Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Coote Family Lawyers is committed to protecting your privacy. We aim to ensure that the personal information you provide to us is handled securely and confidentially. This Privacy Policy has been prepared in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) in the Privacy Act 1988. A copy of the principles can be viewed at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at http://www.oaic.gov.au/

 

What is personal information?

Personal information is information from which a person’s identity can be identified or from which an individual’s identity is reasonably identifiable. It may include your name, date of birth, contact details, photographs, credit information. This information may also include the details about your dealings with us.

 

What is sensitive information?

Sensitive information is any information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, sexual preferences or practices, criminal records or health information.

We will not ask you to disclose sensitive information unless it is necessary for providing our services to you. However, if you provide unsolicited sensitive information to us, it may be stored by us.

 

Why do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information to enable us to provide services to you, and to manage our ongoing relationship with you. This generally occurs when you seek legal advice and legal services from us, ask to receive information from us, apply to work for us or provide services to us.

 

How do we collect personal information?

We usually collect your personal information directly from you during the course of our relationship with you. Where necessary, and to provide you with legal services, Coote Family Lawyers may collect personal information about you from other sources, such as the internet, other parties or lawyers involved in your case or through searches of the Land Titles Office or ASIC records.

We normally collect personal information by way of face-to-face meetings, telephone conversations, emails and from third parties such as regulatory authorities. We only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions, which is to provide you with prompt and effective legal services, or to be able to provide you with other information or services you request from us.

 

Information security

We will take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold about you by storing it in a secure environment. We may store your personal information in paper form, electronic form, or both. We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. All of our staff and contractors that deal with your information are subject to this Policy. Our information technology systems and our offices have secure and effective systems controls.

 

Use and disclosure of your personal information

We may collect, use and disclose your personal information to:

• Other entities as part of providing services to you, including barristers, experts and/or valuers who have been engaged by us in the course of legal proceedings. Personal information may also be disclosed to other parties involved in the dispute resolution process;
• Third party service providers such as referrers, governments, professional and statutory bodies, accountants, financial advisors, legal practitioners, valuers, investigators, experts, medical professionals, mental health professionals and other individuals connected with the conduct of legal matters on behalf of our clients; and
• Other parties where you have consented for us to do so.

We do not routinely disclose personal information overseas unless it is specifically appropriate and required to provide our legal services to you because of your particular circumstances.

This information may be required to be disclosed to other parties in accordance with your instructions and in the process of conducting your matter. Other parties may include:

• Statutory bodies, including Courts and Tribunals in all jurisdictions (e.g. Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia and Magistrates’ Court), Land Use Victoria, State Revenue Office, A.S.I.C, Victorian Legal Services Board + Commissioner and the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Storage facilities and archive services, financial institutions, process servers, PEXA, title search organisations, IT support providers, software support providers and other external parties who provide services in connection with the operation of our legal practice.

 

Keeping your personal information up-to-date

We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of that information largely relates to the information you provide. We recommend that you let us know if there are any errors in your personal information and keep us up to date with changes to your personal information such as your name or address.

 

Correction of personal information

It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is both accurate and up to date. We encourage you to contact us to update any of your details or to correct any inaccuracies which may have inadvertently been recorded by us.

 

How to access your personal information

If you have any queries regarding our privacy policy or wish to gain access to personal information we may hold about you please contact us at mail@cootefamilylawyers.com.au.

 

Our website

You can visit and use our website anonymously. We do not collect personal or identifying information through our website. When you access this site we may record a simple log of your visit for statistical purposes only. The log does not contain any personally identifying material. We use the statistical information collected to analyse our site’s usage and performance and to further develop our site. Our web server may send cookies to your computer in order to improve the functionality of our webpage. The cookies do not contain any personally identifying information.

 

Complaint process

Any complaint made in relation to our privacy policy will be investigated and the outcome of any investigation will be communicated to you in writing. Please allow at least 30 days for us to respond to any complaint made. You can direct any complaints to the Privacy Officer at: mail@cootefamilylawyers.com.au or on (03) 9804 0035.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of any investigation, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

 

Updates to this policy

We may vary this policy when there are changes in law, technology or the way we operate. The most recent version can always be accessed on our website.

Alternatively, you can write to us c/: Privacy Officer, Coote Family Lawyers, P O Box 8024, Camberwell North VIC 3124 or by email at mail@cootefamilylawyers.com.au