Website Privacy Policy

SJS Solicitors understand that your privacy is of the utmost importance to you and that you have the right to know about how your personal data is being used by this firm and how we safeguard your data.

SJS Solicitors have always been committed to upholding your data privacy rights. This policy has been updated as of May 2018 to ensure full compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) which comes into effect on 25th May 2018. The policy also ensures enforcement of regulations set by the DPA (Data Protection Act) which enforced the protection of your data prior to the introduction of the GPDR and the PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) 2003.

This policy is split up into several topics:

The extent of this policy
Policy terms and definitions
Information about SJS Solicitors
Your privacy rights
What personal data do we collect?
How do we use your data?
Where and how do we store your data?
How to access the personal information we hold on you?

Do we share your data?
What happens if the firm is sold?
How can you control your data?
Your right to withhold information
Files, video and media available for download by this website
Your contact and communication with us
External website links and third-party involvement with your data
Our Social Media policy and usage
Website use of cookies
Other reasons why we may disclosure your personal information
Future changes to this privacy notice
How to contact us for any reason in regards to your personal data?

Section 1: The extent of this policy

This privacy policy applies to your use of our website only. Our site contains links to other websites, but we have no control over how these external websites manage your data. We highly recommend that you check the respective privacy policies for any external company before you provide any personal data to them. Our clients, who utilise the legal services of this firm, should refer to our firm’s Privacy Policy included with your terms of engagement, confidentiality and business.

Section 2: Policy terms and definitions

In this policy these terms have the following meanings:

Term	Definition
“we, us, our, SJS, the firm”	Refers to SJS Solicitors, a firm of solicitors authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 401058. The registered address of this firm is 82 Balham High Road, London, Balham, SW12 9AG.
“you, your”	Refers to you, the visitor to this website through your own personal computer or device.
“cookies”	Cookies are small digital files, of which this website, with permission, saves to a user’s computer hard drive for the sole purpose of tracking, saving and storing information about the user’s interaction with the website so that the website can provide a more tailored experience within the web environment to that user.
“account”	Refers to an account provided to you, the user, to access or use certain areas of this website.

Section 3: Information about SJS Solicitors

This section outlines some fundamental information about our firm, and any further required information can be obtained by contacting us, see Section 20.

This website is owned and operated by SJS Solicitors whose registered address is 82 Balham High Road, London, Balham, SW12 9AG
We are authorised and regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 401058
Our VAT number is GB 743909902
Our Data Controller is Mrs Savita Sukul, and can be contacted by email directly at savita@sjssolicitors.co.uk, by telephone on 0208 675 4436 or 07957 641 749 (emergency / out of hours) or by post at SJS Solicitors, 82 Balham High Road, London, Balham, SW12 9AG
We are a sole practitioner practice

Section 4: Your privacy rights

You have the following rights under the GDPR, of which this policy and the firm’s use of personal data have been designed to uphold:

Your right to be informed about our collection and use of personal data
Your right to access the personal data we hold on you
Your right to change and modify any personal data we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete
Your right to ask your data held by us to be deleted
Your right to restrict or entirely prevent the processing of your personal data
Your right to obtain a copy of your personal data to re-use with another service or organisation
Your right to object to us using your personal data for non-matter related purposes (e.g. direct marketing purposes)
Your right with respect to automated decision making and profiling (SJS Solicitors do not currently use automated decision making and profiling. If this changes in the future, this policy will be updated, and all relevant parties will be informed of this well in advance)

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact us and we will do our best to solve the problem for you. Section 20 details our specific contact details for data protection matters. If we are unable to help, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. For further information about your rights, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

The following sections are designed to demonstrate how we ensure that your rights listed in Section 4 are adhered to.

Section 5: What personal data do we collect?

The use of our website dictates the personal collection of data. You may access certain areas of our website without providing any data at all. However, to use certain features and functionality, you will be required to submit or allow for the collection of your data.

Should you use a contact us service, i.e. an email to us, an online form or through a live chat service, we may collect the following information:

Your name
Your business or company title, along with details such as job title, or profession
Contact information such as email addresses or telephone numbers
Any data you supply to use via a text input box such as those used in our contact form or live chat service
Demographical information such as your general location, preferences and interests
Your IP address, web browser type and version, computer operating system

Additionally, our site makes use of cookies, detailed in Section 17.

Section 6: How do we use your data?

Our use of your personal data will always have a lawful basis, either because it is necessary for our performance of retainer with you, because you have consented to our use of your personal data and that is in our legitimate interests.

