Privacy Policy
APPLICATION
In this Privacy Policy:
- “Seed Legal” means the business Seed Legal Pty Ltd(ACN 137 125 583); and
- “We” and “us” refer to Seed Legal and “our” has a similar meaning.
We are subject to the National Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
This Privacy Policy explains in general terms how we protect the privacy of your personal information under the National Privacy Principles. It also sets out the matters which we are required to disclose to individuals under National Privacy Principles 1.3 and 1.5. The principles set out in this Seed Legal Privacy Policy will apply to any personal information you provide to us via our website or under any agreement or arrangement and to information which we collect about you from other sources.
Gaining Access to Information we hold about you
We will, on request, provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you unless there is an exception which applies under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth.) such as where we have a legal duty of confidentiality or non-disclosure as mentioned above.
Your request to obtain access will be dealt with in a reasonable time. We may recover from you our reasonable cost of providing you with access.
If we refuse to provide you with access to the information, we will provide you with reasons for the refusal and inform you of any exceptions relied upon under the Privacy Act.
How to Contact us
If you wish to gain access to your personal information or make a complaint about a breach of your privacy or if you have any query on how your personal information is collected or used or any other query relating to Seed Legal’s Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer:
Address:
The Privacy Officer
GPO Box 1368, Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
Phone: + 61 2 8091 4498
Fax: + 61 2 8003 9725
Email: legal.info@seedlegal.com.au
We will respond to your query or complaint as soon as possible.
HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We generally collect your personal information directly from you. For example, we may collect personal information about you when you deal with us over the telephone, send us correspondence (whether by letter, fax or email) subscribe electronically to our publications or when you have contact with us in person.
Generally, the type of personal information we collect about you includes your name, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address. We may also collect sensitive information about you such as information about membership of a professional or trade association or health information. We will only collect sensitive information in limited circumstances including where you have consented to it, the collection is required by law, the collection is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal or equitable claim.
There may be occasions when we need to source personal information about you from a third party. For example, we may collect personal information from a company for whom you work, other organisations with whom you have any dealings, a credit reporting agency, an information service provider or from a publicly maintained record.
KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION UP-TO-DATE
We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date whenever we collect or use it.
If any of the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us immediately and we will take reasonable steps to correct this information or, if necessary, we will discuss alternative action with you.
OUR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Seed Legal Pty Ltd collects personal information for the following purposes:
– to provide you (if a client) or your organisation with legal advice;
– to provide you (if a client) or your organisation with legal technology services and solutions;
– to consider making offers of employment or for employment purposes;
– to receive services from you or the organisation which employs you;
– to advise you of legal developments, seminars and events and to undertake other marketing activities.
If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able either to provide you with appropriate legal advice or to fulfil another applicable purpose of collection.
In some circumstances, we collect personal information about you from a third party source. If we collect personal information about you in this way, we will take reasonable steps to contact you and inform you of this.
If you are our client or are employed by, contracted to, or an agent to a client of Seed Legal, we may disclose your personal information to:
– barristers or experts engaged in your matter; or
– foreign law firms for the purpose of obtaining foreign legal advice.
In other cases, we may disclose your personal information to our clients where your personal information has been collected by us in the course of providing legal services to them.
HOW WE USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which it was collected. We may also use and disclose personal information for purposes related or ancillary to the main reasons we collect it, such as invoicing, reminder notices, provision of information concerning legal developments, invitations to seminars and other events, market research, to improve our service and communications and in respect of other services offered by us. We do not disclose personal information we collect to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to direct market their products and services.
We engage third party contractors to perform services for us which involve the contractor handling personal information we hold. For example, we engage third party contractors to store and archive our completed client files.
OTHER PEOPLE’S INFORMATION WHICH YOU PROVIDE TO US
If you provide personal information to us about someone else (such as one of your directors or employees or someone with whom you have dealings) you must ensure that you are entitled to disclose that information to us and that, without us taking any further steps required by privacy laws, we may collect, use and disclose such information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
For example, you should take reasonable steps to ensure the individual concerned is aware of the various matters detailed in this Privacy Policy as those matters relate to that individual, including our identity, how to contact us, our purposes of collection, our information disclosure practices, the individual’s right to obtain access to the information and the consequences for the individual if the information is not provided.
OUR DUTY OF CONFIDENTIALITY AND OBLIGATIONS OF NON-DISCLOSURE
We have a duty to maintain the confidentiality of our clients’ affairs, including personal information. Our duty of confidentiality applies except where disclosure of a client’s personal information is:
– with that client’s consent;
– compelled by law; or
– for the sole purpose of avoiding the probable commission or concealment of a felony.
We may be subject to obligations of non-disclosure in respect of personal information which we hold arising from the fiduciary duties we owe our clients, or as a result of professional conduct rules which apply to us.
In many cases, information which we hold will be subject to legal professional privilege and we will therefore not be obliged to disclose it.
SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We protect any personal information that we hold from misuse and loss. We also protect it from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.
Your personal information may be stored either in hard copy documents or as electronic data in our information technology systems.
We maintain physical security over our paper and electronic data stores and premises, such as locks and security systems. We also maintain computer and network security; for example, we use firewalls (security measures for the Internet) and other security systems such as user identifiers and passwords to control access to our computer system.
TRANSFORMATION OF INFORMATION TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES
We may transfer your personal information to foreign countries as part of our conduct of a matter, for example, for the purpose of obtaining foreign legal advice. We will only transfer your personal information to foreign countries with your express or implied consent.
