PRIVACY POLICY

1. GENERAL

First4InjuryClaims Limited (company number 13227852) of Permanent House, Dundas Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2HE (“we” “us” “our”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. For the purposes of data protection legislation, we are the data controller and we will process your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and national laws which relate to the processing of personal data. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

We may update this Policy at any time, subsequent to which, we will post the updated Policy on our website.

2. PERSONAL DATA WE WILL COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data relates to information about you from which you can be identified. Personal data collected by First4InjuryClaims, will be limited to only what is necessary, but can include, but not limited to:

• Personal details, including name, title, date and place of birth, photo identification, postal address, postcode, telephone numbers, national insurance number, email address, age, insurance policy details, occupation, signature, GP details, employer details/inland revenue details.
• Financial information, including bank account holders name, bank account number, bank name and address, bank sort code and claims settlement amount.
• Any other personal data we may collect in the course of providing legal services to you.

We may also process the following ‘special categories of data’, wherever appliable, such as data relating to race, gender religious beliefs, previous convictions, ethnicity, trade union membership, medical history, claims history and criminal convictions/CCJs.

In the event that we are acting for a ‘minor’ (child under the age of 18) involved in an accident, we will process that minor’s data, if any, that their litigation friend is authorised to provide under their responsibility.

3. HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL DATA

First4InjuryClaims Limited collect personal data about clients, not limited to, by the following means:

• By Telephone;
• By meeting with you;
• Through correspondence, such as emails, text messages, letters, post, or other means);
• Through our online communication tool, called Touchpoint;
• Through our website and other media channels;
• Through other websites which can be accessed by the public, such as Companies House;
• Third Parties, such as witnesses, insurance companies, enquiry agents, your bank or building society, medical agencies, costs draftsmen, doctors or any outsource company.

We will collect additional personal data in the course of your claim related activities throughout the period you are associated with us.  All data collected during the claims process, or additional data collected, will be used and stored for rendering services as well as complying with the legal obligations or legitimate interests of First4InjuryClaims Limited.

If you provide us with personal information of another person, for example a witness to an accident, you must ensure that you have the authority of that person to give that information and the personal data provided is complete and up to date.

4. VISITORS TO OUR WEBSITE

4.1 We may collect and process personal data about you in the following circumstances:

• when you complete forms on our website (“Site”). This includes your name, telephone number, email address and details of your enquiry which is provided when you ask us to contact you about our services;
• whenever you provide information to us when reporting a problem with our Site, making a complaint, making an enquiry or contacting us for any other reason. If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence;
• whenever you visit our Site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise, and the resources that you access (see section 4.2 on cookies below); and
• whenever you disclose your information to us, or we collect information from you in any other way, through our Site.

4.2 We may also collect data in the following ways:

• IP address

We may collect information about your device, including where available your Internet Protocol address, for reasons of fraud protection. We may also collect information about your device’s operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual.

• Cookies

Our Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Site and also allows us to improve our Site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our cookie policy.

• Website links

Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of third parties. Please note that if you follow a link to any of these websites, such websites will apply different terms to the collection and privacy of your personal data and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. When you leave our Site, we encourage you to read the privacy notice/policy of every website you visit.

5. OUR BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR DATA

We may use your personal data for our legitimate interests in order to;

• provide you with information, or services that you requested from us including the performance of your contract with us;
• process your personal data to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation;
• where it is necessary for our legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interest;
• protect your interest (or someone else’s interests);
• where is it needed in the public interest (or for official purposes);
• where we have sought your explicit consent;
• allow you to participate in interactive features of our Site, when you choose to do so;
• ensure that content from our Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
• improve our Site and services;
• process and deal with any complaints or enquiries made by you; and
• contact you for marketing purposes where you have signed up for these (see section 6 for further details).

In some cases we may hold more ‘sensitive’ information about you such as about health information. This may be necessary to pursue your legal matter. We are permitted to use such information to provide legal advice to you.

We only use your personal data for the purpose, or purposes, for which we have obtained it.  If we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason we will only do so if that reason is compatible with the original purpose.  Please note, that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law. 

