Privacy Policy

Cathy Stevenson Legal Services Pty Ltd t/as

Cathy Stevenson & Associates

ABN 26 612 97 154

Foreword

Cathy Stevenson & Associates (“CSA”) values and respects the privacy of our clients and people we deal with when handling your matter. CSA are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and other applicable privacy laws and regulations. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information, and how we maintain the quality and security of your personal information.

Cathy Stevenson

Principal Solicitor and Director

Definitions

“CSA” means Cathy Stevenson & Associates (we, us or our), being Cathy Stevenson Legal Services Pty Ltd t/as Cathy Stevenson & Associates (ABN 26 612 97 154). Including any and all employees of the law firm.

“Client” means you, the individual that has either enquired with us or instructed us to act on behalf of you in a legal proceeding.

“Personal information” refers to any data, whether submitted physically or electronically, that is supplied by you, your authorized representative, or a third party during the course of your matter. Broadly speaking, this encompasses information or opinions that can identify you personally, either directly—such as your name—or indirectly.

“Policy” refers to the entirety of this document titled ‘CSA Privacy Policy”, whether in physical or digital form.

 

 

What kinds of personal information do we collect and hold?

Personal Information

The personal information we collect about you depends on the nature of your dealings with us or what you choose to share with us.

The personal information we collect about you may include:

• your contact details, such as address (home or postal), telephone numbers and email address;
• your personal details, such as date and place of birth, gender, qualifications, titles, whether or not you are Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander, the languages you speak;
• records of your communications and other interactions with us;
• documents disclosed to us in the course of your matter, whether in hard copy or digital format; and
• payment information.

Under certain circumstances, CSA may need to collect sensitive information about you. This might include any information regarding your finances, real property, criminal record, or health information. In accordance with Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015, Rule 93 requires us to collect your full name and address to comply with the trust account record keeping requirements in Rule 47, thus complying with our duty to the courts.

We will only collect your sensitive information with your explicit consent, unless it is essential to address a serious and immediate threat to life or health, or if collection is required or authorized by law in relation to your specific matter. In all cases, we implement robust safeguards to ensure the security and confidentiality of this information.

Collection of Personal Information

We collect your personal information directly from you when you:

• interact with us over the phone or electronic communications;
• interact with us in person;
• interact with us online (via website, social media page(s) or electronic communications); and
• attend our office.

By collecting your personal information, under Rule 9.1 of Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015, law firms such as CSA, whether a legal practitioner or an employee of, are bound by confidentiality for current and former clients (with exception as referred to in Rule 9.2).

What would happen if we did not collect your personal information?

If we did not collect your personal information, we would not be compliant with the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 and would not be able to take you onboard as a client nor provide legal advice. In order to comply with trust regulations and provide legal advice suitable for your situation we would need to collect personal information.

 

 

How do we use your personal information?

We use personal information for many purposes in connection with the management or work undertaken during your legal matter, including the following purposes:

• Obtaining instructions directly from you;
• Liasing with other parties or legal professionals involved in your case;
• Preparing the necessary legal work and documents;
• Providing legal advice specifically tailored to your unique circumstances;
• Internal administrative purposes to ensure your privacy.

Collecting personal information from third parties

We may also collect your personal information from third parties or through publicly available sources, for example from dealings with Infotrack, other solicitors in relation to your matter, and individuals you authorize us to interact with on your behalf. We collect your personal information from these third parties so that we can progress your legal matter and advise accordingly with respect to your legal issue. Third parties are only used if applicable to your matter.

Disclosure of personal information to third parties

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in accordance with this Policy in circumstances where you would reasonably expect us to disclose your information. This may be in the course of your legal proceedings or for purposes of liasing with individuals or filing applications and/or conducting searches on behalf of you.

For example, we may disclose your personal information to:

• solicitors/barristers (acting for you or the other party);
• conveyancers;
• real estate agents;
• experts;
• government agencies including but not limited to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia or Births, Deaths and Marriages; and
• Infotrack

If you do not want your personal information to be disclosed

Please advise us in writing if you wish for certain personal information not to be disclosed. Where possible, we endeavor to protect our clients in relation to domestic violences and/or physical/psychological harm should personal information be disclosed to certain individuals that pose this risk.

