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PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy sets out how Bowling & Co, Solicitors uses and protects any information that you give to the firm when you use this website and/or our professional legal services  or visit our offices.

Bowling & Co, Solicitors is committed to ensuring that your privacy and personal data is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website and/or our professional legal services, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Although not a mandatory requirement for our business, we have voluntarily appointed our Practice Director, David Downham, as our Data Protection Officer.

Bowling & Co, Solicitors may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy was last reviewed and updated in February 2024.


WHAT WE COLLECT

We may collect the following information:

  • full name and address
  • contact information including email address
  • other information relevant to client surveys
  • images and/or video footage of you (and anyone with you), when you visit our offices via our CCTV system

We may collect this personal information from you when you:

  • submit an enquiry
  • sign up to an event or bulletin
  • sign up to our newsletters
  • visit our offices

The information collected via our website is only collected once consent has been provided, and on the legitimate purpose of providing you with information about our services and regular news alerts. We collect anonymous information (including IP addresses) from visitors to our website using analytics tools, cookies and web logs. To find out more about these, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org . This information is only used to improve the service you experience whilst navigating on our site.

Images and/or video footage of you (and anyone with you) when you visit our offices may be captured on our CCTV system for the purpose of public safety, crime prevention and detection and prosecution of offenders.


PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT IF YOU INSTRUCT THE FIRM

If you instruct the firm on a professional legal matter we will collect personal data including, but not limited to:

  • your full name and address
  • information to enable us to check your identity (e.g. date of birth, passport, proof of address)
  • electronic contact details, e.g. email address and mobile phone number
  • information to enable us to carry out a credit check on you
  • your financial details relevant to your legal matter to enable a check on the source of your funds if purchasing a property


HOW AND WHY WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Under data protection law (GDPR – Article 6 and see reference further below), we can only use and process your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so which includes, but is not limited to the following lawful bases for processing your personal data:

  • complying with our legal and regulatory obligations
  • for the purposes of preventing money laundering or terrorist financing
  • for the performance of our contract with you (i.e. provide legal services to you)
  • for our legitimate interests or those of a third party (e.g. external auditors and assessors in relation to our ISO 9001 and Lexcel accreditations)
  • where you have given clear consent


WHO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH

We routinely share your data with:

  • professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts
  • other third parties necessary or carry out your instructions, e.g. your mortgage provider, H.M. land Registry or Companies House
  • credit reference agencies
  • our insurers and brokers
  • our regulator, the SRA – Solicitors Regulation Authority
  • external auditors and assessors, e.g. in relation to our ISO 9001 and Lexcel accreditations and the audit of our accounts
  • our banks
  • external service providers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. typing services, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis supplier
  • external service providers who process outsourced legal activities and operational functions (as defined within the SRA Code of Conduct)
  • we only allow such service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied that they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data


WHERE YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS HELD

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies as above. Some of those parties are based outside of the European Economic Area, being the USA (see section below under “What We Do With The Information We Gather”). Where your data is held in the USA, we are satisfied that is protected under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.


HOW LONG YOUR PERSONAL DATA WILL BE KEPT

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:

  • to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf
  • to show that we treated you fairly
  • to keep records required by law. We will not retain your data for longer than is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data (if we are acting for you). For example, property purchase files are usually retained for 15 years, whereas property sales files for a lesser period of 7 years. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it
  • Images and/or video footage captured on our CCTV system when you visit our offices (or others visiting with you), will only be retained for 30 days


WHAT WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER

The information collected may be used to provide you with additional information about our services, promotions and events. However, you will need to confirm a subscription in the first place. Subscribers can change or delete their subscriptions at any time.

We use MailChimp as our e-mail marketing tool; you can find out more about MailChimp’s privacy statement here.

We use Sharefile which is a secure platform providing data vaults for certain client related matters – they are part of the Cloud Software group; you can find out more about Sharefile’s privacy statement here. With respect to transfers of personal information from the EU, United Kingdom and Switzerland to the U.S., Cloud Software Group complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

We use Smartsurvey as our Client Satisfaction Survey tool; you can find out more about Smartsurvey’s privacy statement here.


LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITE

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these 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 in question.


CONTROLLING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at privacy@bowlinglaw.co.uk or amending this on or unsubscribing via the link on the latest e-mail you have received from us.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Legislation contained in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For more information on this please visit the Information Commissioners’ website at: www.ico.org.uk

If you would like a copy of the information held on you please contact privacy@bowlinglaw.co.uk or write to the Data Protection Officer, Business Bowling & Co, Solicitors

If you believe that any information we hold on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

You have the right to request erasure, restriction or to object to processing of any personal data have or you may provide. You also have the right to request access to any images or video footage we may have captured on any visit to our offices. Please note that such images/video are only retained for 30 days.

Right to complain

If you, as a Data Subject, are unhappy about the data we hold on you or have any concerns about our responses to any Data Subject Access request you may have lodged, you have a right to complaint to the Information  Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – following their complaints procedure at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Please read the following notice carefully. Your use of our website will be regarded as acceptance of these conditions.


DISCLAIMER

The content of this website is for general information purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice. Bowling & Co, Solicitors accepts no liability for loss of any kind as a result of any inaccuracies or of your reliance on the information contained on the site. We make no representations or undertakings about the quality, accuracy or completeness of any of the information on this website. Any legal or health and safety related information is not a substitute for specific advice relevant to your particular circumstances.

Bowling & Co, Solicitors is not responsible for the content of any external internet sites accessed by hypertext link from this website. These links are provided for information only and we accept no liability for any loss or damage that may result from accessing or using them.

We cannot guarantee that our website and any matter downloaded from this site will be free from viruses or other harmful programs or computer code. We accept no liability for any loss that may be suffered by any person arising from any such harmful programs or computer code.

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