Johnston Withers Privacy Policy.

Johnston Withers fully understands the importance of your privacy. As an Australian Privacy Principle entity, we respect your rights under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“the Act”) and the Australian Privacy Principles. This policy is dated August 2022 and governs Johnston Withers Lawyers Pty Ltd (“us, our, Johnston Withers”). This privacy policy (Policy) is designed to let you know the types of information that we collect, any personal information that we share, the rights and choices you have as a client of Johnston Withers in relation to your privacy rights, and details about how to make a request for the information we hold or a complaint if you feel we have misused your information.

This Policy may be updated or varied based on changes in the organisation of Johnston Withers or our requirements and obligations under the Act and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Please read this Policy carefully and contact us for any further information or questions about our use or collection of your information.

Collection and Use of Information

“Personal information” is information about an individual who is either identified in the information or easily identifiable from the information.

The types of personal information we collect are:

• names;
• contact details including phone numbers, postal and/or residential addresses and email addresses;
• dates of birth;
• photographs;
• facts or opinions that are connected to an enquiry conducted on behalf of a client or potential client; and
• any other personal information that is provided through the website belonging to Johnston Withers or as otherwise requested by us or provided by you.

We also may need to collect sensitive information about you. “Sensitive information” is given a distinct definition under the Act. The types of information that can be considered sensitive and that we may collect are:

• information or opinion concerning racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a profession or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual orientation and practice, and criminal records;
• health information; and
• biometric information.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may be unable to perform certain services for you, e.g. failure to provide any contact details would result in us being unable to contact you, failure to provide existing criminal records could result in us giving you advice that is not applicable to your situation, or failure to provide other personal information may prejudice our ability to properly represent you (eg certain criminal law, family law or personal injury claim or other litigation matters)

If we receive any of your personal or sensitive information from a third party, we will protect it as described in this Policy. We will also take reasonable steps to inform you that we have received this information from a third party. We will also tell you about the type of information we have collected and the reason for the collection.

If you provide us with any personal or sensitive information about a third party, you warrant to us that you have obtained the consent of the third party. It may be necessary for us to have personal or sensitive information about third parties in relation to your matter for us to perform our services to their fullest extent, e.g. in a family law matter, you may be required to give us the names, ages, and any other relevant information about children in your care. Third party information is protected as described in this Policy.

We take great care to maintain the confidentiality of information given to us about children under the age of 18 and will not disclose this information to third parties without your consent unless we are required to do so by the law.

Purpose and Methods of Collection

At Johnston Withers, we collect your personal information in two ways:

1. Personal information you voluntarily provide to us in face-to-face meetings, telephone calls, interviews, website enquiries, business cards, and other documents; and
2. Personal information provided to us by third parties (e.g. a medical report provided by a medical practitioner).

Johnston Withers takes care to only collect necessary information. The only reasons that we collect your personal information are for the purposes of:

1. contacting and communicating with you;
2. assessing whether we are able to act for an individual, a group of individuals or other legal entity or corporation;
3. providing legal services and advice;
4. conducting the effective management of our business;
5. internal record keeping and analysis;
6. seeking consent in relation to publications of reviews and testimonials;
7. for market research, business development and marketing, including direct marketing.
8. inviting you to seminars and functions which we think may be of interest to you;
9. any other purpose for which you have expressly consented to our collecting, holding, or using your personal information; and
10. any other purpose required or permitted by law.
11. If you do not wish for your information to be used in the above ways, please contact us. Contact details are located at the bottom of this Policy.

Retention and Storage of Information

We hold personal information in secure and confidential files maintained in paper and/or electronic form. Sometimes personal information held by us is securely stored with third party data storage providers. We take all reasonable steps to protect personal information held by us from misuse, loss, damage, destruction, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. For example, we use physical security and we restrict access to electronic records by the use of passwords. However we cannot guarantee the security of personal information and do not accept liability if, despite our efforts, loss or damage arises from a failure to maintain privacy.

While we endeavour to ensure that personal information collected from you is up to date and complete, we will assume any personal information provided by you is free from errors and omissions, is not misleading or deceptive and complies with all relevant laws. We rely on the personal information provided by you. We will not always check or verify the accuracy of personal information we obtain from you or other persons. You should provide us with details of any changes to your personal information as soon as reasonably practicable following such change.

If you wish for your personal or sensitive information to be changed or corrected, please contact us using the contact information provided at the bottom of this Policy. The Act allows us to refuse to correct your data in some circumstances; we will advise you if we intend to refuse a request for correction.

Disclosure of Information

We will not disclose your personal or sensitive information to a third party unless:

1. we consider it necessary to disclose the personal information in order to properly perform our services for your benefit; or
2. you have consented (expressly or impliedly) or requested your personal information to be provided to a third party; or
3. we are required or permitted by law to provide information to a third party.

If we disclose your information to a third party, we will request that your information be treated in accordance with this Policy.

You can request access to any personal or sensitive information that we hold about you. We may require verification of your identity and for you to specify what type of information you wish to access in order for us to properly address your request.

Contact details

If you wish to access any of your personal information held by us, seek a correction to your personal information held by us, or make a complaint regarding our privacy policy, please contact us directly at:

Managing Director, Johnston Withers

17 Sturt Street Adelaide SA 5000

Telephone: (08) 8231 1110

Facsimile: (08) 8231 1230

E-mail address: mail@johnstonwithers.com.au

The Managing Director will endeavour to deal with your request or complaint as soon as is practicable, usually within 30 days.

If we are unable to satisfactorily resolve your concerns about our handling of your personal information, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

GPO Box 5218

Sydney NSW 2001

Tel: 1300 363 992

www.oaic.gov.au