Privacy Policy 

Wallace McNally Solicitors recognises the importance of your privacy and we are committed to respecting and protecting your personal data. This privacy notice sets out how we collect, look after and process your personal data and also tell you about your privacy rights and how the Law protects you. 

Wallace McNally is the controller and responsible for your personal data. We have a professional and ethical obligation to keep all information we receive confidential within a solicitor – client relationship subject to your instructions to provide legal services. 

 

 

We will only collect information from you that is relevant to the matter that we are dealing with. Personal information is any information that identifies you such as your name, address, telephone number, family details, financial details, education and employment details, lifestyle and social circumstances. 

We also collect information that is referred to as sensitive data. This includes offences you are charged with are being investigated for, details of any criminal proceedings, physical and mental health details, racial or ethnic origin details etc. 

We will safeguard your personal data and will only disclose it where it is lawful to do so, or with your consent. 

 

 

The purpose of Wallace McNally collecting and processing the personal data you have provided is for us to perform our services in an efficient manner. In particular we need to collect personal and sensitive data to enable us to submit an application for (funding) legal aid to the Legal Aid Agency. If you fail to provide details of the data requested we may not be able to progress your matter and may have to cancel our services in which case we will notify you of this. 

There are a number of legal reasons why we hold and process your information, namely: 

Performance of a contract to provide you with legal services 

Legal Compliance (e.g a legal obligation that we must follow) 

Legitimate interests (e.g marketing our services to you) 

 

 

In providing a complete service to you we on occasions have to share your personal data with third parties as set out below; 

 

The Probation Service 

Counsel 

Medical professionals 

Youth Offending Service 

Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service 

The Legal Aid Agency (for funding) 

 

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat in accordance with the law. We do not allow third parties service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. 

 

 

Our policy is to retain data only as long as it is necessary. It will not be retained for any longer than is necessary for the lawful purposes for which it has been collected and processed. 

 

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being lost, misused or unauthorised access and disclosure of it. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

 

 

You have the following rights under the General Data Protection Regulation; 

 

Request access – This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. 

 

Request Correction – This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data that we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data that you provide us. 

 

Request erasure – This enables you to request us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us to continuing to process it. 

 

Object to processing of your personal data – where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. 

 

Request restriction of processing – you have the right in certain circumstances to restrict processing of have your personal data in the following scenarios; (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have an overriding legitimate grounds to use it. 

 

Withdrawal of consent – you have the right to withdraw any consent that you have given to the processing of your personal data without affecting the lawfulness of the processing based on consent before its withdrawal. If you withdraw your consent we may not be able to provide certain services to you and we will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw consent. 

 

Data breach reporting – we have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. 

 

 

When we ask for information, we will comply with the law. We are not required by law to have a Data Protection Officer. In the event that you feel that your information has been handled incorrectly, then please contact our data compliance manager in the first instance who will be able to discuss matters with you. His details are; 

 

Mohammad Farooq 

Tel: 02476 220300 

Email: farooq@wallacemcnally.co.uk 

Wallace McNally Solicitors 

Suite 2, 6 The Quadrant 

Coventry CV1 2EL 

 

You of course have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at: 

 

Information Commissioner’s Office 

Wycliffe House 

Water Lane 

Wilmslow 

Cheshire 

SK9 5AF 

Tel : 0303 123 1113 

www.ico.org.uk