Amicus Lawyers are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), as well as other laws applicable, such as legal professional privilege. We ensure that all personal information is treated with the strictest confidence, and managed in accordance with our legal obligations arising out of various statute and case law. The Australian Privacy Principles set out the standards, rights and obligations in handling, holding, accessing and correcting personal information. Our privacy policy is technologically neutral. It applies to both electronic or paper-based environments.
In this Privacy Policy:
“Amicus Lawyers” means A.C.N 167 591 077 Pty. Ltd trading as Amicus Lawyers.
“Personal information” means information or an opinion about an identified individual or individual who is reasonably identifiable.
This Privacy Policy sets out how we manage your personal information. It may be subject to change from time to time and updated on our website www.amicuslaw.com.au.
Amicus Lawyers collects the personal information it requires to:
- Comply with the law;
- Provide legal services to clients and the community; and
- Manage its business operations.
We will always tell you the reason why we need to collect personal information, how we plan to utilise the information if this not already obvious during the collection process.
The following are the main types of personal information collected by Amicus Lawyers, and the main purposes for which they are collected:
- To operate our business in providing you legal services.
Amicus Lawyers collects personal information about you as an individual or company such as name, contact details, date of birth, payment and billing information in order to supply you with legal services and to recover our legal fees, as well as other information uniquely relevant to your legal matter such as a chronology or personal history.
- To comply with the law.
Amicus Lawyers is often required during the litigation process to collect personal information such as your name, address, date of birth, city/country of birth, date of marriage, date of separation, date of divorce, financial records such as bank statements and transaction history, and exchange this information with your opponent’s legal representative.
We do not collect personal financial details such as credit card and bank account details unless we are required to by law (which only happens in circumstances where you as a client have a legal obligation to disclose that information under pre-trial discovery (i.e. mutual exchange of evidence with your opponent in litigation).
We also collect personal information to identify potential conflicts of interest, as well as to be able to communicate with clients now or in the future, as the need arises.
How does Amicus Lawyers store information?
Amicus Lawyers stores your personal information in hard copy in your client file, as well as electronically by way of Microsoft Windows or a PDF scan of your file.
How long is it stored for?
Personal information is stored for a period of seven years after the closure of your file. After seven years it is destroyed by electronic deletion (or physical shredding within three months of the closure of your file if you have authorised us to do so in your retainer agreement).
How does Amicus Lawyers collect personal information?
Amicus Lawyers will generally collection information directly from you. We may also collect personal information about you from third party government database search providers (GXS, Anstat, SAI Global etc.) as well as other professional service providers that you authorise to provide us with information, such as your accountant, financial planner etc.
Who does Amicus Lawyers disclose this information to?
Amicus Lawyers discloses personal information in accordance with our lawful obligations under the relevant Statute, Rules and case law pertaining to pre-trial discovery and full and frank disclosure. Therefore, we may disclose your personal information to:
The Courts;
Barristers;
Opposing legal representatives;
Our local, interstate and international agents; and
Our professional indemnity and/or other insurers.
Do we disclose your personal information cross borders?
Amicus Lawyers may disclose information to people/entities outside of Australia, such as the use of overseas lawyers and investigators to assist with your case, as well as off shore data storage servers or administrative support services such as www.odesk.com.
How do you access your personal information?
You are entitled to a copy of your entire file in circumstances where your account with us is up to date. You are also entitled to request we correct any credit or personal information that we hold about you which you believe to be inaccurate. For access to your file or to make a correction request, please write to us at 502b Albert Street East Melbourne, VIC 3002 by registered pre-paid post, and email us a copy of the letter, along with proof of pre-paid post to [email protected]. We are permitted by law to charge a reasonable fee for providing you with access to your file.
How does Amicus Lawyers prevent a data breach?
Amicus Lawyers are very concerned with safeguarding your personal information, and its security is of paramount importance to us. We only collect and store information that is necessary to provide you with legal services or which is necessary for the operation of our business. Unfortunately, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure.
We never enter your sensitive information such as credit card details to any online payment merchants. We do, from time to time, store PDF scanned copies of your bank records electronically on our computer systems and email them to your opponent’s legal representative. We do not use encrypting software during transmission. If you do not want us to do this, you must write to us at 502b Albert Street, East Melbourne by registered pre-paid post and email us a copy of the letter at [email protected].
What does Amicus Lawyers do if it becomes aware of a data breach?
We do not lease computer systems, hard drives or portable storage devices. All our computer equipment is password protected. If we become aware of a data breach, we will make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored “personal data” (as defined in applicable State statutes on security breach notification) to the Privacy Commissioner, and to you via email or conspicuous posting on this Site, in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system. If we consider the breach to be substantial, we will:
- Prepare a written statement to the Commissioner and to the person/s whose information has been breached;
- Order a security audit of both physical and technical security;
- Review our policies and procedures in collecting, handling, storing and disseminating personal information;
- Retrain our staff;
- Review, and if need be, terminate contractual relationships with service delivery partners such as offsite data storage providers; and
- If we are unable to contact you directly; place an advertisement in a newspaper asking you to contact us immediately.
If need be, we will also:
- Create a senior position within our firm who will be charged with the specific responsibility for data security;
- Initiate a ban on bulk transfers of data onto removable media without adequate security encryption; and
- Change alarm pin codes, computer username and passwords every 12 weeks.