Carey Litigation Lawyers Pty Ltd trading as Carey Litigation Lawyers (CLL) is committed to the privacy of our clients and other individuals. CLL is subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (and amending legislation and includes the NPP).  Further, our professional obligations also include confidentiality.

In the course of doing business, we predominantly collect business information. However, the ancillary collection of personal information in some instances is necessary or unavoidable. Also, when we provide legal services that relate to your personal affairs, we will also collect personal information.

When you or another individual provides information to CLL, you will be deemed to have consented to the collection, use or disclosure of the information in accordance with the below Privacy Policy. This Policy does not create contractual rights between CLL and a client or individual.

1. What Information Do We Collect And Hold?

The kinds of personal information that we commonly collect and hold from you or about you include: your name, address, phone, fax and mobile numbers and email address, and the history of and your relationship with others involved in your matter. In the course of providing our legal services, we also commonly collect and hold personal information regarding: your family composition, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs and affiliations, date/s of birth, gender/s, occupation/s, employment and qualification details, financial records, income details, asset listings, taxation records, bank account details, insurance policies, medical history, disability status, criminal record and Court records, etc. We may also collect other personal or sensitive information. The type of information we will collect will depend upon the type of legal services we provide you with, or our interaction with you.

Even if you are not a client of ours, or even if we have only limited contact with you, we may still collect, hold, use and disclose personal information about you. This will commonly occur where we are formally engaged to act against you or in a matter with which you are otherwise involved. In these cases, we may collect personal information from you directly, or about you from our client, other third parties or publicly available sources. We may do this without your consent, and without notifying you of the collection of this information

You do not need to supply us with personal information but if you do not, we may not be able to provide you with legal services, communicate with you or complete our legal obligations to you.

Please note that our website does not have facilities for the secure transmission of emails. If you are concerned about the security of any personal information you submit by email, please contact us using an alternative method (eg. telephone, fax, secure post or encrypted message).

Our website also contains links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used those links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites, and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website/s in question.

2. How Do We Collect Information?

We aim to collect personal information only directly from you, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to do so. For example, we collect personal information from you or about you from correspondence that you submit to us, meetings and interviews with us, telephone calls with us, the instructions you provide to us, submissions you make on our website, and registration and feedback forms you may fill in for our marketing-related activities and events.

In some instances we may receive personal information about you from third parties, such as associated businesses, government agencies, local Councils and referrers (such as other law firms, financial advices, accountants, real estate agents, insurers and business consultants, contra parties, etc). We may also receive personal information about you from your family members, authorised third parties and publicly available sources.

You can be anonymous or use a pseudonym when dealing with us, unless:

• the use of your true identity is a legal requirement; or
• it is impracticable for us to deal with you on such basis.

3. Website Collection of Information

CLL collects personal information about visitors who use our website. Examples of this are:

• If the individual provides information to us through our “Contact Us’ form;
• Information such as IP addresses, browser type, operating systems and domain names, as well as dates and times of access.
• We also use analytical software, eg Google Analytical, Yellow Pages Online, to collect information about the use of our website. This information includes navigation through the website, number of visits, duration of visits and commonly used areas of the website. This information is used to improve our website and our services and is not used to identify visitors personally.
• Our website uses cookies. Cookies are pieces of information sent from websites and stored in the computer hard-drive designed to make using the website easier by storing information about your preferences and browsing habits on that website. Cookies do not identify you personally.
• If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can disable them or receive a warning when cookies are being used by altering the security settings of your website browser. Please note that disabling cookies may impact on your ability to use parts of the website.

4. How Do We Hold Information?

The information collected will be:

• held securely within our office (including locked cabinets and alarm systems);
• at a third-party site;
• on our computer network (using methods such as password protection, anti-virus and firewall software);
• on the computer systems of third-parties who provide administrative, marketing or other services (for example ediscovery or cloud storage service providers).

CLL takes steps to ensure the protection of all information we collect and takes steps to ensure that there is no:

• unauthorised access;
• breaching;
• loss;
• misuse; or
• alteration of personal information

It is a condition of our staff’s employment that they will keep your personal information secure and respect your confidentiality.

We are required to retain personal information for some years by law. Physical files may be kept at a secure off-site location that is not under our direct operation and is managed by a third-party file storage provider. After the legal time has elapsed we follow procedures to ensure that all personal information is destroyed. We follow procedures in relation to the transfer and collection of files from this location. You may contact us to access the third party storage facility privacy policy.

5. The purpose for which we collect, hold, use or disclose information?

At CLL we use personal information for a number of reasons as determined by our relationship with you.

In all cases we may collect, hold, use or disclose personal information for the following purposes:

• Providing legal services;
• Conducting our business including our legal requirements;
• Provision you with information services relevant to your business;
• Communication with you or your entitles;
• To purchase goods or services;
• To market our service to you by way of email.

If you are a client you consent for us to collect, use, disclose and store your personal information so that we:

• can conduct our business; and
• provide legal services to you.

Examples of this may include providing information to barristers, consultants, medical practitioners, allied health professionals, valuers, third party experts.

6. How may you access the personal information held by CLL and seek correction of the information if need be?

You may request access to the personal information which we hold or seek correction to that information by contacting us by phone on 07 3544 6920 or by email at enquiries@careylitigation.law or by post to PO Box 12552, George Street QLD 4003.

Depending on the nature of your request, we will:

• Respond to your request for access to your personal information within a reasonable period after the request is made;
• Provide you with access to such information so long as an exception to access under the Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) is not applicable;
• Give access to the information in the manner in which you request if it is reasonable and practicable to do so;
• Consider your request for the correction of your personal information and, if appropriate, take reasonable steps to correct the personal information to ensure that it is accurate, up to date, complete, relevant and not misleading;
• Provide you with a written notice if we refuse to correct your personal information setting out the reason for the refusal (except where it would be unreasonable to do so) and the mechanisms available to complain regarding the refusal.

There may be a fee associated with providing you with access to such information. Where this is the case, you will be advised of the estimated cost in advance.

7. Is your personal information likely to be disclosed to an overseas recipient?

Some of our administrative, marketing and IT computer systems and platforms are hosted by service providers located overseas. We may also engage Australian service providers to assist with our IT systems or undertake administrative tasks not directly related to your legal matters. They may have personnel located overseas. In any such engagement these providers and their staff may have access to some of your personal information.  However, we take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from improper use or disclosure.

Throughout the course of a matter we may also need to disclose your information to an overseas recipient. We will do this if:

• You authorise us to do so;
• We are required by law or a court/tribunal order;
• We send the information to a third party expert we have engaged to assist us in providing legal advice (eg a barrister or consultant) provided that we reasonably believe that country has similar privacy protections as in Australia.

Generally speaking we will disclose the information to New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA.

8. What can you do if you wish to make a complaint?

If you wish to make a complaint about the collection, holding, use or disclosure of your personal information by our firm, you can do so by contacting us by phone on 07 3544 6920 or by email on enquiries@careylitigation.law or by post to PO Box 12552, George Street QLD 4003. We will respond to your complaint within a reasonable timeframe.

In circumstances where you are dissatisfied with our response, you may submit a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

9. Changes to this Policy

At any time we may change this policy without notice to you. You accept these changes by continuing to use our website and our services.