Privacy & Cookies

About us

Digby Brown LLP are a limited liability partnership providing legal services in Scotland and regulated by the Law Society of Scotland. We specialise in personal injury claims and employment law. This privacy notice relates to Digby Brown LLP and all wholly owned subsidiaries.

As an essential part of our business, we collect and handle the personal data of both clients and other individuals. Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable living person. In this notice, we will refer to this data as personal information. We act as data controller in relation to the personal information that we collect and handle. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK as a data controller.

The purpose of this notice

This privacy notice tells you about how we collect, manage and share the personal information of both clients and other individuals. It also sets out the rights you have in relation to the personal information that relates to you.

We will review the terms of our privacy notice regularly to make sure that the notice is kept up to date and accurate. On that basis, we recommend that you check our privacy notice from time to time. The privacy notice will reflect when the terms of this were last updated.

If you have any questions about the terms of this privacy notice or our data protection measures, you can contact our data protection representative directly at:

Email: Catherine.Hart@digbybrown.co.uk

Direct dial: 0141 566 9578

Who this policy applies to

This policy applies to any person whose personal information we collect, use and share. This includes:

  • Individuals making enquiries through our website, by phone, in person or in writing
  • Our clients
  • Individuals who may be involved in the legal matters we deal with for our clients, for example clients’ family members; witnesses; members of the emergency services; rehabilitation and care providers
  • Professionals we work with, for example advocates and experts, and those who provide services to Digby Brown LLP to enable us to run our business effectively
  • Job applicants

The purposes for which we collect personal data

We collect personal information to allow us to:

  • Manage our relationship with our clients, provide legal services, and respond to enquiries
  • Provide legal advice, legal services and raise and defend legal proceedings on our clients’ behalf
  • Meet our legal and regulatory obligations, for example so that we can carry out anti-money laundering checks
  • Ensure that we can make and receive payments during the course of conducting our business
  • Deal with any complaints
  • Deal with employment applications and enquiries
  • Carry out limited marketing and promotional activities in relation to the services we provide, directed towards both current clients and those who refer business to us, and to send out invitations to events we are holding or are involved in.

Our legal basis for processing the personal information

There are a number of bases on which we process personal information. These are:

  • To allow us to fulfil our obligations under a contract where the data subject is a party and this includes taking steps before entering into a contract
  • To fulfil a legal obligation that we are required to meet
  • When this is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of our clients, but only if these are not overridden by your interests, rights or freedoms as the data subject

Any legitimate interests pursued by us are as follows:

  • To engage with our clients and to allow us to provide legal services to them
  • To enable us to manage our business lawfully and effectively, for example
  • To allow us to manage risks and liabilities arising from our business and to put together management information reports
  • To assist in developing our business and services (such as identifying client needs and improvements in service delivery)
  • monitoring the services we provide clients for quality control purposes, which may involve processing the personal information stored on the relevant professional file
  • maintaining and using IT systems, including security monitoring

Consent

In certain limited circumstances, we may process personal information by consent. This will usually be because you have agreed to allow us to keep another person or organisation updated about the progress of the matter we are dealing with on your behalf. If consent is the only basis on which we are sharing personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent to that processing at any time.

It is our policy only to process personal information by consent when there is no other lawful basis for that processing.

Withdrawal of consent

If we process personal information based on your consent, you have a right to withdraw consent at any time. However, as noted above, we do not generally process personal information based on consent.

To withdraw consent, please advise the solicitor dealing with your case that you wish to do so.

The personal information we collect

Because of the nature of the services we provide, the types of personal information we process is varied and the personal information we collect and process on you will depend on the business relationship that we have with you or the context in which we deal with you. For details of the personal information we process, please see the categories of individual below:

If you are making an enquiry about our services:

Personal information we may process about individuals who make enquiries:

  • Name
  • Contact details, including addresses, phone number, email address
  • Date of birth
  • Gender
  • Details in relation to the matter about which you are contacting us. For example, if this relates to a claim following an accident, we would collect and process information about the date and location of the accident and your injuries and any financial losses.

