At Knocker & Foskett we take your privacy seriously and this privacy statement explains what personal data or information we collect from you, and from people who visit our website, and how we use it. We would encourage you to read the information below.
Who are we?
Knocker & Foskett is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority No. 54258. Our registered office address is: The Red House, 50 High Street, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 1JL. Knocker & Foskett is a registered data controller (ICO registration number Z664883X).
What personal data or information do we collect?
We may collect personal data about clients, prospective clients, job applicants, our current and former employees, suppliers, and external experts. The personal information we collect may include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages you access on this website and when.
How do we collect data or information from you?
We collect personal information about you when you:
• Instruct us to act on your behalf;
• Make an enquiry via the forms on our website or via the telephone;
• Use our website;
• Enquire about a job opportunity;
• Work for or with the firm; or
• Exchange business cards with a member of the firm
How is your information used?
We collect your personal data or information to operate the firm effectively and provide you with a high-quality service. We may use your information:
• To deliver legal services to you on your instruction;
• To answer enquiries that you make prior to any formal instruction;
• To avoid any conflict of interest as we represent you;
• To keep you informed about our services, our insight into industry trends and best practice, if you have opted-in to receive these communications
• To process a job application;
• To fulfil our obligations as an employer;
• To provide benefits to you as an employee;
• To adhere to regulations set out by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority;
• To adhere to quality standards as set out under the Lexcel Standard;
• To maintain security of our office and IT infrastructure;
• To invoice you, and to track payments you make or payments made to you; and
• To send you information which we believe may be of interest
• Marketing – please see our Legitimate Interest Assessment.
We believe that all these purposes are justified on the basis of our legitimate interests in running and promoting the firm, our contractual requirements to deliver the agreed legal services to you, and our legal obligations, both as a Firm and responsible employer. The exception is for sending email marketing about our services, which we carry out on the basis of consent.
If you would like to know more, please read below:
• Clients
• Prospective Clients
• Job Applicants, Our Current and Former Employees
• External Experts
Clients
As a client, we will hold some of the following information about you:
• Photographic identification;
• Name, date of birth, and contact information;
• National insurance number;
• Information relating to your legal matter;
• Financial details;
• Demographic information such as postcode;
• Information and documents relating to the service we are providing, including communications with you; and
• Billing and payment information.
We also hold any information contained within any documents provided to ourselves in the processing of your matter, as well as any additional information you may provide us with.
We store your information in our practice management system and our accounting system on our secure servers based in the UK. We also hold paper copies of your information in the client matter files, stored in our offices and in a secure, offsite storage archive.
We will retain your client matter file for the duration of our relationship with you, then for a minimum of 1 years after, and a maximum of 17 years, if required for audit purposes. Where there are specific retention periods relating to your matter file, we will make you aware of these at the time we open and close the file. We will retain financial records for 6 years, following the end of the current financial year.
Prospective Clients
As a prospective client, we may hold the following information about you:
• Name, date of birth, and contact information.
• National insurance number
• Brief information relating to your legal matter
• Demographic information such as postcode
• Signposting information we may have provided to you if we are unable to provide you with a service
We store your information in our practice management system on our secure servers based in the UK. Communications with you relating to your initial enquiry may also be stored in our email system for a period of 6 months. We will retain minimal personal information about you to enable us to conduct conflict of interest checks as required by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.
Job Applicants
When you apply for a job with us, we may hold the following information about you:
• Name, date of birth, and contact information.
• Information relating to your qualifications and experience
• Demographic information such as postcode
• References where we take them up
• Information and documents relating to the review, interview and selection process, including communications with you.
We store your information in our practice management system on our secure servers based in the UK. We will also store communications with you relating to the interview process on our email server, based in the UK. We will retain your personal data relating to the review, interview and selection process for a period of 1 year after the interview date.
Current and Former Employees
When you work for us, we may hold the following information about you:
• Name, date of birth, and contact information
• National insurance number and Unique Tax Reference (UTR)
• Information relating to your qualifications and experience
• Demographic information such as postcode
• Information and documents relating to your performance and supervision as an employee of the firm, including communications with you
• Your photograph, including Passport and Driving Licence
• Financial information, such as bank details, pension scheme and salary details
• Information about your next of kin
• Health information
We store your information in our practice management system on our secure servers based in the UK and in hard copy in a secure filing cabinet in the office. We will also store communications with you on our email server, based in the UK. We will retain your personal data for the duration of your employment and for a period of 7 years after you leave the firm. We may store your hard copy file in our offsite storage location. Beyond this point, we only retain minimal information about you to confirm the period of time you were employed by the firm for reference purposes. We share your information with HMRC, and our chosen pension / benefits providers.
External Experts
When you work with us to provide expertise to matters we are working on, we may hold the following information about you:
• Name and contact information.
