Privacy Policy

We take your privacy very seriously

Burd Ward Solicitors Ltd are committed to your privacy and protection of your personal information. Our privacy policy contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us in the event you have a complaint.

Data protection principles

We comply with all data protection laws, which means that your data will be:

  • Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
  • Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you.
  • Relevant to the purposes we have told you about.
  • Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
  • Kept securely.

Personal data we collect about you

  • Your name, address and telephone number.
  • Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details.
  • Electronic contact details, e.g. your email address and mobile phone number.
  • Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation.
  • Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you.
  • Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction; or income and expenditure details to enable us to assess your eligibility for public funding.

Personal data we may collect

We may also require additional information depending on the type of matter we are dealing with for you. Some of the information we may collect include but are not limited to:

  • Your National Insurance and tax details.
  • Your bank and / or building society details.
  • Details of your spouse / partner or other family members.
  • Your employment status and details including salary and benefits.
  • Financial details.
  • Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and disability status.
  • Your medical records.
  • Police records.

This personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

How your personal data is collected

We collect most of this information from you either in person or online but we may also obtain information from:

  • Publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House, Land Registry etc.
  • Third parties with your consent including but are not limited to:
    • Your bank, building society, another financial institution or advisor
    • Consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter.
    • Your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals.
    • Local authorities
  • Our website.

How and why we use your personal data

Under data protection laws we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing

  • To comply with legal and regulatory obligations.
  • For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
  • For our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
  • Where you have given consent.

Promotional communications

We may use your personal data to send you updates about legal developments that might be of interest to you about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services or products.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by emailing us at info@burdward.co.uk or using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails.

Who we share your personal data with

We routinely share personal data with:

  • Professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
  • Other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, e.g. your mortgage provider, or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction, or Companies House;
  • Our insurers and brokers;
  • External auditors, e.g. in relation to CQS or other accreditations and the audit of our accounts;
  • Our professional regulators
  • The Legal Aid Agency, in cases where you are eligible for public funding (Legal Aid)
  • Our banks;
  • External service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. typing services, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis suppliers;

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

Where your personal data is held

Information may be held at our offices and those of third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf and to keep records required by law.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. Further details on how long we will keep your data for will be provided to you when your file is closed and sent for storage. We may retain your electronic data for a longer period of time than paper files.
When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

How to complain

We hope that our Information Compliance Manager can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulations also give you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk.

How to contact us

Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.

Our contact details are:
Michael Ward
Burd Ward Solicitors Ltd
23-27 Seaview Road
Wallasey Wirral
CH45 4QT
Email: info@burdward.co.uk
Telephone: 0151 639 8273

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