Sensitive correspondence with individuals or third parties, where possible, is confirmed with you prior to being sent and strict guidelines are in place to ensure that personal information is not accessed by any individuals not employed by CSA or party to your matter.

How do we protect your personal information?

CSA will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that we hold about you is kept confidential and secure, including by:

• Back-to-base 24/7 security system in place at our office that is only accessed by individuals authorized by CSA and when it is activated police presence arrive;
• Securely locked premises with restricted access outside office hours including an alarm system with a pin code in which only two employees have use ;
• A dedicated offsite IT firm that ensures our electronic devices are up to date and firmware (anti-virus software and firewalls) are monitored for any risk to our cloud storage system;
• All electronic devices that have access to personal information are secured by passwords and these accounts are protected by multi-factor authentication; and
• IT policies in place that block suspicious activity (where be it a website or electronic communication) in which programs are constantly scanning CSA computers.

We endeavor to do all in our power to ensure all electronic communications sent from our office are only addressed to relevant parties, however, such transmissions may not be secure and may be as risk of being copied, recorded, read or interfered with by third parties while in transit. As such, any communication in relation to payment details or instructions in relation to your matter will be confirmed directly with you via telephone contact details held on file for you and vice versa.

Retention of personal information

Your personal information will only be retained for as long as necessary. Once it is no longer required, we will ensure its secure removal in accordance with our privacy policies and applicable regulations. In most cases, this means that we will only retain your personal information for the duration of your relationship with us unless we are required to retain your personal information to comply with applicable laws, for example record-keeping obligations. Under Rule 14 of Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015, a solicitor or legal practice can destroy client documents after a period of 7 years has lapsed since completion or termination of a client’s matter.

How to access and correct your personal information

CSA will endeavor to keep your personal information accurate, complete and up to date. If you wish to make a request to access and/or correct the personal information we hold about you, you should make a request by contacting us and we will usually respond within 14 days. Contact details for such a request can be found and the end of this Policy.

You as our client, may request access to your matter files and/or documents we hold in relation to your matter, including but not limited to correspondence or disclosure provided by other parties, and we, as CSA, will provide such unless we are permitted by law to withhold that information (such as an incident as refer to in Rule 15 of Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015) or there is a risk of safety or harm should information be provided.

 

 

Privacy Policy application to our website

Links to third party sites

This privacy policy does not apply to third party websites access via our website cathystevenson.com.au.

CSA’s website may contain links to websites operated by third parties (such as social media). If you access a third-party website through our website, personal information may be collected by that third party website. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third-party provider or website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third-party provider or website. Third party providers/websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

Cookies

CSA’s website does not use cookies.

 

 

Amendments to this Policy

This Policy may be amended, including changes, additions and deletions, from time to time in our sole discretion and any such amendments will be notified to you by posting an updated version of the Policy on our website. If at any point we decide to use personal information in a manner materially different from that stated at the time it was collected we will notify relevant persons by email or via a prominent notice on our website and/or social media pages, and where necessary, we will seek the prior consent of the relevant persons.

 

 

 

Inquiries and complaints

For complaints about how CSA handles, processes or manages your personal information, please contact Cathy Stevenson. Note we may require proof of your identity and full details of your request before we can process your complaint. Please allow up to 30 days for CSA to respond to your complaint. It will not always be possible to resolve a complaint to everyone’s satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with CSA’s response to a complaint, you have the right to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (https://www.oaic.gov.au) to lodge a complaint.

 

 

 

How to contact us

If you have a question or concern in relation to our handling of your personal information or this Policy, you can contact us for assistance as follows:

Email: info@cathystevenson.com.au

Phone: (02) 4555 4622 | 0468 916 723

Post Attention: Cathy Stevenson

Head office address: 96 Windsor Street, Richmond NSW 2753

Postal Address: PO Box 320, Richmond NSW 2753