You can withdraw consent to your information being used in a particular way but this may limit what more we can do for you (if anything).  If you fail to provide certain data, when requested, we may not be able to render the required services to you and be unable to act on your behalf, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

6. DATA SHARING

6.1 First4InjuryClaims Limited will share your personal data/special categories of data in the following circumstances:

• you request it to be shared, or it is necessary for us to provide our legal services and fulfil our contractual responsibility to you;
• we are under a legal or regulatory duty to do so;
• as a result of a change of ownership of the business;
• in the course of providing the services to you where we believe it is in the best interests to use a third party, such as a barrister, medical agency, other expert, insurance company, DVLA, the Defendant, Court, Motor Insurers Bureau;
• to advertise your feedback on our website and marketing materials (subject to obtaining your prior consent where necessary).

6.2 Who we share your data with will depend upon the services we are offering, but can include:

• our affiliated group Companies such as First4Lawyers Limited;
• Banks (First4InjuryClaims Limited bank is Barclays);
• Insurers, including your own, the third party and our own insurers;
• Auditors of our business for accounting or tax purposes;
• Regulatory Bodies such as the Solicitors Regulations Authority, Legal Ombudsman or Information Commissioners Office;
• Courts;
• The Access Group which provides the case management systems and support services to First4InjuryClaims Limited;
• other professional bodies who we instruct in the course of providing the services to you where we believe it is in the best interests to use a third party such as a barrister, medical agency, other expert, insurance company, DVLA, the Defendant, Court, Motor Insurers Bureau, costs draftspersons;
• third party organisations we may appoint to deal with inbound telephone enquiries and to respond to enquiries made through our Site who will collect details such as your name, contact details, date of birth and, depending upon the nature of your enquiry, details such as your vehicle registration number and medical information when you enquire about our services. We will use this information to consider your enquiry or claim and, if we decide we can assist you with your enquiry, we will use your personal data to deliver the services;
• third parties to conduct customer experience surveys on our behalf;
• other law firms when for any reason including but not limited to a potential conflict of interest, we are unable to continue to act for you in relation to your claim. We shall always obtain your prior consent before we send any personal data to another law firm in such circumstances;
• business partners, including First4Lawyers Limited, who may have introduced an enquiry to us as part of the provision of services to our customers.

7. SUPPLIERS

We will collect details such as names, contact details, telephone numbers and bank details in order to contact you about goods or services ordered with you, to place further orders and to pay you for the goods and/or services supplied. Will keep your personal data for 6 years further to being provided with the goods/services.

8. IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide the data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example to provide you with our services). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

9. MARKETING

In addition to the uses described in sections 2-7 above, where you indicate you would like to receive marketing correspondence from us, subscribe to our marketing lists or newsletters or provide us with your details at events, we may use your personal data for our legitimate interests in order to provide you with details about our services which we think may be of interest.

We may also share your personal data with our group companies, First4Lawyers Limited and First4Lawyers Legal Services Limited, in order to provide you with details of their services which we think may be of interest.

You have the right to opt-out of receiving the information detailed in this section 9 at any time. To opt-out of receiving such information you can:

• click the unsubscribe button contained in any such communication received; or
• email us at unsubscribe@first4injuryclaims.comproviding us with your name and contact details.

9. MONITORING AND RECORDING

We may monitor and record communications with you (such as telephone communications and emails) for the purposes of quality assurance, training, fraud prevention and compliance. We also have CCTV cameras installed in our premises for the purpose of crime prevention and for health and safety reasons.

10. AUTOMATED PROCESSING

In certain situations we may use personal data to help us make automated decisions to further improve our business. For example, we may use personal data (such as an individual’s geographical location) to target users of our website with personalised marketing messages.

We may carry out a credit check on our customers:

• so that we can make credit decisions about you; and
• to prevent fraud and money laundering.

Our search won’t be recorded on the files of the credit reference agency.

If further to undertaking a credit check you receive a low credit score, we reserve the right not to supply you with services on credit and/or require upfront payment for the services you wish to purchase.

If you provide false or inaccurate information and we suspect fraud, we will record this. If you want to see your credit file, please contact the credit agency we use, Experian.

11. LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data where the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• for performance of a contract we enter into with you;
• where necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation we are subject to; and
• for our legitimate interests (as described within this policy) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override these interests.

12. ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You have the right to request access to your personal data which we process. This formal request is made under the Data Protection Act (DPA) and is referred to as a Data Subject Access Request. If you wish to exercise this right and make a Subject Access Request, you should;

• Put your request in writing; either by Email or by letter.
• Include proof of your identity and address (e.g. a copy of your driving licence or passport, and a recent utility or credit card bill);
• Specify the personal data you want access to, including any account or reference numbers where applicable.

