Scope
Maguire Legal collects, uses and discloses personal information relating to various individuals in the course of providing legal advice, marketing our services and running our business. As a legal practice, protecting the confidentiality and privacy of information is fundamental to our professional relationships.
This policy explains how we handle your personal information. It deals with the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, as well as access to personal information and security issues. Nothing in this policy limits any of our other obligations at law.
Collection
Personal information we hold may include your name, current and previous addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, details of your organisation and information we require to perform our services for you.
Personal information entered into client files will not to be used or disclosed by us, except as authorised by the client to perform our services for them. Access to this information by third parties can only be granted by you.
We will only collect sensitive information such as health information if the individual has consented, or if the collection is otherwise in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). For instance, where the collection of sensitive information is required by law or necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal or equitable claim.
Should you choose not to provide personal information we may not be able to provide you with the services you require or at a sufficient level that we regard as important for performing at best practice.
We may collect personal information from the information supplied by you:
- in conversation and communication with you and your employees
- from third parties including employees, related companies or your representatives
- from publicly available sources of information
- when we are required to do so by law
- from our own records of your subscription with Maguire Legal Subscribe
Accessing our electronic publications
When you access our website or electronic publications, we do not use your browsing information to identify you personally. We may collect information such as the webpages you access on our site, the documents you download and the type of browser you use. This information is anonymous and is used to assess the effectiveness of our communications.
Accessing our website may cause a small file called a “cookie” to be stored on your computer. Cookies allow us to make the information on our website more accessible and effective and can avoid you receiving the same information from us repeatedly. Most internet browsers are initially set up to accept all cookies, but you can change the settings in your browser to refuse all cookies or to notify you each time a cookie is sent to your computer, giving you the choice whether to accept it or not.
Analytics
Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (Google). Google Analytics uses cookies to help analyse how users use the website. Google Analytics anonymously tracks how users interact with the website, including where they came from, what they did on the website and whether they completed any transactions on the website.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of compiling reports on the website activity and providing other services relating to the website and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate a person’s IP address with any other data held by Google. You can opt out of the collection of information via Google Analytics by downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out browser add here.
Google’s privacy policy can be found here.
Use and disclosure
Maguire Legal uses and discloses personal information it collects for the primary purposes of:
- providing legal services to clients, ensuring our service commitment to clients is met, and to advise individuals about related matters
- meeting our internal professional and business requirements, including marketing our legal practice business.
Your personal information may also be used by us or our associates to:
- provide you the information related to your Maguire Legal Subscription or other legal fees
- collect payments and to administer your account
- provide you with updated or new information about our products and services
- maintain and update our business infrastructure and systems
- promote our other products and services to you
We may also disclose personal information to our third-party service providers in connection with the provision of ongoing or case-specific services. Where your personal information is provided to these third parties, they are required to abide by the APPs and use the personal information provided for the sole purpose of supplying their specific services.
If you do not wish to receive promotional material and information on other products and services or be contacted by us on any matter other than those matters directly related to your Maguire Legal Subscription please advise us
Quality
Maguire Legal takes reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of that information depends to a large extent on 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 information
Security
We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
We will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed.
Access
You are able to access your personal information that we hold, with some exceptions as allowed by law.
Client records are generally retained for 7 years. If the information is no longer required by us for any purpose for which it was collected and is no longer required by law to be retained by us, we will destroy or de-identify the information.
To obtain a copy of your personal information, email the Privacy Officer at Maguire Legal requesting the information and we will provide it to you. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for the provision of this information.
If we deny you access to, or we refuse to correct, your personal information, we will provide you with our reasons for the decision.
Enquiries
Maguire Legal will endeavour to resolve any identified problems with the collection, use or disclosure of personal information.
All inquiries and complaints should be addressed to:
Privacy Officer
Maguire Legal
L24, 570 Bourke St
Melbourne VIC 3000
P 1300 021 800
maguire@maguire.com.au
If you are dissatisfied with the resolution of your complaint please contact the Australian Information Commissioner. Visit the Australian Government – Office of the Australian Information Commissioner Website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/.
Updated 22 February 2023