This is the Privacy Policy of lawlab Pty Ltd ABN 63 109 721 833 (“we”, “us” and when relating to us, “our”).

We are committed to protecting the privacy of our contacts, customers, suppliers and employees (“you” and when relating to you, “your”) and complying with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

In this policy we describe how we manage your personal information.

 

1.         The kinds of personal information we collect

1.1       The kinds of personal information that we collect include:

(a)          Identity information: name, date of birth, gender, signature, photographic identification and unique identifier (such as passport number), offices or directorships held;

(b)          Contact information: residential and postal addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers;

(c)           Professional and business information: occupation, employer, job title, professional qualifications, business holdings and structures. If you are an employee or prospective employee, information about your      qualifications, skills and work experience;

(d)          Financial information: bank account details, billing information, payment card details, tax file numbers;

(e)          Matter-related information: information relevant to your legal matter or the legal matter of our client;

(f)            Transaction information: details of services provided to you or your organisation;

(g)          Communication records: records of correspondence and communications with you;

(h)          Website and technical data: IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, cookies (see section 10);

(i)            Recruitment information: employment history, qualifications, references, right to work status, background check results;

(j)            information regarding our communications with you and your attendance at seminars and promotional events held by us;

(k)           if you are a supplier or prospective supplier, information about your business skills, services, products and prices;

1.2         Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (the AML/CTF Act)

We may be required to verify your identity and collect certain information under the AML/CTF Act when we provide designated services.  This includes collecting identification documents and information about the source of funds and beneficial ownership of entities, and some sensitive information such as political, professional or trade associations to assist with determination whether you are a politically exposed person.

2.         How we collect personal information

2.1          We collect information directly from our clients, from other lawyers, government     sources or public sources such as registers or the internet.

2.2        Direct Collection

Where reasonable and practicable, we collect personal information directly from you. This may occur when you:

  • engage us to provide legal services;
  • respond to communication with us or engage a solicitor or agent to do so;
  • contact us by telephone, email, post or in person;
  • complete forms or provide documents to us;
  • visit our website or use our online services; or
  • apply for employment with us.

2.3       Indirect Collection

We may also collect personal information about you from third parties, including:

  • our client(s), where we collect information in the course of providing legal services;
  • other parties to legal proceedings or transactions and their lawyers;
  • courts, tribunals, law enforcement and government agencies;
  • publicly available sources, including public registers, websites and social media;
  • referrers who introduce you to us or lead agencies and advertising sites;
  • recruitment agencies and previous employers (for job applicants); and
  • identity verification, commercial data brokers and background check service providers.

2.4       Anonymity and Pseudonymity

If you are a client, you have the option of requesting to deal with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym. However, in most cases this is not lawful nor practical for legal services. If you do not provide us with the personal information we request, we may not be able to provide you with legal services or respond to your enquiry.

3.         The purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

3.1       We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose of providing legal services to our clients, complying with regulatory and insurance obligations and operating our legal practice.

Secondary purposes include financial management, system improvement, enforcement of our right to payment and managing the relationship between our firm and former clients once the retainer has concluded.

3.2       Primary Purposes

This includes:

  • providing legal advice and representation to you or to our client(s);
  • managing client matters and files;
  • conducting legal research and investigations;
  • preparing and reviewing legal documents;
  • communicating with you and other parties;
  • billing and collecting fees, including pursuit of our rights under a Costs Agreement or retainer;
  • complying with our legal, professional and insurance obligations; and
  • administering and managing our firm.

3.3       Secondary Purposes

We may also use and disclose personal information for secondary purposes that are related to our primary purposes, including:

  • maintaining and developing our relationship with you;
  • quality assurance and improvement of our services, including training our AI models or those of our AI providers (subject to our obligations of confidentiality to you);
  • training and professional development;
  • ongoing Customer Due Diligence as required by the AML/CTF Act;
  • training AI or automated systems including AI development by our vendors with appropriate confidentiality safeguards in place;
  • enforcement of our right to payment of fees;
  • internal reporting and analysis; and
  • risk management and insurance purposes.