Specifically, we may use your data for the following purposes:

Opening a file for your matter
Providing and managing your account (if one exists) with the firm
To tailor and personalise your web experience with us
Providing and managing your access to our website
To properly supply our services to you (please note that we require your personal data to act in any matter for you)
To reply to emails from you
To carry out marketing research to better provide services to our client
To analyse the use of our website and gathering feedback from you to further enable our firm to continually improve our website content and user experience

The following only apply if you specifically allow us to use your personal details for marketing purposes, the option for this will be clearly given to you at any stage where opting in (or out) is an option, for further information see Section 11 on how to control how we use your data. If you do choose to opt-in for such purposes, you shall be able to unsubscribe at any time, see Section 20 for appropriate contact details.

Supplying you with marketing emails that you have specifically opted into
We may also use your data for other marketing purposes which may include contacting you by email telephone with information, news and offers on services, only when we feel they are relevant to you
We will not send you any unsolicited marketing or spam and will always take all reasonable steps to ensure that we fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003

We do not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary considering the reason in which it was first collected. Data will therefore be retained for the following periods:

Communication sent through a contact form, live-chat service, email or other website service will be kept by the firm the period of 1 month if no further communication is initiated after the first communication from you.

The live chat service and online appointment booking system is provided using third-party services, where we have ensured that the services used is compliant with the GDPR regulations, and where possible provided a method to the user to control their data. For more information on third party data usage, see Section 15.

Section 7: Where and how do we store your data?

All personal data is processed and stored securely, for no longer than is necessary considering the reason in which it was first collected.

We will comply with our obligations to protect your data rights as listed in Section 4 and safeguard your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998, the EC Directive 2003 and the new GDPR always.

We only keep your personal data for as long as we need to use it as described in this policy, or for as long as we have your permission to keep it.

Some of your data may be kept outside the European Economic Area and thus not governed under GDPR. We will ensure that if any data is to be stored outside the EEA, the agents responsible sign are signed into a compliant GDPR agreement. Data security is very important to us, and to protect your data we have taken suitable measures to safeguard and secure data collected through our site.

Wherever needed, we have signed data processing addendums to ensure our third parties comply with your data protection rights.

Section 8: How to access the personal information we hold on you?

You have the right to ask for a copy of any of your personal data held by us (where such data is held). No fee is payable, and we will happily provide all information in response to your request free of charge.

Please contact us for more details either by email at gdpr@sjssolicitors.co.uk, or in writing by posting to our registered address: SJS Solicitors, 82 Balham High Road, London, Balham SW12 9AG.

Section 9: Do we share your data?

In certain circumstances, where we may be legally required to share certain data held by, which may include your personal data, for example, where we are involved in legal proceedings, where we are complying with legal obligations, a court order, or a governmental authority. Please see Section 18 for further details on this.

We do compile statistical data using a third party analytic service to analyse data on traffic, including, but not limited to, usage patterns, number of users visiting the website, most popular services. This data is anonymised and does not contain any information that can be used to identify you. We may from time to time share such data with third parties such as prospective investors, affiliates, partners, and advertisers. Data will only be shared and used within the bounds of the law.

We will not share any of your data with any third parties for any purposes other than that to provide full functionality of this website. Functions such as our online appointment booking system require use of third parties. Please see Section 15 for further details on this.

Section 10: What happens if the firm is sold?

As a firm, it is entirely possible that through expansion or reduction of our business, there may be the possibility of sale, partial sale, or change in the controlling interesting of the business. In this case, the firm would still be under GDPR enforcement of all your personal data. Although personal data that you have provided will, where it is relevant to any part of our business that is being transferred, be transferred along with that part and the new owner or newly controlling party will, under the terms of this Privacy Policy, be permitted to use that data only for the same purposes for which it was originally collected by us.

Please note that if any of your data is to be transferred in such a manner, you will be contacted in advance and informed of the changes.

Section 11: How can you control your data?

In addition to your rights under the GDPR set out in Section 4, when you submit personal data through our website, you will be given the option as if your data should only be used for purposes pertaining directly to your matter, or if you are happy to give your consent for us to use the data for direct marketing purposes. If you choose to do so, you can opt-out at any time by contacting us, please see Section 20, and instructions will be given in the footer of any such marketing material for opting out from such messages.

There are also services that you can sign up to such as the Telephone Preference Service, the Corporate Telephone Preference Service, or the Mailing Preference Service to help you prevent unsolicited marketing. This will not affect you receiving all communications from us that you have consented to receiving.

You have the right to ask us to delete all data we hold on you, to do this please use the details given in Section 20 using the subject title “GDPR Request – Delete My Data” and we shall respond to you within 2 business days.

