Legal Notices
Contracts for Professional Services
Any professional services which we provide to you will be pursuant to our terms and conditions of engagement, the current version of which will be provided to you at the outset of any retainer.
If we enter into a contract with you and/or you become our client of our firm by electronic means (such as by e-mail or online) then, in addition to any rights of redress you may have through the Legal Ombudsman you may contact the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority. If you wish to query this point at all with us, we have an e-mail address you may contact in this regard and that is info@a-l.law or please see our full Complaints Policy.
Website Terms and Conditions
The Website is provided by Astraea Linskills Ltd Company Number 10454290 whose registered office is First Floor, 14 Castle Street, Liverpool, L2 0NE A list of Directors is available for inspection at our registered office.
If you continue to browse and use this website you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, please refrain from using the Website.
Our policy relating to the capture and use of personal data (‘Data and Privacy Policy’) as detailed below forms a part of these terms and conditions. It is important that you read and understand these terms and conditions before you start to use the Website. You can print and keep a copy for your reference.
Headings in these terms and conditions are for convenience only and shall not affect their interpretation.
The term Astraea Linskills or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to Astraea Linskills Ltd. The term ‘you’ refers to the user or viewer of our website.
Accessing the Website
Access to the Website is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on the Website without notice. We shall not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period.
Changes to the Website
The content of the pages of this website are for your general information and use only. We aim to update the Website regularly and may change the content at any time. Any of the material on the Website may be out of date at any given time and we are under no obligation to update such material. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Linking to the Website
From time to time this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
You may not establish a link to the Website from any other website without our prior written consent.
Acceptable use
You may use the Website only for lawful purposes.
You must not misuse the Website including, without limitation, by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Website, the server on which the Website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to the Website.
Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Website will cease immediately.
Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Reliance on the content of the Website
The Website provides information about our consultancy practice and the services we offer. The Website also contains news, blogs and articles on issues relating the provision of legal services, legal aid and to the promotion of access to justice. The content of the Website does not represent legal and/or financial advice on which reliance should be placed.
Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements.
You agree that material downloaded or otherwise accessed through the use of the Website is obtained entirely at your own risk and that you will be entirely responsible for any resulting damage to software or computer systems and/or any resulting loss of data, even if such loss and damage was reasonably foreseeable and we had been advised of the possibility of the same.
All testimonials on the Website are provided by individuals or organisations and reflect their personal experience and opinion only. Neither Astraea Linskills nor any of the quoted individuals or organisations can make any representations or warranties with respect to the personal opinions expressed on the website. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Intellectual property
The intellectual property rights (including, without limitation, copyright and trade marks) in all material on the website (including, without limitation, text, images and plans) are owned by Astraea Linskills unless otherwise stated and your use of them is limited as set out below.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:
- you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only
- you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material
You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.
Changes to the Terms and Conditions
We may revise these terms and conditions at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we have made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms and conditions may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on the Website. Continued use of the Website will signify that you agree to any such changes.
Enforceability
Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website are governed by, and will be construed in accordance with, with the law of England and Wales. Any rights not expressly granted in these terms and conditions are reserved.
Data & Privacy Notice
Our Privacy Policy
This firm processes your data in accordance with the terms of the Data Protection Act 2018, the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the relevant provisions relating to the General Data Protection Regulation contained within the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (UK GDPR). This Data & Privacy Notice explains, in detail, the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we’ll store and handle that data and keep it safe. Unless otherwise indicated, references in this Data and Privacy Notice to the GDPR refer to the UK GDPR.
We know that there’s a lot of information here, but we want you to be fully informed about your rights, and how our firm uses your data. We hope the following sections will answer any questions you have but if not, please do get in touch with us.
Conditions for Processing Data
We are only entitled to hold and process your data where the law allows us to. The current law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which a law firm may collect and process your personal data. These include:
Contractual obligations
The main purpose for our holding your data is to provide you with legal services under the agreement we have with you. This agreement is a contract between us and the law allows us to process your data for the purposes of performing a contract (or for the steps necessary to enter in to a contract). We may also need to process your data to meet our contractual obligations to the Legal Aid Agency where you receive legal aid to fund your case or advice.