4.         The parties to whom your personal information is disclosed

4.1      Your personal information and confidential data is held by us subject to our duty of confidentiality under the Australian Solicitor’s Conduct Rules (ASCR) and any applicable undertakings or court rules. We may disclose personal information to third parties subject to those obligations and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including:

  • to discharge our professional obligations to you or to our clients or in the reasonable execution of our instructions;
  • to comply with our legal obligations or in answer to a compulsory notice such as a subpoena or warrant, or to disclose information under the AML/CTF Act, Criminal Code(s), legislation governing the practice of solicitors, or other relevant legislation;
  • to barristers, mediators, expert witnesses, investigators and consultants and other legal practitioners engaged to act for you (and/or our client) or in relation to the matter;
  • other parties to legal proceedings or transactions as instructed, reasonably necessary or required by law;
  • courts, tribunals, government agencies and regulators;
  • our professional indemnity insurers;
  • a Costs Assessor if an assessment is ordered or reasonably necessary;
  • service providers who assist us to operate our business (including IT providers, third-parties assisting with AML/CTF obligations including identity verification and storage, AI providers, document management providers, and marketing service providers);
  • related entities including within our AML/CTF reporting group;
  • as permitted under the ASCR confidentiality exceptions; and
  • any person you expressly or impliedly authorise us to disclose information to.

5.         Disclosure of information outside the jurisdiction of collection

5.1          Some of the third parties described above including our service providers and related bodies corporate may be in New Zealand and Philippines and any country in which       you reside or to which your official and identification documentation applies.

  • The following circumstances are common examples when that may apply:
  • where your matter involves overseas parties or overseas proceedings;
  • to overseas law firms or legal practitioners engaged in a matter;
  • to our staff, staff of a related entity or contractors if working or travelling overseas;
  • to parties such as regulators and auditors who may use overseas processors or offices;
  • to service providers whose systems or servers are located overseas (including cloud storage, AI and IT service providers if we consider that the confidentiality arrangements that will apply to such information is sufficient); and
  • where you instruct or authorise us to do so.

6.         Opting out of marketing communications

We may, from time to time, send you newsletters, invitations and legal updates about       our services. You can opt out of receiving further such communications by notifying       us using our contact details below by clicking the “unsubscribe” option at the bottom    of any marketing e-mail received from us.

7.         Security

We take reasonable physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect your       personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access,       modification and disclosure.

We hold your personal information using a system designed to protect against data breaches, however like all data security systems, risks may only be mitigated but not eliminated. It is our practice to require our storage service providers to be reputable and to seek assurances from them regarding security and confidentiality.

8.         Retention and Destruction

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, to comply with our legal and professional obligations and to ensure that pertinent evidence remains available if reasonably required.

9.         Third party websites

Our website may contain links to third party websites, such as payment processors. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites, and we encourage you to read to read the privacy statements of each and every website.

10.        Cookies

We may from time to time use cookies on our website. Cookies are very small files which a website uses to identify you when you come back to the site and to store details about your use of the site. Cookies are not malicious programs that access or damage your computer. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can choose to reject cookies by changing your browser settings. However, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website. Our website may from time to time use cookies to analyses website traffic and help us provide a better website visitor experience. In addition, cookies may be used to serve relevant ads to website visitors through third party services such as Google Adwords. These ads may appear on this website or other websites you visit.

11.        Access/correction/updating personal information

11.1     You can contact us to access, correct or update your personal information. Unless           we are subject to confidentiality obligation or some other restriction on giving access        to the information and we are permitted to refuse you access under the Privacy Act,   we will endeavour to make your information available to you within 30 days.

Examples of circumstances where we may refuse to give you access to your personal information include where:

(a)   giving access would be unlawful;

(b)  we reasonably believe that giving you access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual or to public health or public safety;

(c)   giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;

(d)  the information could reveal the intentions of a party in negotiations;

(e)  giving access could prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to unlawful activity;

(f)    giving access could reveal evaluative information in a commercially sensitive decision making process.

11.2     If you request to correct your personal information, we will correct, or, if we consider         more appropriate, note your request for amendment of the information on your   record.

11.3     We will not charge you to make a request to access your record but we may charge         you to actually provide access depending on the costs associated with obtaining and      providing the material.

11.4       These actions can usually be taken by contacting a customer relations representative   using the contact information on the “Contact Us” section below.

If you are not a client or former client, our confidentiality obligations to them and           other relevant exemptions under the Privacy Act may preclude us giving you the  information requested. Request for search or recovery costs in advance does not mean  that information will necessarily be released. We will inform you of any applicable fees before processing your request.

12.        Notification of Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The current version will be available on our website at www.lawlab.com.au

13.       Complaints / Contact us

If a breach of this Privacy Policy occurs, a complaint may be made to us by sending it to:

conveyancing@lawlab.com.au

 

103 Pangee Street

Nyngan NSW 2825

Attention: Privacy Officer

 

or by calling 1800 529 522

 

We will endeavour to respond to any complaint within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you may seek a review by contacting the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner using the information available at http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints.

 

You may also contact the relevant legal services regulator in your State or Territory.