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PRIVACY POLICY

How your data is used and stored in line with GDPR.

John Black Solicitors Ltd is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information (collectively referred to as “JBS”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

This Privacy Notice (“Notice” ) describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). This includes whether you become a JBS client or contact us through one of our different electronic platforms. It details what to expect when you interact with JBS online and how and what happens if we collect personal information through these interactions.

It is important that you read this Notice and any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you so that you know how and why we are using such information. Please note that this Notice does not form part of any contract to provide services you may have with us occasionally.

We reserve the right to amend this Notice at any time without notice to you, so if required, please check to ensure that you are referring to the latest copy of this notice. We may also notify you in other ways about processing your personal data.

This Notice was last updated on 23 June 2024.

Data Controller

John Black Solicitors Ltd of Arlington House, Bloom Street, Salford, M3 6AJ, is a “data controller” for the purposes of the GDPR. This means we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use your personal information.

If you have any questions about this Notice or how we handle your personal information, please get in touch with Sam Black, who is the Data Protection Officer, at the above address, or alternatively, by email at info@jbs-law.co.uk

You have the right to complain to the ICO (www.ico.org.uk) at any time. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

How we will use information about you

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

    1. We need to perform the contract we entered into with you.

    2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

    3. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights, do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

    1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).

    2. Where it is needed for official purposes.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data. We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent in compliance with the above rules where this is required or permitted by law. If it becomes necessary to obtain your consent, we will provide full details of the information we would like and why we need it so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of any contract with us that you agree to any request for consent from us, and you will be able to withdraw your consent at any time.

Visitors to our website

Any data you submit using a form on our websites or apps (i.e., your name and email address) will only be held by us for the purpose it is needed and for the shortest time required.

For example, your contact form will be deleted if you make an enquiry that we cannot assist you. If your enquiry results in you becoming a client of the firm, then your data will be stored as part of your client record and kept in accordance with the requirements relating to client records (in respect of which you will be advised separately on entering a retainer).

We do not currently have a mailing list for you to subscribe to. In any event, your data will not be disclosed to any third parties without your consent or as otherwise allowed by the relevant data protection legislation and will only be used to respond to your query (or for purposes associated with that purpose).

People who make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint from a person, we create a file containing the details of the person complaining and other relevant details (including details of other people) relevant to the complaint. We only use this information to investigate and respond to the complaint. We compile and review statistics showing information about the number of complaints we receive. Still, aside from reports provided to our regulators, the Legal Aid Agency or other auditors engaged in quality control of our business, none of these reports are published externally and, if they were, would not include information that would enable any individual to be identified.

Per our retention policy for client files, we will keep personal information in complaint files. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained within our case management system for at least six years from closure.

Job Applicants, Current and Former Employees

If you apply for a job with JBS, the information you provide will only be used to process your application. We will use the contact details you provide to contact you to progress your application, and we will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

Application stage

We will ask you for your personal details, including your name and contact details. We will also ask you about your previous experience, education, and referees and may ask you for answers to questions relevant to the role you have applied for. Our recruitment team will have access to all of this information.

You will also be asked to provide equal opportunities information. This is not mandatory information and if you don”t provide it, it will not affect your application. 

This information will not be made available to any staff outside of our recruitment team in a way which can identify you. Any information you provide will be used only to produce and monitor equal opportunities statistics.

Offer of employment

If we make an offer of employment, we may ask you for information so we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks before you can commence work with us. We ask for this information as we are required to confirm the identity of our staff and their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity, and reliability.

You will, therefore, be required to provide:

    1. Proof of your identity ” You will be asked to attend our office with original documents; we will take copies.

    2. Proof of your qualifications ” You will be asked to attend our office with original documents; we will take copies.

    3. We may contact your referees directly using the details you provide in your application to obtain references.

    4. We may also ask you to complete a questionnaire about your health to determine your fitness for work.

Assuming that you can commence employment with us, we will also ask you for the following:

    1. Bank details and other information to process salary payments and enrol you for your pension entitlements

    2. Emergency contact details ” so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work

Your HR file

If JBS employs you or are a consultant providing services through JBS, your personnel records will be stored in our case management system. Only senior management and HR staff have access to the HR files, which are also password protected.

