At Mackey Wales Law we seek to provide the best possible service to ensure your legal needs are properly addressed. To achieve this, we may need to collect personal information about yourself and the circumstances surrounding your legal matter.
It is important for us to ensure that you are confident that any personal information you provide to us is treated in the appropriate manner and with the appropriate degree of privacy.
Mackey Wales Law offers expertise in a variety of areas of law and the services it provides to you will dictate the types of personal information that may be necessary for us to collect.
Personal information is any information about you that identifies you or by which your identity may be reasonably determined. By collecting this personal information we are able to:
We will always collect your personal information directly from you where possible. Where we are unable to obtain personal information directly from you, we will obtain your consent before information is obtained from another party.
Collection of your personal information may occur in a number of ways including:
Specifically, personal information will be collected during the course of our relationship with you. Personal information may also be collected when you provide us with further instructions to act on your behalf in other matters.
It is possible that we may collect personal information about you from other sources without your direct knowledge. Examples of this may be where funds are transferred from your bank account into our trust account and your bank account details are advised to us.
Where possible, we will require you to specifically consent to any use or disclosure of your personal information. Your consent will usually be required in writing. However, where necessary, we may accept your verbal consent to disclose particular information in the conduct of your legal matter.
Your consent may also be implied from the particular legal matter we are dealing with on your behalf. For example, if we are undertaking conveyancing matters for you, if we are required to negotiate with your financier regarding settlement figures and cash requirements or with respect to matters involving wills, powers of attorney, estates, litigation and commercial transactions.
Regardless of how your personal information is collected and whether or not it is through implied or actual consent, Mackey Wales Law will deal with your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.
Mackey Wales Law may need to disclose your personal information in certain circumstances. For example, your personal information may be required to be disclosed in response to a subpoena or a court direction.
It may also be necessary for us to disclose some of your personal information included on documents filed on your behalf in Governments departments or in Court.
We may also disclose your personal information where you have consented to us doing so in pursuance of your legal matter. Your consent to the disclosure of your personal information may be given expressly, or it may be implied from your conduct and interaction with Mackey Wales Law during the normal progression of your matter.
Mackey Wales Law will, at all times, attempt to ensure that we do not disclose your personal information to a party outside the firm where consent for such disclosure has not been given. In all cases where we may be required to disclose information that is outside the ambit of our retainer, we will attempt to obtain your direct consent for such disclosure.
Some examples of parties outside Mackey Wales Law to whom we may be required to disclose your personal information and the reasons for disclosure, are:
The effective and proper maintenance of your legal matter can only occur when the information that we hold is current and up to date. In this regard it is important that, during the course of your relationship with Mackey Wales Law, you notify us of any changes to your personal information which we hold. This includes your contact details and any matter that may be material to the furtherance of your retainer with us.
Mackey Wales Law prides itself on its secure handling of the personal information of its clients. We will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard personal information that is held by us, either on file or on computer, from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
To ensure that your personal information is secure, Mackey Wales Law employs a number of means, including:
When Mackey Wales Law no longer requires your personal information and the retainer has been completed, your file will be held by us in archives, for a period of seven years and then securely destroyed.
At any time you may give notice to Mackey Wales Law that you wish to access your personal information that we hold.
In order that this information is made available to you some notice is required so that we may have the documentation ready for your inspection. Where the information is held in security, Mackey Wales Law reserves the right to charge a fee to cover the cost of retrieval and supply of the information to you. However, we will endeavour at all times to ensure that the cost of retrieval and supply is reasonable.
We will endeavour to handle all requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible and provide that information to you within seven days of receipt of that request.
However, some requests may take longer to process because of the substantial amount of documents held by the firm in respect of some matters.
You may only access your own personal information. Any personal information held on your file, in respect of any other person, will not be disclosed to you.
Mackey Wales Law retains the right to deny access to personal information where the personal information may relate to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between Mackey Wales Law and you or where access may be regarded as frivolous or vexatious. Mackey Wales Law is also under obligation by law, in some circumstances, to deny access to your personal information.
If we deny you access to your personal information, reasons for that denial will be provided.
Certain information which may be collected by Mackey Wales Law will be regarded as sensitive information. The disclosure of sensitive information can only be made by Mackey Wales Law with your direct consent, where it is required to establish or defend a legal claim or required by law to be disclosed. Some examples of sensitive information include:
Mackey Wales Law prides itself on the maintenance of up-to-date and technologically advanced computer systems. Our computers are continually being updated to maintain their security and are regularly audited and tested by external experts to ensure that any breaches of security, potential or actual, may be identified and rectified.
Mackey Wales Law will correspond with you via email where you consent to that occurring. Email may not be a secure way to communicate your personal information to us and as such, that personal information should be delivered through secure means.
Mackey Wales Law may from time to time use your personal information, such as your address or contact details, to provide you with information about other services that we offer.
If any any time you do not wish to receive any information about these services please feel free to contact us on (07) 4772 6699 and we will not send you any further material.
Mackey Wales Law will not disclose your personal information to any party outside the firm except for the purposes of furthering your legal matter, or where the law requires us to so provide your personal information.
Please be aware that solicitor/client confidentiality still exists notwithstanding any legal requirement to provide information, and that information provided to us by yourself is confidential.
Mackey Wales Law is constantly monitoring regulations, policies and procedures to ensure that we are up to date with changes in the law and market practices. As a result, we may change this privacy policy from time to time.
Should you wish to access your personal information, all you need to do is contact Mackey Wales Law on (07) 4772 6699 and advise us of your request. When you access your personal information, we will require you to sign a document stating that you have accessed your information.
If any any time you believe that Mackey Wales Law has wrongfully disclosed your personal information or has breached this privacy policy, then you may lodge a complaint with us by phoning (07) 4772 6699 or writing to the Principals, Mackey Wales Law at PO Box 6080, Townsville, QLD 4810.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from Mackey Wales Law, you may write to the Federal Privacy Commissioner by phoning 1300 363 992 or writing to the Director of Complains, Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Sydney, NSW 1042.