You have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your data free of charge. If you wish to exercise this right, you should:

1. Either speak to us via telephone or put your request in writing;
2. Provide us with enough information to identify you; and
3. Specify the information that is incorrect and what it should be replaced with.

13. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA TO THIRD PARTIES

In addition to the third parties mentioned above, we may disclose your information to the following third parties for our legitimate interests as follows:

• third party agencies which assist us with marketing;
• third party agencies which conduct customer experience surveys on our behalf;
• staff members, in order to facilitate the provision of goods or services to you;
• our affiliated entities, to support internal administration;
• IT software providers that host our case management system, website and store data on our behalf;
• professional advisers including consultants, lawyers, bankers and insurers who provide us with consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services;
• HM Revenue and Customs, regulators and other authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances; and
• third parties who we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other business or merge with them. If a change happens to our business then the new owners my use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.
• third parties who we may choose to assist us with validating data submitted to us via our website to enable us to respond to your enquiry and facilitate the provision of goods or services to you.

We may disclose personal data to the police, regulatory bodies, legal advisors or similar third parties where we are under a legal duty to disclose or share personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our website terms and conditions and other agreements; or to protect our rights, property, or safety of our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

We will not sell or distribute personal data to other organisations without your approval.

14. CROSS-BORDER DATA TRANSFERS

Where permitted by applicable law, we may transfer your personal data to the United States and other jurisdictions outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) for the purposes set out in this privacy policy, including where personal data is transferred to third parties who process data on our behalf. Constant Contact, an organisation which conducts client surveys on our behalf have implemented the EU-US Privacy Shield and Swiss-US Privacy Shield to secure the transfer of your personal data to jurisdictions outside the EEA.

15. DATA SECURITY

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Site or Touchpoint, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to our Site or Touchpoint; any transmission is at your own risk.

Information you provide to us is shared on our secure servers. We have implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures designed to secure your information against accidental loss and unauthorised access, use, alteration or disclosure. In addition, we limit access to personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties that have a legitimate business need for such access.

16. ACCESS TO, UPDATING, DELETING AND RESTRICTING USE OF PERSONAL DATA

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if the personal data we hold about you changes.

Data protection legislation gives you the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances or withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data where this has been provided. You also have the right to access information held about you and for this to be provided in an intelligible form. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please send an email to Andrew.Kay@first4lawyers.com. In certain circumstances we reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee to comply with your request.

You can also ask us to undertake the following:

• update or amend your personal data if you feel this is inaccurate;
• remove your personal data from our database entirely;
• send you copies of your personal data in a commonly used format and transfer your information to another entity where you have supplied this to us, and we process this electronically with your consent or where necessary for the performance of a contract; or
• restrict the use of your personal data.

We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal data that we hold about you or make your requested changes. Data protection legislation may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all the personal data that we hold about you or to comply with any requests made in accordance with your rights referred to above. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal data, or process any other request we receive, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

Please send any requests relating to the above to our Data Protection Lead at Andrew.Kay@first4lawyers.com specifying your name and the action you would like us to undertake.

17. RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data, you have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, please contact us at Andrew.Kay@first4lawyers.com.

18. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to update this privacy policy at any time, and any changes we make to our privacy policy will be posted on this page. We encourage you to check this privacy policy from time to time for any updates or changes to this privacy policy. If we would like to use your previously collected personal data for different purposes than those we notified you about at the time of collection, we will provide you with notice and, where required by law, seek your consent, before using your personal data for a new or unrelated purpose. We may process your personal without your knowledge or consent where required by applicable law or regulation.

19. DATA RETENTION

We will retain your personal information as long as we require to provide you with the services ordered from us and to defend any legal claims or respond to complaints (for example, the limitation period for negligence claims is 6 years, however the limitation periods for criminal matters can be open-ended).  In our experience, limitation periods do not always determine how long we ought to hold data.  Due to the legal services we provide, our clients will expect us to maintain a copy of their file beyond the end of the limitation period.  Unless contrary to a legal or contractual requirement, we shall retain personal data for 6 years after the conclusion of your claim and therefore will not erase any data until after this period.

20. CONTACT US

We have appointed a Data Protection Lead to oversee compliance with this privacy policy. If you have any questions, comments or requests regarding this policy or how we use your personal data please contact our Data Protection Lead at Andrew.Kay@first4lawyers.com. This is in addition to your right to contact the Information Commissioners Office if you are unsatisfied with our response to any issues you raise at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Updated 02/07/2021