This is the Privacy Policy of Fern Lawyers Pty Limited trading as Fern Lawyers (“we”, “us” and when relating to us, “our”).

We are committed to protecting the privacy of our contacts, customers, suppliers and employees (“you” and when relating to you, “your”) and complying with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

In this policy we describe how we manage your personal information.

1.         The kinds of personal information we collect

The kinds of personal information that we collect include:

(a)           contact details such as name, role or position, address, email address, mobile      number, landline number and fax number;

(b)           information relating to your circumstances and affairs relevant to the matter/s in which we are instructed;

(c)            information about your legal interests and requirements and the legal services that you may wish to purchase;

(d)           information regarding our communications with you and your attendance at seminars and promotional events held by us;

(e)           if you are an employee or prospective employee, information about your    qualifications, skills and work experience;

(f)             if you are a supplier or prospective supplier, information about your business skills, services, products and prices;

2.         How we collect personal information

2.1       We collect personal information by various means including when:

(a)           you contact us with a question or inquiry;

(b)           you subscribe to our newsletter or legal updates service;

(c)            you attend a seminar or event where we are hosting or presenting;

(d)           you instruct us to act for you and we open a file and conduct a conflict check;

(e)           our clients provide information relating to related and adverse parties relevant to the advice or services we are providing;

(f)             we undertake a search or investigation;

(g)           you visit our website. 

2.2       Where practicable we collect personal information about you directly from you.     However, we may have collected information about you from a third party such as a    client, a third party information provider, the courts or a person responding to our questions or inquiries.

2.3        We are required to collect the full name and address of our clients by the Solicitors           Rules made under the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW). Accurate name and         address information must also be collected in order to comply with the trust account         record keeping requirements in the Legal Profession Regulation 2005 (NSW) and to    comply with our duty to the courts.

2.4        If you are a client and do not provide us with name and address information we    cannot act for you.

2.5        If you do not provide us with accurate personal information we may not be able to            carry out our instructions or achieve the purpose for which the information has been sought.

3.         The purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

3.1        We collect, hold, use and personal information in order to:

(a)           respond to your enquiries;

(b)           provide legal services;

(c)            employ competent and diligent personnel;

(d)           monitor or improve the use of and satisfaction with our legal services; and

(e)           let you know about legal developments, our expertise and legal services that may be of interest to you.

3.2        We disclose personal information:

(a)           in order to carry out the instructions of our clients; and

(b)           subject to our confidentiality obligations, when using services in support of our legal practice.

4.         The parties to whom your personal information is disclosed

4.1        Subject to our confidentiality obligations, we may share some relevant personal    information with:

(a)           parties related to a matter you have with us, government authorities and service providers as reasonably required to carry out your instructions;

(b)           our e-mail marketing provider for the purposes of providing you our newsletter, invitations and legal updates; and

(c)            third party service providers who assist us with archival, auditing, accounting, legal, business consulting, website or technology services.

4.2        We also will disclose your information if required by law to do so or in circumstances        permitted by the Privacy Act – for example, where we have reasonable grounds to    suspect that unlawful activity, or misconduct of a serious nature, that relates to our           functions or activities has been is being or may be engaged in, in response to a      subpoena, discovery request or a court order.

5.         Disclosure of information outside the jurisdiction of collection

5.1        We do not disclose personal information to overseas recipients.

6.         Opting out of marketing communications

6.1        We may, from time to time, send you newsletters, invitations and legal updates about      our services. You can opt out of receiving further such communications by notifying           us using our contact details below by clicking the “unsubscribe” option at the bottom        of any marketing e-mail received from us.

7.         Security

7.1        We take reasonable physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect your      personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access,    modification and disclosure. For example, we maintain our files in secure offices and       limit access to personal information to individuals with a need to know.

8.         Access/correction/updating personal information

8.1        You can contact us to access, correct or update your personal information. Unless           we are subject to confidentiality obligation or some other restriction on giving access   to the information and we are permitted to refuse you access under the Privacy Act,         we will endeavour to make your information available to you within 30 days.    Examples of circumstances where we may refuse to give you access to your           personal information include where:

(a)           giving access would be unlawful;

(b)           we reasonably believe that giving you access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual or to public health or public safety;

(c)            giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;

(d)           the information could reveal the intentions of a party in negotiations;

(e)           giving access could prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to unlawful activity;

(f)             giving access could reveal evaluative information in a commercially sensitive decision making process.

8.2        If you request to correct your personal information, we will correct, or, if we consider         more appropriate, note your request for amendment of the information on your    record.

8.3        We will not charge you to make a request to access your record but we may charge         you to actually provide access depending on the costs associated with obtaining and        providing the material.

8.4        These actions can usually be taken by contacting a customer relations representative      using the contact information on the “Contact Us” section below. 

9. Notification of Changes

9.1        If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will send you a copy of our revised policy or post a copy on our website.

10. Types of Data

• • A list of all the types of personal data collected by your website. For example, IP addresses, cookie identifiers, or other tracking technologies such as pixels, and end-user website activity.
  • If you have opted in to the AdRoll cross-device graph service (or are using any product or service that leverages AdRoll’s cross-device graph such as AdRoll Email), the list of types of personal data your website collects must include “hashed identifiers derived from email addresses for the purposes of cross-device tracking for targeted advertising.” Please also include a reference to AdRoll’s Privacy Policy.

    11. Use of Data

• When visitors come to your site, third parties (such as AdRoll) may place cookies on their browsers for targeted advertising purposes.

  12. Opt-Out Information

  1. Instructions to opt out of targeted advertising are required to be listed. This includes:
     1. Instructions on how to opt out of receiving targeted (personalized) advertising. See AdRoll’s opt-out articlefor an example.
     2. An opt-out link/third-party tool is strongly recommended. Some available third-party opt-out tools include: the Digital Advertising Alliance, the Network Advertising Initiative, and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (Europe only). 

13.       Complaints / Contact us

If a breach of this Privacy Policy occurs, a complaint may be made to us by sending it to:

Fern Lawyers Pty Limited

PO Box Q152, Queen Victoria Building NSW 1230

or by calling (02) 9098 4778

We will endeavour to respond to any complaint within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you may seek a review by contacting the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner using the information available at http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints.