Privacy policy

Who this policy applies to

This policy applies to TWC Lawyers, a legal practice with offices at Level 1, 52 Davenport Street, Southport, Queensland and Level 10, 95 North Quay, Brisbane, Queensland. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean TWC Lawyers.

It applies to personal information we handle about clients, prospective clients, other parties to a matter, witnesses, referrers, suppliers, contractors, job applicants and visitors to our website.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles. We are also bound by professional obligations of confidentiality under the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) and the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules, and by legal professional privilege. Those obligations are separate from, and in most respects stricter than, the Privacy Act.

What personal information we collect

The information we collect depends on the matter. In a legal practice it commonly includes:

• Name, date of birth, residential and postal address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Identification documents, including driver licence, passport or other identity documents where we are required to verify identity, for example in a conveyancing transaction.
• Financial information, including bank account details, income and asset details, statements, tax records and information about liabilities.
• Information about your matter, which may include correspondence, contracts, court documents, police material, medical reports and expert reports.
• Employment, business and company information, including directorships and shareholdings.
• Sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act, which in the course of legal work may include health information, information about criminal record or alleged offending, information about family relationships and, where relevant to a matter, racial or ethnic origin. We collect sensitive information only where it is reasonably necessary for our functions and where you have consented, or where the collection is required or authorised by law.
• Personal information about third parties that you give us, such as details of your family members, employees, business partners or the other party to a dispute.
• Website information, including your IP address, browser type, the pages you visit and the date and time of your visit.

If you give us personal information about another person, you should ensure that person is aware of this policy and of why their information has been provided to us.

How we collect it

Wherever it is reasonable and practicable to do so, we collect personal information directly from you: in a meeting, by telephone, by email, through a form on our website, or through documents you provide.

We also collect personal information from other sources where that is necessary for the matter. Depending on the work, those sources may include the other party or their solicitors, courts and tribunals, the Queensland Police Service and other prosecuting authorities, government agencies and registries such as ASIC, the Titles Registry, the Queensland Revenue Office and the Australian Business Register, medical practitioners and other experts, barristers, real estate agents, accountants, financial institutions, insurers, and people who refer you to us.

If we receive personal information about you that we did not ask for and that we do not need for a permitted purpose, we will destroy or de-identify it where the law allows us to do so.

Why we collect and use it

We collect, hold and use personal information for the following purposes:

• To provide legal advice and representation and to conduct your matter.
• To identify you and to comply with verification of identity requirements, including in property transactions.
• To carry out conflict of interest checks before we accept an engagement.
• To communicate with you and with others involved in your matter.
• To issue invoices, take payment, operate our trust account and recover unpaid fees.
• To comply with our legal, regulatory, court and professional obligations, including record keeping, trust accounting and reporting obligations.
• To obtain and maintain our professional indemnity insurance and to manage claims.
• To manage our practice, including staff training, quality assurance, file audits and information technology support.
• To respond to enquiries you make through our website or by telephone.
• To send you information about our services, where you have not asked us to stop.

If you choose not to give us information we ask for, we may be unable to act for you or to advise you properly.

Who we disclose it to

We do not sell personal information. We disclose it only where it is necessary for the purposes described above, or where you have consented, or where disclosure is required or authorised by law.

Depending on your matter, we may disclose personal information to:

• Barristers, expert witnesses, investigators, interpreters, process servers and agents engaged for your matter.
• Courts, tribunals, registries and regulatory bodies.
• The other parties to a matter and their legal representatives, to the extent required to conduct the matter or comply with disclosure obligations.
• Government departments and agencies, including the Queensland Revenue Office, the Titles Registry, ASIC and the Australian Taxation Office where required.
• Banks, financiers, mortgagees, real estate agents, accountants, financial advisers and settlement agents, where relevant to your transaction.
• Our professional indemnity insurer, our auditors and the Queensland Law Society.
• Our service providers, including information technology, document management, electronic conveyancing, email, telephony, practice management, secure storage and destruction, and debt recovery providers, who are required to protect the information and to use it only for the services they provide to us.

We may also disclose personal information where we are compelled to do so, for example by subpoena, notice to produce, search warrant or statutory notice. Where a document is subject to legal professional privilege, we will claim privilege on your behalf unless you have waived it or the law removes it.

Disclosure outside Australia

We store personal information in Australia wherever practicable. Some of the technology services we use, including cloud storage, email, document management and website analytics, may store or process information on servers located outside Australia, or may be provided by companies with overseas operations. Where that occurs, the countries involved are most commonly the United States, and may include other countries where those providers maintain data centres.

Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient we take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure the recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles, as required by Australian Privacy Principle 8. That generally means contractual commitments about security, access and use.

If your matter requires personal information to be sent overseas for a specific reason, for example to a foreign court, a foreign lawyer or an overseas government agency, we will tell you at the time.

How we store and secure it

We hold personal information in electronic form in our practice management and document systems, and in physical form in files held at our offices or in secure offsite storage.

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Those steps include access controls and individual user accounts, multi-factor authentication, encryption in transit, network and endpoint security, secure disposal of physical records, staff confidentiality obligations and training, and restricting access to files on a need to know basis.

No system can be guaranteed secure. We are subject to the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If we suffer a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual whose personal information is involved, and we cannot prevent that harm, we will notify the affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by that scheme.

We retain client files for the period required by our professional obligations and by law, which for most legal files is a minimum of seven years after the matter is finalised, and longer for wills, deeds, trust records and certain other documents. When information is no longer needed for any purpose for which it may be used or disclosed, and we are not required by law or a court order to retain it, we destroy it securely or de-identify it.

Our website, cookies and analytics

Our website uses cookies, which are small text files stored on your device. We use them to make the site work, to remember your preferences, and to understand how the site is used so we can improve it.

We use website analytics tools to collect aggregated information such as the pages visited, the time spent on each page, the referring website, approximate location derived from IP address, and the browser and device used. This information is used in aggregate. It may be personal information where it can reasonably be linked to an identifiable individual.

You can set your browser to refuse cookies or to notify you when a cookie is set. Some parts of the site may not function properly if you do. You can also opt out of many analytics and advertising cookies through the settings offered by your browser or by the relevant provider.

If you complete an enquiry form on our website, the information you submit is transmitted to us and used to respond to your enquiry. Please do not send us confidential details of a legal matter through a web form or unencrypted email before we have confirmed we can act for you, because we may already act for another party.

Direct marketing

We may use your contact details to send you information about our services, changes in the law that may affect you, and firm updates. We do this in accordance with Australian Privacy Principle 7 and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

Every electronic marketing message we send includes an unsubscribe facility. You can also ask us to stop sending you marketing material at any time by emailing admin@twclawyers.com.au or telephoning 07 5522 5777, and we will action the request promptly.

We do not sell, rent or trade contact details or mailing lists.

Accessing and correcting your information

Under Australian Privacy Principle 12 you may request access to the personal information we hold about you, and under Australian Privacy Principle 13 you may ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

To make a request, contact us using the details below. We will need to verify your identity. We will respond within a reasonable period, ordinarily within 30 days.

There are limited circumstances in which we may refuse access, including where giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, where the information relates to anticipated or existing legal proceedings and would not be accessible through the discovery process, where giving access would reveal information subject to legal professional privilege belonging to another client, or where the law otherwise permits refusal. If we refuse, we will tell you why in writing and explain how to complain.

We do not charge for making a request for access. We may charge a reasonable amount for the cost of retrieving and providing the information, and we will tell you before we incur it. There is no charge for correcting information.

Complaints

If you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles or mishandled your personal information, please tell us first. Complaints should be made in writing to the Privacy Officer at admin@twclawyers.com.au or PO Box 10458, Southport BC, Queensland 4215.

We will acknowledge your complaint, investigate it, and give you a written response, ordinarily within 30 days. If we need more time we will tell you why.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or we do not respond within a reasonable time, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The OAIC can be contacted on 1300 363 992, at enquiries@oaic.gov.au, or by post at GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001. Complaint forms and guidance are available at oaic.gov.au.

Complaints about the conduct of a legal practitioner, as distinct from privacy, are dealt with by the Queensland Legal Services Commission.

Contact us and changes to this policy

You can contact us about privacy in any of the following ways:

• Email: admin@twclawyers.com.au
• Telephone: 07 5522 5777
• Post: The Privacy Officer, TWC Lawyers, PO Box 10458, Southport BC, Queensland 4215
• In person: Level 1, 52 Davenport Street, Southport, or Level 10, 95 North Quay, Brisbane

We review this policy periodically and may update it to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. The current version is always available on this page, and the date it was last updated appears at the top. If we make a change that materially affects how we handle your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to your attention.