Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy

Who We Are

Villars Legal Limited is a virtual law firm authorized and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Authorization No.[]. Villars Legal Limited is a company registered in England & Wales under registration number 15340717 and is regulated by the Law Society of England and Wales. Our registered address is 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, England, WC2H 9JQ.

Your Privacy

Villars Legal Limited is committed to respecting the privacy of all visitors to its website. This includes our clients, potential clients and any third parties associated with the business. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or our supervisory authorities in the event that you have a complaint.

Key Terms

Personal data: This is defined in the UK GDPR as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. It can include obvious data like your name but also identification numbers, online identifiers and/or one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that person.

Special category: This includes data revealing race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

How We Collect Your Data

When you visit our website, we may collect or otherwise process your personal data. You may do this by completing the details provided on ‘Contact Us’ link that is on the website. The information we ask you to provide about yourself is your name, email address, mobile telephone number and any details you provide in the narrative box.

We use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our cookie policy). Cookies, including browsers or tracking cookies, are small text files that are added to your computer when you visit a website. They help websites to perform certain functions, including knowing who you are if you log into a restricted part of a website and for tracking purposes. We may also collect information automatically about your access and usage of our website using cookies and other analytical technology.

Alternatively, we will collect your personal data directly from you. Additionally, we may also collect information from publicly accessible sources for example the courts, companies house, the land registry, banks amongst other sources with your consent and other relevant entities that are known to you or related to your enquiry or requirements.

How We Use Your Data

Your personal data is required to enable us to provide our services to you. This is the main use of your personal data. We also use your personal data for our legitimate business interests.

For example:

To perform due diligence or regulatory checks;
To respond to a specific query, you have raised through our websites ‘contact us’ option;
To contact you for market research purposes and/or to request for your feedback on our services provided;
To engage the services of a third party where necessary and when instructed to do so;
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
To send you our newsletter or other legal updates
External audits and quality checks, and the audit of our accounts

If you do not provide the personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

Who We Share Your Personal Data With

We share your personal data with:

our employees
professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to for example barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
our insurance provider and brokers if necessary
external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make my business more efficient, e.g., marketing agencies, analysis suppliers, cloud providers, software providers.
law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We only share data with third parties where strictly necessary and in order to comply with the law. If you have provided us with your personal information but choose not to instruct us or we are unable to assist with your matter, we may, with your consent, share your information with another legal services provider who may be able to assist you.

Where Your Data Is Held and How Long We Retain Your Data

Information may be held at our virtual systems, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who We Share Your Personal Data With’).

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. As a general guideline we will not hold your data for more than six years unless there is a specific need, or you instruct us to do so. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

Your Rights Over Your Data

You have the following rights, which you can normally exercise free of charge:

Access: The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data (the right of access)

Rectification: The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data

To be forgotten: The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations

Restriction of processing: The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data

Data portability: The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations

To object: The right to object at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); in certain other situations to my continued processing of your personal data, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of my legitimate interests.

Not to be subject to automated individual decision making: The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please let us know which right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

On receipt of such a request we will almost always ask you to:

let us have enough information to identify you
e.g. your full name, address and client or matter reference number;
and let me have proof of your identity and address a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill

Please do not however provide any proof of identity and address documentation until requested to do so by me.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office for guidance.

Keeping Your Personal Data Secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

The Lawful Basis For Processing Your Data (GDPR)

This Privacy Policy is in place to inform you of the processing by us of your personal data. This policy is provided in compliance with our general obligations and particularly with Article 13 of the UK GDPR which specifies the information individuals have the right to be informed about.

We also rely on Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR when processing your personal data. Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR allows the processing of personal data in the pursuance of our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party.

Occasionally, we may rely on Article 6(1)(a) of the UK GDPR which allows us to process personal data where you have given your consent.

In relation to the processing of special categories of personal information, we rely on Article 9(f) of the UK GDPR where the processing of data is in connection with a legal claim.

Please note that that when offering legal or other services to individuals in the European Union, we will also be subject to the GDPR – not only the UK GDPR. According to Article 77 of the GDPR, in such cases you have the right to make a complaint to another GDPR supervisory authority.

For more information on the lawful basis on which we rely when processing your data and your rights in relation to this, please see the Data Protection Act 2018 – the UK’s implementation of the GDPR: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/contents/enacted.

How To Complain

You also have the right to make a complaint about the way in which we process your personal information. Any complaints should be made to the Information Commissioner’s Office (Website: www.ico.org.uk, Telephone: 0303 123 1113).

Changes To Our Privacy Policy

We retain the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time. If we amend this policy we will either notify you directly or post an updated version to our website. Your continued use of our services following any amendments to our Privacy Policy will constitute your implied acceptance of the changes made.

How To Contact Us About Your Information

Should you have any queries or concerns with regards to the contents of this Privacy Policy or how your personal data is collected, used or stored, please contact us.

Please also get in touch if your contact details have changed or are inaccurate so that we can keep an up-to-date record of your personal information.

You can contact us via email: talita@villarslegal.co.uk