Collecting and using your personal data

Moirs Law collects personal information about:

  • our clients, business associates, potential clients and their personnel;
  • other individuals in the course of acting for our clients;
  • our employees, partners, contractors, former employees, former partners, former contractors or prospective employees, contractors or partners; and
  • other people who meet a member of Moirs Law.

We will collect personal information from clients and prospective clients as required to all us to provide our legal services. We may also obtain personal information from third party searches, other investigations and sometimes from adverse parties.

We are required to collect the full name and address of our clients by Rule 93 of the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015. Accurate name and address information must also be collected to comply with the trust account record keeping requirements of Rule 47 of the Uniform General Rules and to comply with our duty to the courts.

Your personal information will only be used for the purposes for which it is collected or in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). For example, we may use your personal information to provide advice and recommendations that consider your personal circumstances.

If you do not provide us with the full name and address information required by law, we cannot act for you. If you do not provide us with the other personal information that we request, our advice may be wrong for you or misleading.

What type of data do we collect?

‘Personal data’ or ‘personal information’, as defined in the Privacy Act, means information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, and whether it is recorded in a material form or not. An identifiable individual is a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person. Examples include an individual’s name, date of birth, signature, address and contact details, occupation, employment history, family situations, bank account details, financial and tax information, IP address. Unless specified otherwise, ‘personal data’ or ‘personal information’ includes Government Related Identifiers (GRI).

‘Government Related Identifiers’ (‘GRI’) are numbers, letters, symbols or a combination of all three assigned by a State, Territory or Commonwealth authority, agency or contracted service provider to identify an individual or verify identity. GRI’s may include Tax File Numbers, Medicare Numbers, Centrelink References, Driver’s License Numbers and Passport details.

‘Usage Data’ refers to data collected automatically, either generated using our website or from the website infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit). It may include information such as your device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. When you access our website by or through a mobile device, we may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser you use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

How we collect your data

Moirs Law will generally collect personal information:

  • From you directly when you provide your details to us;
  • From you indirectly through emails, forms, face-to-face meetings, interviews, registration and attendance at seminars or events, business cards, online queries and telephone conversations, and through use of services available through our websites, applications and social media channels (including our LinkedIn channel); and
  • From third parties in some instances, for example, we may use third parties to analyse traffic at our website, and social media channels, which may involve the use of cookies.

Protecting your data

Moirs Law will take reasonable steps to protect the security of your data. Our personnel are required to respect the confidentiality of personal information and the privacy of individuals. We take reasonable steps to protect personal information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, for example by use of physical security and restricted access to electronic records.

Personal information is destroyed or de-identified when no longer needed or when we are no longer required by law to retain it, whichever is the later.

Moirs Law will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your personal data will take place to another organisation unless required to do so and there are adequate controls in place.

If Moirs Law is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your personal data may be transferred. We will provide notice before your personal data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Usage and disclosure of data

In general, we may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the primary purposes for which it was collected, including:

  • to conduct our business;
  • to provide and market our services;
  • to communicate with you to provide or promote our services;
  • to help us manage, develop and enhance our services, including our websites and applications;
  • to consider the suitability of prospective employees;
  • to comply with our legal obligations; and
  • to administer, maintain, support, and provide upgrades to, our services and applications.

Moirs Law may also use and/or disclose your personal information for other purposes which you consent to or which are required or permitted by law. This may include for a secondary purpose that is related to a purpose for which we collected it, and for which you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose your personal information.

We may disclose your personal information including, in certain limited circumstances, sensitive information; for the purposes for which it was collected to:

  • courts, tribunals, ombudsmen, commissions and regulatory authorities (information provided to courts and tribunals may be made available to other parties to the litigation and will be on the public record);
  • other parties involved in your matter and their solicitors (for example, counter parties to litigation or a transaction);
  • third parties or entities who assist us in providing legal services or who provide services to you, or who provide services to us including recruitment services, data storage, distribution and mailing services, direct marketing, technology support services, and business development services;
  • insurers;
  • litigation and disbursement funders;
  • unions;
  • market researchers and analysts;
  • where we are required or authorised to do so by law.

Our use of cookies

When you interact with the Moirs Law website, we collect information that identifies how you use that channel; such as the pages you visit, the number of visits to our sites or profiles and the amount of time spent on those sites or profiles. Cookies themselves do not contain personal information about you, they essentially operate as a unique identifier and assist us to know what users find interesting on our website.

We use Cookies and other technology (such as “pixels” assigned by Google or Facebook, links in emails, or similar technologies) to collect this information. Our website uses first-party cookies for the following purposes:

  • Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential and help our users to navigate our site and to support security and basic functionality of the site.
  • Functional Cookies: These cookies are used to provide you with the best user experience, such as whether or not a user has visited before or if they’re seeing a certain page for the first time.
  • Performance Cookies: These cookies help us understand the behaviour of site users and how they interact with our website and continuously help us to improve our site to provide the best user experience.

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies, however, if you wish to remove these Cookies, or block future Cookies – you can change the settings on your individual device at any time. You can update your browser settings by utilising your browser’s “help” menu to learn how to remove or block Cookies. Moirs Law are not responsible for these settings.

Accessing and correcting your data

Subject to the exceptions set out in the Privacy Act, you may seek access to and correction of the personal information which we hold about you by contacting us:

We will require you to verify your identity and to specify what information you require.

Making a privacy-related complaint

If you have any questions about privacy-related issues or wish to raise concerns about a breach of your privacy or the handling of your personal information by us, please contact our office at info@moirslaw.com.au. Any complaint will be investigated by the administration team and you will be notified of a decision in relation to your complaint as soon as is practicable, usually within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Tel: 1300 363 992
www.oaic.gov.au

This policy was last updated on Wednesday 8th May, 2024.