The Firm of O’Sullivan Hogan Solicitors respects your right to privacy and we are committed to complying with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 1988 and the Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003.

This Statement has been compiled so that you can be advised on what personal information we may collect from you and how it will be gathered and processed.

We would ask our Clients to read this information carefully so that you can understand our policies and procedures regarding your personal data and privacy. It is important that you are aware of how we as Data Controllers ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) together with the applicable Irish statutory requirements.

The information we collect about you:

When you instruct us to act on your behalf we will collect data which you provide to us which will include your contact information and any personal data which you may furnish to us for the purposes of allowing us to provide full legal services to you as you require.   The data you the “data subject” give us may include, but is not limited to, data to identify you (including your contact information), your financial details/financial circumstances, your PPS Number, information which we may have collected from you to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering obligations (copy Passport or Driver’s Licence, a current utility bills), medical records, vouching documentation for the purposes of Affidavits and Discovery etc. We may also record communications with you such as emails and telephone calls for verification, quality assurance and fraud prevention purposes.

Sometimes it may be necessary for us to collect personal data about you from other sources to enable us to provide the legal services required. Typical examples of such other sources would include Government Agencies, Banks, Insurance providers, Legal Searchers, Town Agents, third party service providers etc.

Sometimes we may use your information even though you are not a customer. For example, you may be a beneficiary under a Will where we have been instructed to extract a Grant of Probate, you may be a nominated representative of a client of ours or a potential client enquiring about the provision of legal services from this firm. Please note that you are under no obligation to provide your personal data to this firm, however, it is important to note this may prevent us from carrying out the legal services you require.

How and why we use and process your data:

• You have agreed or consented to the firm using your data in a specific way or manner;
• Where use of your data is necessary to provide the required legal services for which you have engaged the firm and use of your data is necessary to enable us to fulfil our terms of engagement;
• Use of your data is necessary for fraud prevention and detection and to ensure compliance with a legal obligation (such as anti-money laundering obligations etc.);
• We may use your data in pursuance of our legitimate interests such as managing our business, providing service information, training and quality assurance etc;

Data Storage and Retention:

This firm will store hard and soft copies of your personal data. Physical files are stored in the firm’s offices at St Mary’s House, 4 St Marys Terrace, Arklow, County Wicklow and at our local archive storage facility at Ashwood Lower, Arklow, County Wicklow. Your electronic files are stored under our secure document control system and servers. The firm is committed to ensuring the protection and privacy of your data and has implemented the necessary security and risk management policies and procedures to ensure the appropriate measures are in place to prevent the security of your data being compromised. The firm constantly reviews the aforementioned policies and procedures to ensure best practice in information security and data risk management.

The firm will hold your data for as long as is reasonably necessary. We will hold your information for as soon as you have engaged us to provide legal services to you and thereafter for a period of not less than 6 years commencing on the date when your file was submitted for file away under our file away procedure/or to archiving.

Disclosure of your personal data:

We may disclose your personal data to our agents, contractors and service providers to the extent reasonably required for the purposes outlined above. This may include, but is not limited to third party experts, accountants, financial and tax advisers, barristers, service providers who provide us with support services, health care professionals and medical consultants and your authorised representatives. We may also transfer your data to a service provider or other organisation outside the EEA, where necessary.

Where your data has been provided to third party service providers and agents or to any third parties located outside the EEA, the firm is committed to ensuring that these third parties have similar security and safeguarding measures in place to protect your personal data.

Website:

We may obtain personal data from you (such as your name and email address) if you submit a request for contact form under the “Contact Us” section of our website. For the purposes of gaining a better understanding of the number and type of visitors to our webpage and to ensure our website meets the needs of its users, we may monitor your usage of the site. This may include observing how many times you visit the webpage, location data etc. Any data collected in this matter is non-personal data and will not specifically identify you to the firm.

Our website uses cookies which may be stored in your browser or on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies are small text files that are sent to and stored on your computer, smartphone or other device. Accordingly, we may obtain information therefrom about how often users visit our website and about general visitor usage. Cookies do not compromise the security of your device.  If you continue to use our webpage, you consent to our use of cookies. If you do not want your browser to accept cookies, you can control and manage the acceptance through your browser settings, however, this may impede your ability to access all sections of our website.

Occasionally our website may contain links to other websites for information purposes. We have no control over these other websites and will not be liable in any way for the availability or content of these third party websites and your use of such links is entirely at your own risk.

How to exercise your data rights:

You have the following rights:

• To enquire as to how we use, collect and process your data;
• To receive a copy of your information:
• To have incomplete or inaccurate data amended and updated;
• To request to have your data deleted or to have the use of your information restricted;
• To exercise the right to data portability;
• To withdraw your consent at any time where the storing and processing of data is based on your consent;
• To lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner in relation to the firm’s collection and processing of your data.

If you wish to exercise any of your data rights or if you have any queries in relation to this Statement you might please contact us using one of the following options:

By post: O’Sullivan Hogan Solicitors, St Mary’s House, 4 St Marys Terrace, Arklow, County Wicklow Y14X67

By email: info@osullivanhogan.ie

By telephone: (0402) 91770 & (0402) 91255

*We reserve the right to amend or update our Privacy Statement at any time. Any updates will be made available on our website – www.osullivanhogan.ie