Privacy Notice

1. Who We Are

Crest View Solicitors Limited is a company registered in England and Wales.

Company Number: 17137666 | SRA Number: 8015861 | ICO Registration Number: ZC240234

Crest View Solicitors Limited is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

For the purposes of UK data protection legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR") and Data Protection Act 2018, Crest View Solicitors Limited will generally act as the data controller in relation to personal information we collect and process.

Complaints email: complaints@cvsolicitors.co.uk

2. Personal Information We Collect

The information we collect will depend upon your relationship with us and the legal services you require. We may collect and process information including your name, title, date of birth and contact details; nationality, citizenship and immigration status; passport and identification information; financial information; family and relationship information; immigration history and previous applications; correspondence and documents provided in connection with your matter; payment and transaction information; and information submitted through our website, email or enquiry forms.

We will only collect information which is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

3. Special Category and Sensitive Personal Information

Because of the nature of legal services, we may need to process particularly sensitive personal information. Depending upon your matter, this may include information concerning racial or ethnic origin; religious or philosophical beliefs; health or medical circumstances; sexual orientation or sex life; biometric information where relevant; and political opinions where relevant to a legal matter.

We may also process information concerning criminal convictions, allegations, offences or proceedings where this is relevant to the legal services we provide. We process this information only where there is a lawful basis and an appropriate additional condition under applicable data protection legislation.

4. How We Obtain Your Information

We may obtain personal information directly from you; from family members or representatives authorised to communicate with us; from another solicitor or professional adviser; from barristers; from courts and tribunals; from the Home Office and other government departments or public authorities; from experts, interpreters and other professionals; from publicly available sources; from identity verification, fraud prevention or compliance providers; and through your use of our website and online services.

Where you provide personal information about another person, you should ensure that you are entitled to provide that information to us.

5. How We Use Your Personal Information

We may use personal information to respond to enquiries; determine whether we are able to act for you; carry out conflict-of-interest checks; verify your identity; comply with anti-money laundering and other regulatory obligations; open and administer your matter; provide legal advice and representation; prepare applications, representations, correspondence and legal documents; communicate with you and relevant third parties; represent you before courts, tribunals, the Home Office and other authorities; process payments and maintain financial records; comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; prevent and detect fraud or other unlawful activity; establish, exercise or defend legal claims; handle complaints; and improve our services.

6. Our Lawful Bases for Processing

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal information. Depending upon the circumstances, we may rely upon: Contract – where processing is necessary to provide legal services under our agreement with you. Legal obligation – where we are required to process information to comply with legal, professional or regulatory requirements. Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for our legitimate business or professional interests. Consent – where we have specifically asked for and obtained your consent. Legal claims and legal advice – where processing of special category information is necessary for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims or providing legal advice.

7. Immigration and Family Law Information

The nature of immigration and family law means that we may need to process substantial amounts of personal and sensitive information. For immigration matters, this may include information about your nationality, immigration status, travel history, employment, finances, relationships, family circumstances, health, criminal history and other matters relevant to your application or case.

For family law matters, this may include information concerning relationships, children, finances, health, domestic circumstances, allegations, court proceedings and other sensitive family information. We will only use this information where it is relevant to providing legal services or where otherwise permitted or required by law.

8. Sharing Your Personal Information

We will not sell your personal information. Where necessary and lawful, we may share information with third parties including barristers and other legal professionals; courts and tribunals; the Home Office; HM Courts & Tribunals Service; government departments and public authorities; experts and professional advisers; interpreters and translators; banks and payment providers; professional indemnity insurers; the Solicitors Regulation Authority; the Legal Ombudsman; identity verification, anti-money laundering and fraud-prevention providers; IT, cloud, email, case-management and other technology providers; and other parties where disclosure is authorised by you or required or permitted by law.

Where we use service providers to process personal information on our behalf, we will take appropriate steps to protect that information.

9. Confidentiality and Legal Professional Privilege

As a firm of solicitors, we owe professional duties of confidentiality to our clients. Information relating to your legal matter will be handled in accordance with our professional obligations. Some communications between you and us may also be protected by legal professional privilege.

There are limited circumstances in which we may be legally or professionally required or permitted to disclose information without your consent.

10. Identity Verification and Regulatory Checks

As a regulated law firm, we may be required to verify the identity of clients and other relevant individuals and undertake regulatory, sanctions, fraud-prevention or anti-money laundering checks where applicable. We may use third-party verification providers and information from appropriate databases or publicly available sources to carry out these checks.

11. International Transfers

Legal matters, particularly immigration matters, may involve individuals, organisations, authorities or service providers located outside the United Kingdom. This may result in personal information being transferred outside the UK. Where required by data protection law, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that international transfers are made lawfully and that appropriate safeguards are in place.

12. How We Protect Your Information

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction, alteration or disclosure. Access to personal information is restricted to individuals who require access for legitimate professional or business purposes. However, no internet, email or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

13. How Long We Keep Your Information

We will retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our legal services; comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; maintain appropriate professional records; comply with insurance requirements; deal with complaints or disputes; and establish, exercise or defend legal claims. The precise retention period may vary depending upon the nature of the matter and the information concerned.

When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted, destroyed or anonymised where appropriate.

14. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending upon the circumstances and applicable law, you may have the right to: access personal information we hold about you; correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information; request erasure of personal information in certain circumstances; request restriction of processing in certain circumstances; object to certain processing; request data portability where applicable; withdraw your consent where processing is based upon consent; and raise concerns about how your personal information is being used.

These rights are not absolute. Our professional, regulatory and legal obligations, including legal professional privilege and requirements to retain certain records, may mean that we cannot comply fully with a particular request. You will not normally be charged for exercising your data protection rights.

15. Marketing

We may send information about our services where we have a lawful basis to do so. Where consent is required for electronic marketing, we will obtain that consent. You can ask us to stop sending marketing communications at any time. We will not sell your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

16. Website Enquiries

If you contact us through our website, email, telephone or an online enquiry form, we will use the information you provide to respond to your enquiry and determine whether we may be able to assist you. Submitting an enquiry does not by itself create a solicitor-client relationship. Please avoid providing unnecessary sensitive information through a general website enquiry form.

17. Cookies and Website Information

Our website may collect technical information through cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies may be used where required for the website to operate. Non-essential cookies, including relevant analytics or marketing technologies, will be used only where permitted by applicable law and, where required, after obtaining your consent.

18. Automated Decision-Making

We do not ordinarily make decisions about the provision of our legal services based solely on automated processing which produces legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes in circumstances relevant to you, we will provide the information required by applicable data protection law.

19. Children's Personal Information

Our legal work may require us to process information relating to children, particularly in immigration and family law matters. We will only process children's personal information where there is an appropriate lawful basis and where it is relevant to the legal services being provided or our legal and professional obligations. We recognise that children's personal information requires particular protection and will handle such information accordingly.

20. Changes to This Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we process personal information. The current version will be published on our website and the date of the latest update will appear at the top of this notice.

21. Complaints and the Information Commissioner's Office

If you have concerns about the way we handle your personal information, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to address your concerns. For complaints relating to our legal services generally, our complaints email is: complaints@cvsolicitors.co.uk

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator. Crest View Solicitors Limited is registered with the ICO under registration number ZC240234.