Privacy Policy
Please read this important notice carefully as it affects your privacy and how we use information about you.
Haddletons is the trading style of Haddleton and Co Ltd a company registered in England and Wales (No. 10728134) and its registered office is at Windsor House, Cornwall Road, Harrogate HG1 2PW.
Haddletons takes data protection seriously and safeguarding your privacy is important to us.
This Privacy Policy and (for our clients) our Terms of Business explain how we use any Personal Data we collect.
This Privacy Policy also explains how to contact us if you have any queries about how we use your Personal Data. By using our website or by registering for any of the specific services we offer through it, you are indicating that you understand and accept that your Personal Data may be used by us as described below.
Our client confidentiality obligations are not addressed by this Privacy Policy but are described in our terms of engagement.
We review our policies regularly and any changes will be posted on this page.
What is Personal Data?
Personal Data includes name, address, telephone number, email address and any other information which identifies a living person.
Links with other websites
This Privacy Policy only relates to Haddletons and we cannot control the use of your Personal Data by external websites.
How we collect Personal Data:
When you access, or subscribe to, any of Haddletons’ services we may collect Personal Data about you in a number of circumstances, including when you seek legal advice from us; when you use any on-line client services; when you make an enquiry on any area of the website; when you attend a seminar or other event provided by us; when you sign up to receive information from us, including training, newsletters and bulletins; when you apply for or accept employment or consultancy position with us; or when you offer to provide or provide services to us.
If you do not provide information requested by us from time to time, we may not be able to provide services to you or otherwise fulfil the purpose for which we have requested the information.
In some circumstances, we collect Personal Data about you from a third-party source. For example, we may collect Personal Data from a company for whom you work, other organisations with whom you have dealings, government agencies, a credit reporting agency, a recruitment agency, an information or service provider or from a publicly available record.
Personal data we collect about you
The stable below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of providing legal or company compliance services.
| Personal data we will collect | Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us |
| Your name, address and phone number | Your National Insurance and tax details |
| Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. data of birth or passport details | Your bank or building society details |
| Electronic contract details | Your employment status |
| Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking advice or representation | Your employment records, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances |
| Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you | Your racial or ethic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g. if you instruct us on a discrimination claim |
| Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing us on a purchase transaction | Your trade union membership, e.g. if you instruct us on an employment claim |
| Personal identifying information, such as name, home address, disqualifications, parents’ name, e.g. if you instruct us to incorporate a company for you |
Who we share your personal data with
We routinely share personal data with:
- companies within the Haddletons group
- our employees, agents, consultants
- sub-contractors and third parties we use to help deliver services to you, such as Quill, Integral IT, Limelight HR, Pennine HR, Cognia Law, barristers, experts, consultants
- other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g. marketing agencies or website hosts
- credit reference agencies
- our insurers and brokers
- our banks
We or the third parties mentioned above occasionally also share personal data with:
- our and their external auditors, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
- our and their professional advisors, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
- law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
- other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and their professional advisors) in connection with a significant corporate transaction, including a merger, acquisition or asset sale
How we use Personal data
We, our subsidiaries, employees, agents, consultants, sub-contractors and other third parties listed above, may use your Personal Data for the following purposes:
- the provision of our services to you including to provide you with legal advice or information;
- disclosure to other third-party advisers working for you on the same matter;
- on-line or legal technology services or solutions;
- to send you information on news, publications, seminars and events;
- to improve our services and communications to you;
- for the purposes of employment, partnership or the supply or retention of services;
- to send you invoices or reminder notices;
- for fraud prevention, anti-money laundering purposes, anti-bribery purposes and/or generally for the prevention or detection of crime, which may include disclosure to relevant third parties (here our lawful purpose might be either legitimate interest or to comply with a legal obligation);
- to ensure the safety and security of our people and premises (where we may also use CCTV) which may include disclosure to relevant third parties;
- to process your requests of, and applications to, us;
- for disclosures to our auditors, our own legal and other professional advisors, our insurers and insurance brokers;
- to administer your account with us, including credit and conflict searches, providing e-billing services at your request and tracing and collecting any debts, which may include disclosure to relevant third parties;
- to conduct specific tests on our existing or new systems, networks, applications or software, which may include disclosure to relevant third parties;
- auditing usage of our website;
- for advertising, marketing and public relations, including sending you direct marketing communications;
- providing you with further information about our products and services;
- to manage our business performance, to assess client satisfaction (such as by asking you to participate in surveys) and generally to help improve our services, which may include disclosure to relevant third parties;
- where Haddletons or its subsidiaries is/are the subject of a merger or acquisition (M&A) bid in whole or in part, whether an asset or share sale and whether or not the M&A bid completes. If the M&A bid completes the Personal Data will be owned by the merging or acquiring party;
- as otherwise required by law;
- where you have given written consent to such disclosure (our lawful purpose here is consent);
- where we are permitted by law to do so. This includes circumstances where you have expressly or impliedly consented to such use and;
- or any other purpose for which this information was provided to us or for any purpose related or ancillary to any of the above.
