Privacy Policy

INTRODUCTION

At McInnes Wilson Lawyers we seek to provide the best possible legal service. To achieve this, we may need to collect personal information about you and the circumstances surrounding your legal matter.

It is important for us to ensure you are confident that any personal information you provide to us is treated in the appropriate manner and with the appropriate degree of privacy.

McInnes Wilson Lawyers offers expertise in many areas of law and the services we provide to you will dictate the types of personal information that may be necessary for us to collect.

This Privacy Policy is governed by the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth).


WHAT DOES "PERSONAL INFORMATION" MEAN?

Personal information means information about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

The types of information we collect, depending on the type of matter we are conducting for you, include:

  • name;
  • contact details (e.g. address, telephone number, email address);
  • date of birth;
  • gender;
  • insurance information (e.g. insurer, policy number);
  • banking information (e.g. bank account number);
  • information about your assets;
  • identity documents such as drivers licence;
  • tax file number;
  • employment history;
  • family information (e.g. names of relatives, their relationship to you).


WHAT DOES “SENSITIVE INFORMATION” MEAN?

Certain personal information will be regarded as sensitive information. Some examples of sensitive information include:

  • religious beliefs or affiliations;
  • membership of a professional or trade association;
  • membership of a trade union;
  • criminal record;
  • health information.


HOW DOES MCINNES WILSON LAWYERS COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We will always collect your personal information directly from you where possible.

Collection of your personal information may occur in a number of ways including:

  • taking instructions from you (in person, by telephone or by electronic communication);
  • contact with a financial institution, accountant, financial planner, medical provider, or any other person, on your behalf, and at your request, to obtain such information;
  • from government agencies;
  • from search providers;
  • via a verification of identity process;
  • you entering data into our website or registering for a seminar;
  • from another party during the course of legal proceedings or a legal transaction.


HOW DOES MCINNES WILSON LAWYERS HOLD YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We hold personal information: 

  • physically: on our premises; with third party storage providers in Australia;
  • electronically: on internal servers; with a third party data storage provider in Australia.

We access electronic data from internal and external servers by secure login/connection.

Our agreements with third party service providers contain obligations relating to confidentiality and security.


THE PURPOSE OF COLLECTING AND USING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

McInnes Wilson Lawyers collects and holds personal information about you in order to provide our services to you and conduct our business. Personal information is used only for the purpose for which it is submitted or for other secondary purposes that are related to that purpose, unless we disclose other uses in this privacy policy or at the time of collection.

We collect your personal information for purposes including:

  • supplying to you the services which you have requested from us;
  • carrying out the functions and activities of our business as a legal services provider;
  • conducting conflict of interest searches;
  • organising safe custody of your documents;
  • sending you statements and invoices and collecting payments from you;
  • enabling your access to website services;
  • providing you with legal news updates;
  • conducting feedback surveys;
  • sending to you marketing communications;
  • inviting you to seminars.


WHO DOES MCINNES WILSON LAWYERS DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO?

We may disclose your personal information to a person outside of McInnes Wilson Lawyers:

  • where necessary in connection with the purpose for which it was collected; or
  • if required by law; or
  • if you consent to the disclosure; or
  • otherwise as permitted by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Your consent may also be implied from the particular legal matter we are dealing with on your behalf. For example, if we are undertaking conveyancing matters for you, commercial transactions or litigation, it is implicit that some of your personal information may need to be disclosed to other parties in the matter or to relevant government bodies.

Some examples of persons outside McInnes Wilson Lawyers to whom we may disclose your personal information are:

  • government bodies (e.g. courts, land titles registry, ASIC, Centrelink, Medicare, WorkCover Queensland - for the purposes of lodging documents or applications, obtaining records or making claims);
  • insurance companies (for the purposes of making or defending a claim);
  • financiers (for the purposes of obtaining funds or discharging a mortgage);
  • search providers (to obtain information about a property you are buying or selling);
  • barristers (to obtain advice or representation in your matter);
  • medical or other experts (to obtain a report or records in relation to your matter);
  • your professional advisers (e.g. accountant - to assist us in giving full and proper advice to you);
  • recipients of court documents on which you are named as a party, in the normal course of proceedings;
  • contractors (who provide administrative, secretarial, delivery or postal, information technology, accounting or debt collection services to us).


Does McInnes Wilson Lawyers disclose your personal information overseas?

We generally do not disclose your personal information to overseas recipients otherwise than in accordance with your instructions, or if necessary in connection with the conduct of your legal matters (e.g. if a party is overseas).

THE SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

McInnes Wilson Lawyers will take reasonable precautions to safeguard personal information that is held by us, either on a physical file or on computer, from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

To ensure that your personal information is secure, McInnes Wilson Lawyers employs a number of means, including:

  • limiting physical access to our premises;
  • password protection on all devices;
  • maintaining up to date security on our computer systems;
  • requiring any third party providers to have acceptable security measures to keep your personal information secure;
  • employees are bound by an obligation of confidentiality.

When McInnes Wilson Lawyers no longer requires your personal information and the retainer has been completed we will make an electronic copy of your file for retention and securely destroy the physical file. 


ACCESSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

At any time you may give notice to McInnes Wilson Lawyers that you wish to access your personal information that we hold.

In order that this information can be made available to you, notice is required so that we may have the documentation ready for your inspection. Where the information is held in safe custody or offsite, McInnes Wilson Lawyers reserves the right to charge a fee to cover the cost of retrieval and supply of the information to you.

We will endeavour to handle all requests for access to personal information within a reasonable time.

We may in certain circumstances deny you access to your personal information if permitted by law (for example, where giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals).

If we deny you access to your personal information, reasons for that denial will be provided.

When you access your personal information, we may require proof of identity from you and will require you to sign a document stating that you have accessed your information.


ENSURING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS UP TO DATE

The effective and proper conduct of your legal matter can only occur when the personal information that we hold is current and up to date. In this regard it is important that, during the course of your relationship with McInnes Wilson Lawyers, you notify us of any changes to your personal information which we hold, including your contact details.

If personal information we hold about you is not accurate you may request that it be corrected.


COMPLAINTS ABOUT BREACHES OF PRIVACY

If at any time you believe that McInnes Wilson Lawyers has wrongfully disclosed your personal information or has breached this privacy policy, then you may lodge a complaint with us.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from McInnes Wilson Lawyers, you may contact the Australian Information Commissioner https://www.oaic.gov.au/.


contact

Our contact details for accessing your personal information, requesting that our record of your personal information be corrected, or to complain about a breach of privacy are as follows:

Contact:          Privacy Officer

Email:              privacy@mcw.com.au

Telephone:      (07) 3231 0600

Address:          GPO Box 1089, Brisbane, Qld 4001


CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be published to our website.