Privacy Policy
MAURICE BLACKBURN PTY LTD (ACN 105 657 949)
Maurice Blackburn Pty Ltd and its related entities (collectively ‘Maurice Blackburn’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) respect your privacy. We will handle your personal data with care and according to law.
This policy explains our obligations and how we manage your information.
1 LEGISLATION THAT APPLIES TO US
- Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
- Australian Privacy Principles (‘APP’)
- In some situations - European Union (‘EU’) data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) (‘GDPR’) (in which the data controller is Maurice Blackburn Pty Ltd).
2 KINDS OF INFORMATION WE MANAGE
Type of information | What it means | Examples |
Personal information | Information or an opinion about you where you can be reasonably identified (directly or indirectly). It does not have to be true. |
|
Sensitive information | A subcategory of personal information which is more sensitive in nature. |
|
Government Related Identifiers | Number or letters assigned by a government authority to identify you. |
|
3 HOW AND WHY WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION
| Why | How |
Client/Potential Client | Primary purpose: to provide you legal services and to perform our contractual obligations to do so. If we require sensitive information (for example, your medical records), we get your consent first. Secondary purposes:
| Directly from you either verbally, in writing or from documents you give us. Under freedom of information, health records and other legislation. Taxation records from the Australian Taxation Office. Information from other government agencies. Medical records from health professionals. Statements from policing authorities and witnesses. Information from employers andformer employers. Financial information from accountants and financial advisors. Claims records from insurers. Data from our website and the internet as a result of receiving subscription applications and emails. |
Job applicant | Primary purpose: to assess your job application and maintain a skilled workforce. This includes:
In Australia, your application is consent for us to use this information to assess your application and to allow us to carry out any monitoring requirements under law as an employer. | Directly from you in writing or verbally via your application form, resume and covering letter. Recruitment agency applications. Face to face and video interviews and phone calls. Publicly available sources such as LinkedIn or other social media sites. Third parties for reference, police and background checks.
|
Website user |
|
|
Service Provider | Primary purpose: To administer and manage our legal services business. Where you provide us with personal information about someone else, you must have their consent. | Directly from you in writing or verbally via your tender or our agreement. Recruitment agency. Publicly available sources such as LinkedIn, Google or other social media sites. Third parties for reference checks. |
You are not obligated to provide information about you. However, you don’t give it to us we may be unable to carry out the task i.e., provide legal services or consider a job application.
4 HOW WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE
We provide physical security to hard copy files and restricted access to electronic records. Sometimes we store your information with secure third-party storage providers.
We also require our employees and service providers to keep personal information confidential.
If we receive unsolicited information about you that we are not legally entitled to, we will destroy or de-identify it as soon as practicable, if it is legal and reasonable.
5 WE DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION TO SOME THIRD PARTIES
We disclose your information to the following third parties outside of Maurice Blackburn where it is reasonably necessary for the purposes in Section 3 above:
- courts, tribunals, ombudsmen, commissions and regulatory authorities (information provided to courts and tribunals may be made available to other parties to the litigation and will be on the public record);
- other parties involved in your matter and their solicitors (for example, counter parties to litigation or a transaction);
- third parties who help us in providing legal services or who provide services to you;
- recruitment services, data storage, distribution and mailing services, direct marketing, technology support services, and business development services;
- insurers;
- litigation and disbursement funders;
- unions;
- financial institutions;
- market researchers and analysts; and
- any entity or person with your authority.
We have contracts with service providers that require them to comply with privacy laws
6 WE MAY SEND YOU MARKETING OR LEGAL UPDATES
If you give consent (and do not unsubscribe), we may send you marketing information about:
- changes or improvements to our services;
- changes to the law or potential legal claims that you may have.
To opt-out of marketing emails, email: support@mauriceblackburn.com.au.
We may provide your name and address to a mailing house for this. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please tell the lawyer handling your matter or our Privacy Officer on 03 9605 2700 or by emailing p2@mauriceblackburn.com.au.
We may also use information about you within Maurice Blackburn or provide it to a related body corporate to help enhance the quality of legal services we offer to other clients or to the wider community.
7 WHEN WE MAY DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION OVERSEAS
We do not generally transfer personal information from Australia to overseas parties, unless working with international service providers or required by law.
Clients/Prospective Clients
- Where we consult overseas-based experts and/or law practices regarding your claim.
