Privacy

PRIVACY POLICY

Elringtons Ptd Ltd (26 169 311 326) (referred to us ‘Elringtons’ or ‘us’ or ‘we’) is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act), and Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in Schedule 1 of the Act. The APPs govern how we can handle and manage “personal information”, including “sensitive information”, about our clients, or other persons who have business with the firm and employees.

The Act defines “personal information” as information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether true or not, and whether recorded in material form or not.

Some personal information is also “sensitive information” and is afforded a greater level of protection under the Act. “Sensitive Information” is personal information that relates to certain specified characteristics of an individual, including information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual orientation or practices or criminal record. Sensitive information also includes health, genetic and biometric information about an individual.

Collecting information

We collect information about you that is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our functions or activities, such as your name, contact details, date of birth, Medicare, tax file or pension numbers and details of your personal circumstances. This may include sensitive information such as information about your criminal record or health and medical information. We may collect this information from you directly, or from other third parties where it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect the information from you.

In general, we collect your personal information in order to deliver our legal services and manage your matters with us, including:

  • conducting our business;
  • providing and marketing our services;
  • communicating with you;
  • purchasing goods or services from you;
  • complying with our regulatory and legal obligations, including anti-money laundering compliance, customer due diligence and know your customer requirements; and
  • evaluating, managing and enhancing our services.

How does Elringtons collect Personal Information?

We may collect personal information about you as a pre-cursor to and during the course of providing legal services to you, an organisation you work for, or from another party involved in a legal matter concerning you. We are bound by legal obligations of confidentiality and legal professional privilege, and we will treat and protect any information we receive, including personal information, in accordance with these obligations.

We may collect personal information from you in person, via telephone, through prescribed forms such as our cost disclosure agreements or via email.

If you provide us with personal information about another person, you must provide them with a copy of this Privacy Policy or direct them to it. Additionally, you must obtain their consent to share their personal information with us, or do so in circumstances where they would reasonably expect such information sharing to occur.

When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect information about you, including access details, IP addresses, webpage statistics, and other information that helps us ensure the site functions properly.

Our Website uses both session and persistent cookies. Session cookies are temporary and will not persist once you close your browser. Persistent cookies attach to your browser and device memory.

For more information about managing cookies, see the guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).

How does Elringtons Use and Disclose Personal Information?

We may use and disclose your personal information for managing our firm’s legal practice, which may include:

  • Providing legal services to you, an organisation you work for, or another party in matters involving you.
  • Confirming your identity and details about you.
  • Complying with applicable laws, insurance requirements, legal practice obligations, and court orders.
  • Enforcing agreements involving you.
  • Managing our operations and recruitment processes.
  • Communicating legal or firm news.
  • Improving our services, matter management, and financial performance by way of analytics.
  • Collecting debts owed to us.
  • Responding to your queries including new matter enquiries.

In order to deliver our services and manage your matter(s) with us and to comply with our regulatory requirements, we may need to disclose your personal information to third parties including:

  • other companies or individuals who assist us in providing services or who perform functions on our behalf (such as mailing houses, medical practitioners, specialist consultants, other lawyers and barristers);
  • other service providers to you where you are a mutual client (such as real estate agents, accountants and financial advisors);
  • courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities; and
  • anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it.

We may use or disclose your personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected or for reasonably expected secondary purposes which are related to the primary purpose. We may also use or disclose your information where you have agreed and in other circumstances authorised by the Act, such as where it is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court or tribunal order.

Disclosure to Third Parties

We may disclose information to third parties for the purposes noted above and as permitted, authorised, required, or compelled by law.

Where necessary for our work, regulatory and compliance frameworks, we may disclose such information to others (e.g., courts, other parties in litigation, other lawyers, real estate agents, financial advisors, accountants, valuers, experts, barristers, witnesses, local, state or federal government departments such as the Australian Taxation Office or AUSTRAC).

Transfer of Personal Information Outside Australia

We do not disclose your information overseas unless your instructions involve dealing with parties located overseas. If your matter involves parties living overseas, we may disclose select personal information to overseas recipients associated with that matter in order to carry out your instructions.

We may transfer your personal information to suppliers outside Australia without prior notice to you in order to store your personal information on our systems to assist you with your legal matter.

Accessing and correcting your information held by us

You have the right to access and, where necessary, seek correction of the personal information we hold about you (with some exceptions). We will not charge you for providing access to your personal information, but we reserve the right to charge a reasonable amount for the time and expense incurred in compiling the information in response to your request.

Responding to your request may involve making arrangements for you to visit our offices to access your personal information.

Please use the contact details below to request access to your personal information or to correct it if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, out-of-date, or misleading. To help us respond to and manage your request, we may need to know the nature of your relationship or prior dealings with the firm.

Managing information

In accordance with the APPs, Elringtons takes reasonable steps to protect personal information held from loss, misuse, interference and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes using physical and information security measures and restricted access to electronic records to protect the information we hold. Elringtons staff are required to respect the confidentiality of personal information and the privacy of individuals.

Where we no longer require your personal information for any permitted purpose under the APPs, we will take reasonable steps to destroy it.

Complaints, Contact Details, and Additional Information

To request access to your information or to make a complaint about our privacy practices, please contact us in writing at:

Privacy Officer
Elringtons Lawyers
122 Monaro Street, Queanbeyan NSW 2620
Phone: 02 6206 1300
Email: privacy@elringtons.com.au

Our Privacy Officer will consider your complaint to determine whether there are simple or immediate steps we can take to resolve the issue.

If further investigation is required, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within a week and try to carry out the investigation in a timely manner. We may seek further information from you to assist with our investigation. We will inform you of our findings about your complaint.

We will try to complete our investigation and respond to your complaint in writing within 30 days. We will let you know if we expect your complaint will take longer to resolve.

If you are not satisfied with how we manage your privacy complaint, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as shown on their website, https://www.oaic.gov.au/.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy to reflect legislative changes or changes to our personal information management practices. Any changes take effect by being published on our website, and your continued use of our services, the website, or the provision of further personal information is deemed acceptance of the Privacy Policy.

If you have any queries in relation our Privacy Policy or wish to make a complaint about how Elringtons has handled your personal information, please contact the solicitor handling your matter, or the Practice Manager – ph. 02 6206 1300.