Section 12: Your right to withhold information

You may access certain areas of our site without providing any data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on this website, you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data. A user who wants to withhold their information should not use data submission services such as our contact form, live-chat service or online appointment booking service.

Section 13: Files, video and media available for download by this website

Any downloadable documents, files or media made available on this website are provided to users at their own risk. While all precautions have been undertaken to ensure only genuine downloads are available users are advised to verify their authenticity using their own anti-virus software or similar applications. We accept no responsibility for third party downloads and downloads provided by external third-party websites and advise users to verify their authenticity again using their own anti-virus software or similar applications.

Section 14: Your contact and communication with us

Users contacting us through this website do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use.

Only if you give your explicit consent will your contact details be added to our direct marketing mailing list, and only in accordance with this privacy policy.

Section 15: External website links and third-party involvement with your data

The full functionality of this website requires us to utilise third-party services. We ensure that the services we are using also have suitable policies safeguarding the data they store, and where needed we have reached data processing addendums with third-parties to ensure they abide by GDPR regulations, such as where data is stored outside the EEA.

External Links

It is our goal that this website be useful and informative to all users. As such we aim to only include useful, safe and relevant external website links. However, we are not in control of such content. As such, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website. We cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite our best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.

WordPress, 1&1 and Google Analytics

We use services provided by WordPress.com and 1&1 Internet as platforms for our website content and blog. We utilise their services for analytical data, as well as services provided by Google Analytics but this is fully anonymised data and cannot be used to identify any individual users. WordPress requires visitors that want to post a comment to enter a name and email address.

Online Appointment Booking System and Live Chat Service

Our online appointment booking system and live chat services both utilise third-parties for operation and does store personal information, e.g. relating to the appointment you have booked through it. In the event of no further contact with you, the data will be kept only in accordance with this policy.

Media Hosting Platforms

This website utilises media hosting platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo to display media content to our users. These platforms may collect anonymised data for analytical purposes only.

Section 16: Our Social Media policy and usage

As with many modern businesses, we maintain official profiles on multiple social media platforms in order to better connect with and provide a more efficient and useful service to our clients. We will never ask for user passwords or personal details on social media platforms. Users are advised to conduct themselves appropriately when engaging with us on social media. Users should also always ensure they are interacting with our firm by official social media pages only. This firm does not accept service by email or through any social media page.

There may be instances where our website features social sharing buttons, which help share web content directly from web pages to the respective social media platforms. You use social sharing buttons at your own discretion and accept that doing so may publish content to your social media profile feed or page. You can find further information about some social media privacy and usage policies through the privacy pages of the social media platforms.

Section 17: Website use of cookies

This website like many others utilises cookies to personalise and provide our users with a better service. You have the right to block us from using cookies using either our cookie control system, which is compliant with the laws and regulations regarding cookies under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) 2003. Our cookie control system can be configured using the privacy settings tab on the right hand side of our homepage.

Additionally, you can use your browser settings to block this website, and all others, from setting cookies on your personal device. For further information, please review the help guide for your browser.

Section 18: Other reasons why we may disclosure your personal information

We will not disclose your personal data without consent in most circumstances.

However, there are occasions where we will be required by law and regulation to do so, such as when we investigate a complaint, for example, we will need to share personal information with the organisation concerned and with other relevant bodies, such as the SRA or Legal Ombudsman.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of reasons we may disclose your personal information:

agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information
to prevent and detect crime and to produce anonymised statistics
training of staff on how to collect, use and delete personal data
checking that the information we hold is accurate and up to date

You can contact us through the contact information listed in Section 20 for further information.

Section 19: Future changes to this privacy notice

This firm reviews all policies annually, and with data protection being a pressing issue for us, we keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 23rd May 2018.

Section 20: How to contact us for any reason in regards to your personal data?

You may contact us at any time for more information about how we safeguard your data or if you have any questions about this privacy policy.

For all privacy matters, please contact us either by email: gdpr@sjssolicitors.co.uk, by telephoning our office and speaking to our Data Controller by 0208 675 4436 or through writing to us at: SJS Solicitors, 82 Balham High Road, London, Balham, SW12 9AG

We try to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. We take any complaints we receive about any matter seriously, and especially when it comes to your personal data. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures. If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, you can contact us: info@sjssolicitors.co.uk for the attention of Mrs Savita Sukul, the Principal/Solicitor, or in writing at: Mrs Savita Sukul, SJS Solicitors, 82 Balham High Road, London SW12 9AG.