 

If you are a client:

Personal information we may process about clients:

  • Name
  • Contact details, including addresses, phone number, email address
  • Date of birth
  • Identification details, including national insurance number, passport number, driver’s licence number
  • Gender
  • Details of family and social relationships
  • Details about education, qualifications and employment
  • Financial information, including bank account details
  • Information gathered from contact with you, including during phone calls, through emails and other correspondence and at meetings

 

If you are someone whose personal information we may collect, use and share while dealing with a case or claim on our clients’ behalf:

Personal information about individuals that we may collect, use and share while dealing with a case or claim on our clients’ behalf:

  • Name
  • Contact details, including addresses, phone number, email address
  • Date of birth
  • Identification details, including national insurance number, passport number, driver’s licence number
  • Gender
  • Details of family and social relationships
  • Details about education, qualifications and employment
  • Financial information
  • Information gathered from contact with you, including during phone calls, through emails and other correspondence and at meetings
  • Special category personal data, but this will only be processed if it is essential to

 

If you are a professional we work with or you provide services to Digby Brown LLP and our clients, or work for an organisation that provides those services:

Personal information we may process about professionals we work with or those who provide services to Digby Brown LLP and our clients, or work for an organisation that provides those services:

  • Name
  • Contact details, including address, phone number, email address
  • Details of your qualifications and experience
  • Any other details provided in your CV

 

If you are applying for a job with us:

Personal information we may process about job applicants:

  • Name
  • Data of birth
  • Marital status
  • Contact details, including address, phone number, email address
  • Identification information, such as driver’s license details
  • Details of your education, qualifications and employment history
  • Any other details from your CV eg hobbies and interests
  • Some special categories of personal data, but only in so far as this is essential to allow us to deal with your application, eg health information

 

Website Cookies 

The only personal information collected through the use of cookies when using this website is your IP address. The website also collects small amounts of anonymous information such as the pages you viewed, which device you are using to access the website etc.

We use Google Analytics to allow us to analyse the traffic to our site and to review a number of statistics regarding our visitors to improve performance of our website. Google Analytics uses cookies to monitor this information.

We also use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize this service and experience. Hotjar collects information such as how much time users spend on which pages, which links were clicked on etc. and this enables us to improve our website. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices and stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. 

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website.

This website will be unable to work effectively without the use of cookies, but you can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites by visiting:  Google Tools. 

You can also opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link. 

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit All About Cookies  

Third party cookies:

When visiting our website you may receive third party cookies that are sent by organisations which are outwith our control. We use the following third party cookies for social media purposes: 

  • Facebook.com - More details on their privacy policy here.  
  • Twitter.com – More details on their privacy policy here. 
  • Youtube.com - More details on their privacy policy here. 
  • Instagram – More details on their privacy policy here. 
  • Hotjar - More details on their privacy policy here. 
  • Pinterest - More details on their privacy policy here. 

We cannot control, and we do not have access to, any cookies placed on your computer by third party advertisers.

However, please note that, if you choose to disable cookies, this may mean parts of the website will not function correctly.

Special categories of personal data

We collect some special categories of personal data, but only in so far as this is essential to allow us to deal with cases on our clients’ behalf. Our legal basis for processing such information is that this is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of the legal claims we deal with on our clients’ behalf. The special categories of personal information concerned are:

  • health data
  • race and ethnic origin
  • trade union membership
  • sexual orientation and sex life

In addition, we may collect details of criminal convictions, but only when this is essential to allow us to deal with cases on our clients’ behalf.

Automated decision-making

We do not currently carry out any processes that involve automated decision-making. If that changes, we will update our privacy notice to make this clear.

Who do we share your personal information with?

In providing services to our clients and in complying with our legal obligations, we may share the personal data that we obtain

In the course of pursing legal claims on behalf of our clients, we will pass on personal information to third parties. Details of the third parties who may receive your personal information for purposes listed as part of our processing activities are listed below.