• Information relating to your qualifications and experience
• Demographic information such as postcode
• Information and documents relating to the service you provide us with, including communications with you.
• Feedback about your performance
We store your information in our practice management system and our accounting system on our secure servers based in the UK. We will also store communications with you on our email server, based in the UK. We will retain your personal data for the time you are available as an expert and for a maximum of 1 year after you are no longer available.
Who has access to your information?
We do not sell or rent your personal data or information to any third party or share your information with third parties for their marketing purposes.
We will disclose your data or information if required by law, for example by a court order or for the prevention of fraud or other crime.
We may pass information about your matter to the prosecution and to other parties within the justice system (e.g. Counsel, Barristers) as required to provide legal services to you.
We may pass your information on to third party service providers, agents or subcontractors for the purposes of completing a task or providing services to you on our behalf (e.g. to provide external expertise in your matter). However, we disclose only the personal information necessary to deliver that service and have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for other purposes.
Third party service providers who act as data processors on our behalf:
• Newmans Business Solutions provide us with IT support services. They do not routinely access the data on our systems but may have to provide maintenance and upgrade services which gives them access to the data.
• Restore Confidential Waste provide us with secure data disposal services.
• Iron Mountain and CDS Archiving provide us with secure storage facilities.
• SOS – Solicitors Own Software. They do not routinely access the data on our systems but may have to provide maintenance and upgrade services which gives them access to the data.
Please ask us if you would like further information about how they handle personal data.
Transfers outside of the European Economic Area
Your personal information in the European Economic Area (EEA) is protected by data protection laws, but other countries do not necessarily protect your personal information in the same way. The EEA covers all countries in the EU plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. We do not transfer your personal data outside of the EEA. All our servers are located in the UK.
Your rights
You have certain rights over the processing of your personal information by Knocker & Foskett. These are:
• The right to be informed, which is what this privacy policy is for
• The right to access the data we hold about you
• The right to object to direct marketing
• The right to object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interests
• The right to erasure (in some circumstances)
• The right to data portability
• The right to have your data rectified if it is inaccurate
• The right to have your data restricted or blocked from processing
If you currently receive marketing information from us which you wish to cancel, please email us at: aa@knocker-foskett.co.uk.
How you can update your information or access your personal information.
You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information. The accuracy of this information is important to us. If you change your contact details, or if you want to update any of the information we hold on you please contact the Data Protection Officer at the address stated above.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint about our processing of your personal data with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office
Keeping your data secure
When you give us personal information we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely and strive to protect it on our internal systems. Our secure server systems encrypt your information.
Contacting us via email
We use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt and protect email traffic in line with government standards. If your email service does not support TLS, you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit.
We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.
Legal basis for processing your personal information
Knocker & Foskett will only process your personal information where we have a legal basis to do so. These legal bases will vary depending on why we have collected your data, and its use. Under the GDPR the legal basis we, as a firm use are.
Contractual – This lawful basis allows us to complete your matter in the way that is expected of us.
Legitimate Interests – This is the lawful basis allowing us to process your information to market to you and to refer you within Knocker & Foskett if there is a relevant department you may wish to use. This has been assessed against the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidelines.
Please ask for a copy of our legitimate interest assessment.
Vital interests – in the case of a medical emergency in the course of your employment, or as a visitor to the firm, we would process medical data.
Consent – You have granted us consent to use your data for the required need.
Legal Obligations – Knocker & Foskett may be required at times to use your personal information to comply with these obligations, for example we would be legally required to disclose any information requested of us from any criminal investigations.
Visitors to our Website
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Unless you have set your browser to block cookies, this site will place cookies on your computer.
| Cookie | Purpose |
| Session cookie (reflect) | This cookie is ‘strictly necessary’ for the site to function. This is a session cookie that is integral to the code that runs the content management system. It only lasts for the duration of a user’s visit to the website. A web browser normally deletes session cookies when it quits. |
| 1P_Jar | Google advertising cookie used for user tracking and ad targeting purposes. |
| APISID, SAPISID, SID, SSID, HSID | Google set a number of cookies on any page that includes a Google Map. While we have no control over the cookies set by Google, they appear to include a mixture of pieces of information to measure the number and behaviour of Google Maps users. |
| NID | Your browser sends this cookie with requests to Google’s sites. The NID cookie contains a unique ID Google uses to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language. |
| SIDCC | Security cookie to protect users data from unauthorised access. |
| OTZ | Google plus cookies which allow sharing of a page on Google plus account. |
| _ga, _gid, | These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the website and blog, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. |
Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. 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.
IP addresses
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information for internal purposes only. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual by name.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.
In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.
More questions?
To contact Knocker & Foskett with a data protection query regarding the processing of your personal data, please use the ‘contact us’ facility on our website.
Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 23/07/2019