From 21 December 2001 the National Privacy Principles ("NPPs") contained in Schedule 3 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)will regulate the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by us.
We are conscious of the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of your personal information. You can be assured that we only collect personal information that is necessary for us to carry out our duties. We also take all possible steps to ensure that your personal information is not disclosed to or accessed by unauthorised persons.
2. Personal Information
The personal information which we hold may include your name, residential address, postal address, telephone number, facsimile number, mobile telephone number, email address, occupation, place of work, date of birth, hobbies or interests, membership of a trade or professional association and an emergency contact being a person not residing with you.
Your membership of a trade or professional association is regarded as sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
3. Use of Personal Information
We collect personal information from you for the purpose of providing legal services, including carrying out our duties as set out in the Client Service Agreement between us. These services extend to advising you of updates in the law trough our newsletter and asking you to randomly respond to surveys, to ensure we meet your requirements.
4. Organisations to which we may disclose information
We do not ordinarily contract out services that involve disclosing personal information about you to other organisations. We collect personal information directly from you, or in some cases directly from the professional or trade association that referred you to us.
In some circumstances, we may be required to pass on information about you to particular third parties. The most likely entities to which we may provide information include:
4.1. Baycorp Advantage
We are a member of Baycorp Advantage, a credit reporting agency. We may give information about you, to Credit Advantage in order to obtain a consumer credit report about you, and/or allow Credit Advantage to create or maintain a credit information file containing information about you. The information however is limited to:
identity particulars - your name, sex, address (and the previous two addresses), date of birth, name of employer, and driver's licence number;
the fact that you have applied for credit and the amount (which will be our estimate of your total likely fees and costs);
the fact that McKays is a current credit provider to you;
details of any accounts which are overdue by more than 60 days, and for which debt collection action has started;
advice that an account is no longer overdue in respect of any default that has been listed;
dishonoured cheques - cheques drawn by you for $100.00 or more that have been dishonoured more than once.
4.2. Barristers and Experts
In matters where it is necessary for us to obtain an opinion from a barrister or an expert, we will disclose to such persons all information held by us which is relevant to your matter, in order to obtain such an opinion.
4.3. Professional or Trade Associations
If you are a member of a professional or trade association, and that association has referred you to us for the provision of legal services, we will disclose to such association the fact that we are acting for you in a matter in order to obtain any required documentation or information from the association.
5. Breaches of Privacy
If you are concerned that we may have breached your privacy:
mention it first to the person looking after your matter, then
if you are still unhappy (or feel you are unable to discuss the problem with the person looking after your matter) please contact one of the partners who will investigate your concerns and contact you to discuss the problem.
6. The person looking after your matter, and the relevant partner, can be contacted by telephone at our Brisbane Office on 07 3223 5999 or our Mackay Office on 07 4963 0800, as the case may be.
Mackay Office
Brisbane Office
J M Mckay House 11 - 17 Sydney Street PO Box 37 MACKAY QLD 4740 DX 41389 MACKAY QLD
7. Requests to access personal information Except in a few unusual circumstances provided for in the NPPs, you are able to gain access to any personal information which we may hold about you. Should you wish to obtain access to such information, please either telephone us at our Brisbane Office on (07) 3223 5999 or our Mackay Office on (07) 4963 0800 or provide us with a written request by writing to us at PO Box 12275, George Street, Brisbane Qld 4003 or alternatively at P0 Box 37, Mackay Qld 4740, as the case may be.
Please note that there may be a fee for supplying the information and/or documentation to you. This fee will be calculated as an estimate of the cost to reimburse us for the expense of retrieving and/or copying the information or documentation. Wherever possible, we will advise you of the amount of this fee before retrieval of the information and/or documentation.
We will endeavour to respond to your request for access as soon as possible. However, our response time will depend upon the type or amount of information requested and how the information is held by us.
Where you have made a written request for access, we will acknowledge the request within fourteen (14) days.
If we consider your request to be straightforward, we will endeavour to respond within fourteen (14) days. Unless exceptional circumstances apply, we will respond to your request within a maximum of thirty (30) days.
8. How we hold your personal information Your personal information is handled by us securely, archived securely and disposed of securely.
In most cases, your personal information is held by us in electronic format, and online security measures are in place, such as password protection, to ensure that only authorised employees have access to your information.
9. Thank you Thank you for being one of our clients. You can be assured that we are ever conscious of the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of your personal information.
Disclaimer
The legal content on this website has been provided for general interest only. It does not constitute legal advice. People seeking legal advice are advised to contact a qualified professional directly. Our solicitors will be able to advise you.
Although we make every effort to keep the legal information on our website accurate and up-to-date we do not guarantee this. If you make use of the information on this site it is at your own risk.
Our website contains links to other websites. These links have been established on the basis that they may be of use to people visiting our site for legal information. Statewide Conveyancing has no control over the information contained on these other websites. We disclaim any liability in respect of the information contained on these other websites.
Finally, we accept no liability for any loss or damage or cost incurred to you as a result of our website being infected by a computer virus or other defect.