List of third parties:

  • Our clients
  • Witnesses and others we deal with while acting on behalf of our clients
  • Courts and Tribunals including sheriff courts, the Court of Session, the Supreme Court; employment tribunals, the Employment Appeal Tribunal; Social Security; Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority
  • Other parties involved in court and tribunal proceedings
  • Solicitors and agents acting on behalf of other parties in court and tribunal proceedings
  • Petitioners in adoption proceedings
  • Curators/Reporting Officers
  • Experts, for example medical professionals; accountants; actuaries; architects; accident reconstruction specialists; employment consultants
  • Advocates
  • National Registers of Scotland
  • Insurance Companies
  • ACAS
  • Government agencies
  • Regulatory bodies
  • Doctors
  • Hospitals
  • Treatment Providers
  • Tracing agents
  • Sheriff officers
  • Local agents
  • Law accountants
  • Referrers
  • Shorthand writers
  • Our web developers
  • Trustpilot
  • Funding providers
  • Data destruction and storage providers
  • Banks

Marketing activities

We carry out very limited marketing activities. In relation to clients, this involves asking for feedback about the services we have provided. If you do not want to receive any further emails asking for feedback, you will be able to let us know when you receive the initial email request. You will receive no further emails of this type from us.

We will only pass the following client information to Trustpilot, the on line review website, if the solicitor dealing with the client’s case considers this appropriate. For details of the personal information passed to Trustpilot and what this information is used for, please see below.

Personal information sent to Trustpilot:

  • Your mail address
  • Your first name
  • A unique Id code

Trustpilot will only contact our clients by email to invite the client to submit a review of the service received from us. This will include one email and a reminder email. Our clients are not obliged to answer these emails or to submit a review. After sending these client emails, Trustpilot will dispose of the data provided by us after three years and will not contact the client again, unless the client has chosen to subscribe directly to Trustpilot. If you submit a review, your details will be kept on their platform.

How long will we keep your personal information?

We will process personal information for as long as is reasonably necessary to allow us to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy notice. The retention periods for personal information depend on the nature of the information and the purposes for which we have been processing this.

We will keep the personal information required in relation to our clients’ cases or claims for ten years from the conclusion of the case or claim in accordance with the guidelines set out by the Law Society for Scotland in relation to civil cases. In some cases, we will have a legitimate reason to retain personal information for a longer period.

This may be, for example, if our client is entitled to seek payment of a further sum in the future in relation to the same claim. If we have to retain personal information in relation to a client matter for longer than 10 years, we will review the position regularly to ensure that the personal information is kept for no longer than necessary.

Your responsibilities

It is important that the personal information that we hold about you is accurate and up to date. If your personal information changes, please let the person dealing with your case know as soon as possible so that we can update the details that we hold.

Your rights as a data subject

Data subjects have a number of rights in relation to the personal information that we hold:

  • Right of access - this is often referred to as “subject access”. This gives you the right to find out if we process any of your personal information and to obtain a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. This will help you to understand how and why we are using this information, and to check that we are doing this lawfully. Except in exceptional circumstances, you can obtain this information free of charge.
  • Right of rectification – you have the right to have any personal information that we hold about you corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances, you can ask for the personal information that we hold about you to be erased from our records.
  • Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply, you have a right to restrict the processing of your personal information.
  • Right of portability – you have the right to have the personal information we hold about you electronically transferred to another organisation.
  • Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing, such as direct marketing.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact our data protection representative, whose details can be found in the next section.

Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by Digby Brown LLP or any third parties on our behalf, or you are not satisfied about how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the supervisory authority and Digby Brown LLP’s data protection representative. The details for each of these contacts are:

Supervisory authority contact details:

  • Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
  • Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate number)
  • Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Digby Brown LLP:

Review of this policy

The terms of this policy will be reviewed regularly and updated as required.