Legitimate Interests
In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running our business and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests. This may include to satisfy our external quality auditors or our Regulators.
Legal compliance
If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and process your data. For example, we can pass on details of people involved in fraud or other criminal activity.
Consent
In some situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent. For example, when you tick a box to receive email newsletters. When collecting your personal data, we’ll always make clear to you which data is necessary in connection with a particular service.
When do we collect your data?
We normally collect your data when you provide it to us or when it is provided to us by others (your opponent’s solicitors for example) during your case. You may give us your data by email; through an online web form; over the telephone; face to face; or by post.
We also collect data automatically with regard to each of your visits to our website including technical information.
What sort of data do we collect?
Information you provide to us
You voluntarily give us your personal information for instance when:
• you contact us via our website
• provide a comment on our website
• write a review
• sign up to any newsletters
• interact with us on social media platforms, and/or
• use our services
Where we request information from you we will collect the information set out in the relevant web pages, or as explained to you over the telephone or face to face.
Client services
We collect your name and contact details. This may include asking for and keeping a copy of your passport/driving licence and proof of address.
We may gather details of your age; ethnicity; gender etc. if required to do so by the Legal Aid Agency where you are in receipt of Legal Aid. Where you have Legal Aid, we may also gather financial information from you. We also collect and hold information about your case or legal problem.
Website or third party sources
We collect certain related technical information including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, logs (including, where available, the IP address and location of the device connecting to the online services and other technical information and identifiers about the device and the nature of the visit such as clickstream to, through and from our website) and other communication data, and the resources that you use.
On occasions, we acquire information from other companies, to collect information about how visitors to our website use the site. Information is also collected about how you arrived at our websites in the first place, including what links or adverts you have viewed or clicked on to reach us, or any search terms you have used. We do this to maintain and improve our website, getting a better understanding of visitor and client profiles and ultimately delivering a better experience. Information may be collected through the use of cookies or pixels.
How do we use your data?
We may use your data to notify you of our other services but only where we have your consent to do so.
Provision of services
We only use your data for the purposes of providing you with legal advice, assistance and where appropriate, representation and for reasons directly associated with those services (i.e. providing information to quality auditors; the Legal Aid Agency etc.). In particular:
• to deliver our services
• to manage our relationship and communicate with you
• to provide you with advice or guidance about our services
• to make and manage payments
• to respond to complaints and seek to resolve them
• to train our staff and measure the quality of the service we give to clients
We may use your data to notify you of our other services but only where we have your express consent to do so.
Regulatory
We also use data to communicate with our regulators or legislators and to obey laws, regulations and codes of conduct that apply to us.
Website enhancement and business development
We also use data to develop our business and services. In particular:
• to respond to individual experiences shared with us and for editorial content
• to enhance your online experience
• to conduct research and surveys
• to develop and manage our services including marketing of new or enhanced services
• to research your views and experiences for research and editorial purposes, including through requests for feedback on our services
• to understand your website journey, including what pages you have viewed and for how long
• to administer and keep safe and secure our website and for internal operations, including data analysis, testing, statistical purposes
Cookies
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
By law, we may not place cookies on your computer without your consent, unless they are strictly necessary to the operation of the service that we provide on the Website.
We use Google Analytics to monitor how our website is being used so we can make improvements. Our use of Google Analytics requires us to pass to Google your IP address (but no other information) – Google uses this information to prepare site usage reports for us, but Google may also share this information with other Google services. In particular, Google may use the data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. Related information:
• Google’s privacy policy
• How Google uses this information
If you have any queries about the cookies that we use, or would like more information, please contact info@a-l.law.
How do we protect your data?
We take protecting your data very seriously. The data you give us may be subject to Legal Professional Privilege and is often extremely sensitive and confidential.
With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it. We have clear data protection and information security policies and procedures in place (along with Regulatory and other legal obligations to keep your data safe) and these are regularly assessed as part of our Quality Standards and compliance processes.
