will only ever use non sensitive personal information to target individuals with marketing materials. Sensitive information will never be used to target marketing communications. We may use personalisation to collect analytics to inform marketing and produce relevant content for the marketing strategy to enable it to enhance and personalise the customer experience.