- Where your matter is funded by an overseas-based litigation funder.
- Where we engage overseas-based services providers.
At this time and to the best of our knowledge the overseas recipients could be located in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Europe or the United States.
Careers and Recruitment
Some of our recruitment technology service providers may have data centres located outside of Australia. At this time and to the best of our knowledge the overseas data centre could be located in the United States, Singapore and in other countries.
8 WHEN WE MAY DISCLOSE FROM THE EU / EEA TO OUTSIDE THE EU / EEA
If EU data protection law applies to your personal data, the following section applies:
- We may collect your personal information in the EU and transfer it outside the EU or European Economic Area (‘EEA’) to countries such as Australia, the United States, Canada, Singapore or the United Kingdom.
- Your personal information may be processed by staff outside the EEA who work for us or our suppliers (for example, a data centre located in the United States or Australia).
- We will take all reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is secure in accordance with data protection laws
- We will not transfer personal information outside the EEA unless we have a safeguard, for example a data transfer agreement. This would have the European Commission’s published standard clauses. This won’t apply if the recipient is in a country that the European Commission has said is adequate (under Art. 45 GDPR). You can ask our Privacy Officer for a copy of these agreements (contact details in section 6 & 9).
9 YOUR RIGHTS UNDER AUSTRALIAN PRIVACY PRINCIPLES
Your right | Details | How |
To access and correct your information | You can ask our Privacy Officer:
| Privacy Officer: Phone: 03 9605 2700 Email: privacy@mauriceblackburn.com.au Post: P.O. Box 523, Melbourne VIC 3001. |
To complain
| If you are unhappy with how we manage your information or if you believe that we have breached the APP, you may write a complaint to our Privacy Officer. If we don’t resolve your concerns as soon as reasonably possible, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. | Privacy Officer: Phone: 03 9605 2700 Email: privacy@mauriceblackburn.com.au Post: P.O. Box 523, Melbourne VIC 3001. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: Phone: 1300 363 992 Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au. |
To get a copy of this Privacy Policy
| You can get a copy of this Privacy Policy from our website or by asking our Privacy Officer. | Website: https://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au/privacy Privacy Officer: Phone: 03 9605 2700 Email: privacy@mauriceblackburn.com.au Post: P.O. Box 523, Melbourne VIC 3001. |
10 YOUR RIGHTS UNDER EU DATA PROTECTION LAW (GDPR)
If EU data protection law (including the GDPR) applies, you may have the following rights:
Your right | Details |
To access your personal information. | We will provide this in electronic form. We may ask you to prove your identity first. If you require multiple copies, we may charge a reasonable administration fee. |
To ask us to fix incorrect/inaccurate personal information |
|
To ask us to delete your personal information. | This does not apply where we need to keep it for legal obligations or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
|
To restrict our use of your personal information | This is where:
|
To get your personal information in a portable format | This is in a structured, electronic form. We can transfer information to another data controller, where this is:
|
To object to us using your personal information based on your particular situation | We will agree unless we have compelling legitimate grounds which overrides your interests and rights, or if we need the information for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim. |
To withdraw consent for us to use your information | You can do this at any time, free of charge. This includes where you wish to opt out from marketing messages (see Section 5 above). |
You can send us a request to our Privacy Officer by email at privacy@mauriceblackburn.com.au or by mail to P.O. Box 523, Melbourne VIC 3001.
You can also lodge a complaint with the local data protection authority if you believe that we have not complied with applicable data protection laws. For a list of local data protection authorities in the other EEA countries go to https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en.
Our authorised representative in the EU is Claims Funding International Plc, Hamilton House, 28 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, D02 P283, Ireland.
11 DESTRUCTION, DE-IDENTIFICATION AND PUTTING BEYOND USE
Once we are no longer legally or contractually obliged to keep your information, we will either destroy or de-identify it. If you are a client, we must keep information about your legal matter for seven (7) years once your case is closed. In some cases, we keep documents for longer than this (for example, a Will).
Sometimes your information is held electronically and we can’t permanently destroy or de-identify it without compromising other information we have to keep. If this happens, we will put your information “beyond use”. This means we:
- won’t attempt to use your information;
- can’t give another entity your information;
- will restrict access to your information; and
- will take reasonable steps to destroy the information if this is possible in the future, in accordance with our Document Retention Policy and relevant laws.