Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy outlines how Roberts Legal Services Group Pty Limited ACN 128 628 599 trading as Roberts Crosbie Mortensen Lawyers and Delaney Roberts Family Lawyers (“our firm”, “we” and “us”) collects, holds, uses, discloses and otherwise manages your personal information. Our Firm recognises the importance of your privacy and understands your concerns about the security of your personal information. We are committed to protecting any personal information that we hold.
This Privacy Policy applies to all dealings between you and our firm and has been created by us to comply with our firm’s obligations under the Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“the Act”).
We will always display a current version of the Privacy Policy on our firm’s Websites. Should the Privacy Policy require any updates we will place a notice on the Website advising that the Privacy Policy is being updated.
Your continued use of the Website and our services, requesting our assistance or the provision of further personal information to us after your viewing of this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the Privacy Policy.
1. Personal Information
‘Personal Information’ is defined in the Act to mean any information or opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.
2. How and Why We Collect Your Personal Information
All personal data is collected for Roberts Legal Services Group in carrying out our firm’s business and functions as a legal services provider. We may collect your personal information by any number of methods including, without limitation:
- in person at a meeting or seminar,
- filling out or completing a form or questionnaire,
- our clients,
- publicly available records,
- court or tribunal records,
- search engines,
- regulatory and licensing bodies,
- recruitment agencies,
- parties to whom you refer us, including previous employers and referees,
- social media,
- entering into a contractual agreement, and
- corresponding with Roberts Legal Services Group via our website, email or by telephone.
On occasion it may be necessary for us to collect your personal information from a publicly available source. We will only do so where:
- you have consented,
- you would reasonably expect us to do so, or
- if it is necessary for us to perform a specific service.
Our firm collects your personal information for the following purposes, without limitation:
- providing legal services and advice;
- to improve the Website and associated facilities to provide clients with the best possible experience,
- to facilitate marketing databases for direct mail, market research and other sales activities,
- to provide you with information about other products and services our firm offers that may be relevant,
- to identify and assess whether we can act on your behalf. We will not consider acting for an individual if they do not properly identify themselves, as this could lead to a conflict of interest in the future,
- improving and marketing our services,
- the organisation of events,
- responding to our clients’ enquiries and providing our clients with assistance and advice as required,
- processing enquiry forms you may complete on our firm’s Websites and allowing you access to interactive features or secure areas of our Website,
- providing you with information about our products and services including legal updates and seminars or events which may be of interest to you,
- conducting further searches and enquiries regarding the information you have provided to us or more generally to collect additional personal information about you or your associates for our regulatory or prudential purposes,
- managing relationships with clients, businesses and third parties, and
- conducting effective management of our business as professional legal service providers.
3. Personal Information Collected
Generally, the personal information we collect will consist of your contact details, full name and/or company details. This may include, without limitation:
- postal and email addresses,
- phone, facsimile and mobile telephone numbers,
- business entity and contact details,
- details regarding the matter you are involved in, including the details of any third parties,
- details about your interests in areas of legal practice,
- credit card details,
- banking account details, and
- other information necessary to identify you and your enquiry.
In addition to the above, we typically collect and hold the following kinds of information about contractors, service providers, suppliers and job applicants:
- information contained in resumes,
- educational details, academic and other transcripts, employment history, skills and background checks,
- references from past employers an referees, and
- information collected during the interview or assessment process, details of your performance under any contract.
Where personal information is used or disclosed, our firm takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure it is relevant to the purpose for which it is to be used or disclosed. To deliver our more complex services, it may be necessary to collect further information relevant to the type of legal service being provided.
We may also collect personal information such as your IP address and web activity through third party companies if you interact with us over the internet.
Generally speaking, we will not collect sensitive information (e.g. data relating to professional memberships, race or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political opinions, criminal record, physical or mental health, or sexual orientation) from you. However, we may do so only if it is reasonably necessary for one (1) or more of our services and you explicitly provide written consent prior to any such information being obtained.
If we collect unsolicited personal information, other than as described above, which we would not have been entitled to collect pursuant to the Act, we will, if lawful and reasonable to do so, destroy or de-identify that unsolicited personal information as soon as practicable without using or disclosing it except for the purpose of determining whether the information should be retained.
