Introduction
Welcome to Pioneer Law Limited's privacy notice.
Pioneer Law is a specialist employment law firm in the UK offering legal services to charitable organisations, small and medium-sized businesses and private individuals.
As an essential part of our business, we collect and manage client and non-client data. In doing so we observe the UK data protection legislation, and are committed to protecting and respecting client’s and non-clients’ privacy and rights.
Purpose of this privacy notice
This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Pioneer Law collects and processes your personal data through your use of our website including any data you may provide through our website when you use the Contact Form, or when we take your details (collect your personal data) off line in order to provide services to you.
It is important you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Controller
Pioneer Law is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Pioneer Law”, "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy notice).
We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.
Contact details
Our full details are:
Data privacy manager: Miss Rathika Chinnadurai
Email address: privacy@pioneerlawltd.co.uk
Postal address: Pioneer Law Ltd. 4 Victoria Street, Wellington, Somerset TA21 8HR
Regulated Body: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA No. 612016)
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes
This version was last updated on 11 December 2018.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Third-party links
Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. 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.
1. The data we collect about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
The personal information that we may collect, store and transfer includes:
basic information, such as your name (including name prefix or title), the company you work for, your title or position and your relationship to a person.
contact information, such as your postal address, email address and phone number(s).
identification and background information provided by you or collected as part of our client checking processes. This may include date of birth, nationality and previous addresses.
where you are our client, we will collect information about your circumstances that have led to you wishing to use our services. This may include special category data where this is relevant to the matter we are working on for you. We also keep records of your contact with us.
if you are involved in one of our client’s matters, we will collect information about you that is relevant to the matter. This may include special category data.
financial information, such as payment-related information and information relevant to funding.
technical information collected when you visit our website or digital or in relation to materials and communications we send to you electronically, which includes information about the type of device you are using, your IP address and geographic location, your operating system and version, browser type, the content you view and the search terms you enter.
information you provide to us for the purposes of attending meetings, including access and dietary requirements.
If we collect or receive your personal information in the context of our provision of legal services we might receive information from third parties such as your employer, other parties involved in the services we are providing (e.g. other parties in litigation or transactions) or others such as regulators and authorities. The information we collect will be relevant to the legal services that we are providing to our client and may include special categories of data where lawful for us to process it.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
2. How is your personal data collected?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
Direct interactions. You may give us your data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you
seek to use our services;
request information to be sent to you through our website; or
give us some feedback.
Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources:
Identity and Contact Data from other law firms, accountants and other work providers when referring matters; or
Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Companies House
3. How we use your personal data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to, specifically as set out in the table below.
This table also explains the legal basis for processing your data, linked to each processing purpose; and in what circumstances your data will be shared with a third party organisation.
| Purpose for Processing Data | Legal Basis for Processing Data | Third Party Organisations with whom data is shared (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| To manage and administer our relationship and provide legal advice to our clients | Performance of the contract
Legitimate interests |
LawWare Limited – all personal data is stored on the cloud based server
Representatives of Louise Walker t/a Prioryfield House – in so far as telephone messages are taken and relayed to Pioneer Law as part of serviced offices |
| To assist our clients with obtaining legal expenses insurance to help them pursue their matters and for sourcing and obtaining financial products | Legitimate interests
Consent Establishment, exercise of defence of a legal claim |
ALS Albion Limited - employment disputes insurance for employers Other insurers – nominated by individual clients |
| To manage and administer our relationships with suppliers of good and services to us | Performance of the contract Legal Obligation Legitimate interests |
none |
| To manage and collect monies from clients, and manage and make payments to suppliers | Performance of the contract Legal Obligation Legitimate interests |
Government VAT and tax inspectors |
| To process and respond to complaints | Legal Obligation | none |
| To monitor and record information relating to the use of our services, to include our website | Legitimate interests | Website provider and cookie provider – to improve services and website experiences for individuals |
| To undertake activities designed to promote and market our services including sending out newsletters, legal updates, holding events and seminars, and keeping records of your interests in these activities | Legitimate interests Consent (where legally required) |
none |
| To otherwise carry out the day-to-day operations of our business efficiently including managing our financial positions, business capability, planning, communications, corporate governance and audit | Legal Obligation Legitimate interests |
CJ Smith Accountancy Limited – company accounts |
Third-party marketing
We not share your personal data with any company outside Pioneer Law for marketing purposes.
Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. The table below explains the cookies we use and why.
| Cookie Name | Purpose |
| ss_lastid | To remember a user’s consent to cookies. Where users have previously given consent, that user’s preference will be stored in this cookie. |
| ss_cookieAllowed | For Squarespace analytics to track your browser location and shows that you have given permission for the use of cookies. |
| crumb ss_cid ss_cpvisit ss_cvisit ss_cvr ss_cvt | To track which page(s) you have visited. |
| PHPSESSID | To store a simple message when a form is submitted that can be displayed on a different page. For example, if an enquiry form is completed incorrectly, a message will be stored and presented to the user to indicate the errors in the submission. When an enquiry form is submitted successfully, a message is stored and presented to the user thanking them for their enquiry. No personal information is stored in this cookie. |
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that 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.
4. Disclosures of your personal data
As set out in paragraph 3 above, we may have to share your personal data with certain third parties for specific purposes.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party 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.
5. International transfers
We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
6. Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. 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 personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
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.
7. Data retention
How long will you use my personal data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are set out in our Data Protection Policy.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
8. Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.
You have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
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. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of 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 it 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 overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.