We will not sell, resell, lease or license your Personal Data to any third parties.
How and why we use your personal data – special category personal data
Certain personal data we collect is treated as a special category to which additional protections apply under data protection law:
- Data concerning heath
- Personal data revealing rachial or ethic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs or trade union membership
Where we process special category personal data, we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws, e.g.:
- we have explicit consent; or
- the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
Where your information is stored and keeping information it secure
Your information is generally stored on servers and filing systems in the European Economic Area which includes the UK. We will take appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your information confidential and secure in accordance with our internal procedures covering the storage, access and disclosure of information. Information may be kept on our information technology systems or in paper files.
From time to time it may be stored in or accessed from countries outside the EEA. Where this may happen, we always make sure that there are appropriate safeguards in place, such as the model contract clauses, binding corporate rules, an adequacy decision or regulation, to guarantee that your information – and your rights – are protected to the same high standard as under UK law.
How long your personal data will be kept
We will not keep your Personal Data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it is used or to comply with our regulatory obligations. A copy of our data retention policy is available on request. For further information please see our contact details under the section headed ‘Contact Information’ below.
Lawful Purpose for Processing Personal Data
We consider that the processing of Personal Data as described above is necessary for the legitimate interests of Haddletons’ business except where we expressly state otherwise: In deciding this:
- We understand our responsibility to protect your individual interests.
- We only use your Personal Data in ways you would reasonably expect (described above).
- We are not using Personal Data in ways you would find intrusive or which could cause them harm.
- We have considered safeguards to reduce the impact where possible
- We have considered whether we can offer an opt out (see Your Rights below).
Cookies
Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer’s hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the “lifetime” of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allows us to improve our site and services.
We may use cookies in the following ways:
- Where they are essential to make our site work
- To enable the personalisation features on our site (which give you the ability to recall recently viewed pages and see information which you have input on line)
- To compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use our site and to help us improve the structure of our site. We cannot identify you personally in this way.
For detailed information about cookies and how they are used on our website, see our Cookie Policy.
Disabling/enabling cookies
You can accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features of our site if cookies are disabled. For further information about disabling or blocking cookies, please see ‘Can I withdraw my consent?’ in our Cookie Policy
Relevant and Useful Information
Occasionally we may contact you with information we think may be of interest to you and you would expect to receive from a law firm such as legal updates, and details of legal services. If you prefer not to receive this material from us, please email us at [email protected].
Marketing
Occasionally we may contact you with details of marketing events or competitions hosted by the Haddletons. If you prefer not to receive promotional material from us, please email us at the address below (Contact Information).
Security
As stated above, Haddletons has policies and technical measures in place to safeguard and protect your Personal Data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, improper use and disclosure. However, the internet and Information Systems are not completely secure and although we will do our best to protect your Personal Data the transmission of your data to us is done so at your own risk.
Your rights
Under the data protection rules, you have several rights in respect of your information, which include the right to:
- access your information
- withdraw your consent to the processing of your information at any time
- ask us to make changes to the information we hold about you to make sure that it is accurate and up to date
- delete or erase your information (sometimes called the right to be forgotten)
- stop or restrict our processing of your information
- object to our processing your information
- not be subject to automated decision-making and
- request the transfer of some of the information we hold about you (known as data portability).
If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at the address below (Contact Information). Please note that an archive copy of any information provided to us may be retained by us for our records and for audit purposes.
You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you by sending your request in writing to us at the above address.
You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time by sending us an email to [email protected] with your name and the word “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the heading of the email.
In other instances, we will review the lawful purpose for processing your information which we may be required to hold by law. If we process it for our legitimate interests, we will check that the processing is necessary and there is no less intrusive way to achieve the same result. We will also conduct a balancing test to decide whether your interests do not override our legitimate interests.
Access requests should be put in writing and addressed to the contact details below (Contact Information).
Contact Information
If you wish to unsubscribe from marketing information and/or have any comments or questions about our data protection and privacy practices, please send an email to [email protected] or send a letter to our risk and compliance team at Windsor House, Cornwall Road Harrogate HG1 2PW.
How to complain
If you have a complaint about how your Personal Data is used, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office www.ico.org.uk