We protect our IT system from Cyber Attack. Access to your personal data is password-protected, and sensitive data is secured by encryption. We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we carry out penetration testing to identify ways to further strengthen security.
How long will we keep your data?
We only keep your data for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was provided. Normally this is for six years after your case or matter ends (enquiries where we do not take on your case are kept for only 18 months).
This is because we are required to keep client files for that period by our Regulator and/or by the SRA. This also protects you should you be unhappy with our services and want to complain or even due us after your case ends.
For some cases we may decide that it is proper and appropriate to keep data for longer than six years, but we will notify you if we believe that your case falls into this category.
Who do we share your personal data with?
We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties. We only do this where it is necessary for providing you legal services or for the effective operation of our legal practice.
For example, we may share your data with barristers; experts; translators; costs draftsmen; process servers; secure file storage and destruction companies; auditors; the company that securely hosts our off-site cloud storage servers.
We apply a strict policy to those recipients or data processors to keep your data safe and protect your privacy. In particular,:
• We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.
• They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract with them.
• We work closely with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected at all times.
• If we stop using their services, any of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous.
Where is your data processed?
Your data is stored and processed within the United Kingdom (UK). If we ever have to share your personal data with third parties and suppliers outside the UK we will seek your specific consent to do so.
What are your rights?
You have the following rights under the UK GDPR:
1. the right to be informed – the provision of clear and concise information about what we do with your personal data, as outlined within this Data & Privacy Notice
2. the right of access – commonly referred to as a ‘data subject access request’, this enables you to request a copy of your personal data to understand how and why we are using your data, and to check we are doing so lawfully. If we choose not to action your request, we will explain to you the reasons for our refusal
3. the right to rectification – the ability to have inaccurate personal data rectified or, in specific circumstances dependent on the purposes for our processing of your data, the ability to have incomplete personal data completed
4. the right to erasure – also known as the right to be forgotten, this permits you to request we erase your personal data. This only applies to data we hold at the time your request is received and does not apply to any data that may be obtained in the future. Please note that this is not an absolute right and only applies in certain circumstances. We may have overriding duties to retain some data which you cannot ask to be erased immediately or at all. For instance, once you become a client of our firm or you are an interested party in a case, we will be required by our regulators and for legal purposes to retain some of your personal data and other information within casefiles for a certain period (for retention periods, please see above)
5. the right to restrict processing – the ability to request a temporary restriction on the processing of your personal data, where one of a limited number of reasons specified by the ICO applies
6. the right to data portability – the ability to receive personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format. This also gives you the right to request that we transmit this data directly to another Data Controller
7. the right to object – the ability, in certain circumstances, to request we stop processing your personal data. This request may relate to all of your personal data we hold or only certain information, and may only apply to a particular purpose for processing
8. rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling – restrictions on the use of automated decision making and profiling where such decisions have a legal or similarly significant effect on you. It is unlikely that our firm will use automated decision making and profiling.
For further details on your rights, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/.
Your right to withdraw consent
Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.
Where we rely on our legitimate interest
In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data.
Contact Details
For information on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of our information, and to exercise your rights to access information we hold on you, please contact us. Similarly, if you believe that the information we hold is wrong or out of date, please let us know and we will update it. The person in this firm responsible for data protection is James Roochove who is a Director on who can be contacted by phone on 01512362224, by email JR@a-l.law or by post to First Floor, 14 Castle Street, Liverpool, L2 0NE.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement or policy applicable to the website in question.
The Regulator
If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113.
Or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (opens in a new window; please note we can’t be responsible for the content of external websites)
Accessibility
We are committed to making our website accessible to all users. Our aim is to comply with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
With this in mind, we have included several features designed to improve accessibility for users with disabilities. However, we welcome comments on how to improve the site’s accessibility for users with disabilities.
If the format of any material on our website interferes with your ability to access the information you require, please send an e-mail to info@a-l.law or telephone 01512362224. Please inform us of the nature of your accessibility problem and the preferred format in which to receive the material and your contact details.