4. How We Use Your Personal Information
We will use your personal information to perform its services, respond to your requests and provide you with information relating to our services.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties who assist us to provide our services, including:
- Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and any other social media groups,
- your authorised representative,
- Barristers/experts and any other relevant third parties who may be involved in your matter,
- credit reporting bodies/providers,
- government regulators (i.e. NSW Police, ASIC, ILGA),
- other legal parties and or their advisors, and
- external contracted service providers and suppliers of our firm such as:
- business and litigation support service providers,
- information technology providers,
- title and court search providers,
- mediators,
- data storage and archive providers,
- function and event organisers,
- marketing and communications agencies,
- delivery, mail and shipping agencies,
- business advisors.
- With your verbal or written consent, we may use or disclose your personal information to the following third parties:
- those that provide, manage or administer our service to you,
- those involved in service planning and development,
- your representatives, including your Financial Planner, Accountant, Valuer and legal advisers, and
- those required or authorised by law, for example, Government or regulatory bodies for purposes related to public health or safety, the prevention or detection of unlawful activities or to protect public revenue.
Our firm requires third parties to protect your information in a manner consistent with this policy and the Act. We will never sell your personal information without your written consent.
We will not disclose your personal information to overseas recipients, except for purposes necessary to providing our legal services. In these limited circumstances, we will endeavour to ensure the overseas recipients comply with Australian Privacy Principles in dealing with your personal information.
We will hold your personal information for such time as required to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law.
5. Direct Marketing
If you are a client or have otherwise expressed interest and provided us with your contact details we may use your personal information to market our services including by email (such as through publications, alerts, articles and newsletters), by phone, SMS or facsimile.
If at any stage you no longer wish to receive this marketing, please send an email to our Privacy Officer at [email protected] with your full name, postcode, mobile number and the communication mediums you wish to unsubscribe from. We will endeavor to process your request within 14 days.
6. Security of Your Personal Information
Our firm acknowledges that the security of your personal information is very important. We will take reasonable commercial measures to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We may keep your personal information in electronic form or hard copy.
Our firm implements a number of measures to ensure your personal information is safeguarded. Our firm’s measures include the following:
- security measures for systems access,
- providing discreet meeting areas for confidential discussions,
- password access control for all our records and management systems,
- access to personal information is appropriately limited to certain employees, and
- secure web forms when collecting personal and sensitive information.
Our firm takes reasonable care to ensure any personal information you provide us via the Website is protected. Depending on your involvement with our firm and the type of information collected, user identifiers, passwords or other access codes may also be used to control access to your personal information.
We will destroy or de-identify personal information we no longer require unless our firm is otherwise required or authorised by law to retain the information.
7. Social Media Communications
We may communicate with you by social media, forums and other interactive platforms (such as LinkedIn and Facebook). Any personal information you disclose on these sites may be read, collected and used by other users over whom we have no control. Our firm are not responsible for any use, misuse or misappropriation by other users of any personal information that you contribute in this manner.
The website may include links to third party websites. If you access those websites you will be subject to their respective privacy policies, the terms and conditions of which may differ from that of our firm.
8. Access to Your Personal Information
You have a right to request access to personal information that we hold about you. To request access to your personal information, please email us. In certain circumstances we may be able to deal with your request over the telephone or in person. Otherwise we will endeavour to process your request within 14 days.
In some circumstances we may refuse to give you access. We will explain why and, in most cases,, the reason will be that the disclosure may unreasonably affect the privacy of others.
Our firm takes reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect and store is accurate, up-to-date and complete. Should you wish to access your personal information to ensure it is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading, and if not, to correct it, please email us.
In some cases, in accordance with the Act, we may charge you a fee for access to personal information we hold about you.
9. Complaints
If you believe we have breached an Australian Privacy Principle or registered Australian Privacy Principle code and would like to make a complaint, you can do so in writing by emailing or writing to our Privacy Officer at Roberts Legal Services Group. We will endeavour to respond to your complaint within a reasonable period of time (usually 30 days).
If you disagree with our decision, you may direct any subsequent complaints to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/
10. How to Contact Us
Our Firm is committed to respecting your right to privacy and protecting your personal information. You may request further information about the way we manage your personal information by contacting us by the following means:
Roberts Legal Services Group
Suite 2, Level 2, Telstra Civic
317 Hunter Street
NEWCASTLE NSW 2300
Phone: 02 4926 2236
11. Changes to our Privacy Policy
From time to time it may be necessary for us to review and revise our Privacy Policy. We may notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on our websites. We encourage you to check our website from time to time to ensure you are familiar with our latest Privacy Policy.
Our Privacy Policy was last updated on 18 August 2020.