Pension

The firm has a pension plan that we must contribute to as part of the statutory requirement to auto-enrol our employees to receive their pension entitlement. We will share such data with the pension provider from time to time as required to facilitate the processing of pension payments and reports.

How long is the information retained for?

If you are successful, we will retain the information you provide during the application process as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus six years following the end of your employment.

If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided will be deleted from our systems within 12 months.

Internships

We also offer opportunities for people to work with us on a secondment basis. We accept applications from individuals or from other organisations that think their staff could benefit from working with us. We might ask you to provide more information about your skills and experience or invite you to an interview.

If we do not have any suitable work at the time, we’ll let you know, but we might ask you if you would like us to retain your application so that we can proactively contact you about possible opportunities in the future. If you say yes, we will keep your application for 12 months.

If you are invited to work with us, you will be expected to adhere to a confidentiality agreement and code of conduct, which will be explained to you on induction.

After your internship has ended, we might ask you if you would like us to retain your information so that we can proactively contact you about possible opportunities in the future, either at JBS or at other firms that we know may be recruiting for positions that you might be interested in. If you say yes, we will keep your information for 12 months.

Disclosure of personal information

We will only disclose personal data to third parties where permitted by law and in the normal course of our business. For example, when acting for you in defending a criminal allegation against you, we might share your personal information with the Crown Prosecution Service if it is in your best interests to advance your defence. If you are an employee, we might share your personal information with HMRC to ensure that your payroll records are correct.

There are times when it will not be realistic to get your express permission in connection with every disclosure of this nature. If you have any concerns that any of your data has been incorrectly shared, then this should be raised with us through our standard procedures (e.g., the Complaints Procedure for clients and the Grievance Procedure for employees).

Transfers of data outside the EEA

We may also be required to transfer your personal data outside the EU. The GDPR restricts data transfers to countries outside the EEA to ensure that the level of data protection afforded to individuals by the GDPR is not undermined. We transfer personal data originating in one country across borders when we transmit, send, view or access that data in or to a different country.

We may transfer Personal Data outside the EEA if one of the following conditions applies:

    1. The European Commission has issued a decision confirming that the country to which we transfer the personal data ensures an adequate level of protection for the data subjects’ rights and freedoms;

    2. appropriate safeguards are in place, such as binding corporate rules (BCR), standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, an approved code of conduct or a certification mechanism;

    3. you have provided explicit consent to the proposed transfer after being informed of any potential risks or

    4. the transfer is necessary for one of the other reasons set out in the GDPR, including the performance of your contract with us, reasons of public interest, to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or to protect your vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent and, in some limited cases, for our legitimate interest.

If you have questions about transferring data outside the EEA, please get in touch with us for further information.

Your rights

You have a right to access the personal data we hold about you. You may ask us to rectify or erase the personal data we hold about you or restrict our processing. You can also object to how we process your personal data or request that we transfer it to a third party.

For a full list of your rights and how these can be exercised, please visit www.ico.org.uk/your-data-matters for further details. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your access request is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request the erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please get in touch with us in writing at Data Protection Officer, Arlington House, Bloom Street, Salford, M3 6AJ, or alternatively, by email at info@jbs-law.co.uk 

Our Website

Third-party links

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking or enabling those links may allow third parties to collect or share your data. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies, as almost all websites do, to help provide you with the best experience we can. When someone visits www.johnblacksolicitors.co.uk, we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to determine the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information does not make and does not allow Google to make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting the website. We will only collect personal data clearly and clearly through our website, for example, through contact forms or payment pages.

We publish the website through a third-party platform, Squarespace.com. These sites are hosted at Squarespace.com. The platform has a built-in service that collects anonymous information about users’ activity on the site, such as the number of users viewing pages, to monitor and report on the site’s effectiveness.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or malfunction.