Privacy Policy, Cookies & Complaints Procedure

Alwena Jones & Bright takes the protection of your privacy very seriously. We will only use your personal information to deliver the products and services you have requested from us, and to meet our legal responsibilities.

Privacy policy

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you when you engage us to deliver our [products and/or] services and/or when you use our website, for example, when you contact us about our [products and/or] services.

What type of information do we collect from you?

The personal information we collect from you will vary depending on which services you engage us to deliver. The personal information we collect might include your name, address, telephone number, email address, your National Insurance number, bank account details, your IP address, which pages you may have visited on our website and when you accessed them.

How is your information used?

In general terms, and depending on which services you engage us to deliver, as part of providing our agreed services we may use your information to:

• contact you by post, email or telephone

• verify your identity where this is required

• understand your needs and how they may be met

• maintain our records in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory obligations

• process financial transactions

• prevent and detect crime, fraud or corruption

We are required by legislation, other regulatory requirements and our insurers to retain your data where we have ceased to act for you. The period of retention required varies with the applicable legislation but is typically five or six years. To ensure compliance with all such requirements it is the policy of the firm to retain all data for a period of six years from the end of the period concerned.

Who has access to your information?

• We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

• We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

• Any staff with access to your information have a duty of confidentiality under the ethical standards that this firm is required to follow.

Third party service providers working on our behalf

We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf, for example to process payroll or basic bookkeeping. However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own purposes.

Please be assured that we will not release your information to third parties unless you have requested that we do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime, fraud or corruption.

How you can access and update your information

Keeping your information up to date and accurate is important to us. We commit to regularly review and correct where necessary, the information that we hold about you. If any of your information changes, please email or write to us, or call us using the ‘Contact information’ noted below.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information Alwena Jones & Bright holds about you.

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information

Whilst we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given, or where you have chosen, a password which enables you to access information, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Your data will usually be processed in our offices in the UK. However, to allow us to operate efficient digital processes, we sometimes need to store information in servers located outside the UK, but within the European Economic Area (EEA). We take the security of your data seriously and so all our systems have appropriate security in place that complies with all applicable legislative and regulatory requirements.

Your choices

We may occasionally contact you by post / email / telephone with details of any changes in legal and regulatory requirements or other developments that may be relevant to your affairs and, where applicable, how we may assist you further. If you do not wish to receive such information from us, please let us know by contacting us as indicated under ‘Contact Information’ below.

Cookies

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

We use the Clicky Analytics service to see how well our website is performing and enable us to improve our website services. They state:

“We value the privacy of visitors to web sites monitored by our service. By default, we do not log any personal data, other than a tracking cookie containing a randomly generated Unique ID (“UID”); IP addresses are anonymized, and “Do Not Track” headers and global opt out cookies are honoured.”

Your rights

Access to your information: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.

Correcting your information: We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deletion of your information: You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:
you consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained you have validly objected to our use of your personal information – see ‘Objecting to how we may use your information’ below or use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations we are using your information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see ‘withdrawing consent to use your information’ below.

Restricting how we may use your information: In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information. The right might also apply where there is no longer a basis for using your personal information, but you do not want us to delete the data. Where this right is validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Objecting to how we may use your information: Where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest, then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.

Withdrawing consent to use your information: Where we use your personal information with your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time, and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.

Please contact us if you wish to exercise any of these rights.

Complaints Procedure

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you are unhappy or concerned about any aspect of the service or conduct we have provided, please inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the issue. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

In accordance with the requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), we have a procedure for handling complaints concerning the legal services we provide.

Initial Steps

Stage 1 – Fee Earner or Case Handler

If you have a concern or complaint, please initially raise it with the fee earner or case handler dealing with your matter. In most cases, a discussion can resolve the issue quickly.

Stage 2 – Formal Complaint to a Director

If you remain dissatisfied, you may make a formal complaint to one of our Directors:

• Hannah Dobson

• Andre Bright

A Director will investigate your complaint independently of the fee earner or case handler involved.

Address: Barclays Bank Chambers, High Street, Barmouth, LL42 1DU
Email: hdobson@alwenajonesbright.co.uk or abright@alwenajonesbright.co.uk
Telephone: 01654 711499 and/or 01341 281108

Stage 3 – Final Internal Review

If the first Director’s response does not resolve the matter, you may request a final internal review by the other Director, who will provide a further independent assessment.

We aim to complete the entire internal complaints process within eight weeks of receiving your formal complaint.

Acknowledgement and Investigation

Acknowledgement: We will acknowledge your written complaint within five working days of receipt. Our acknowledgement will include the name of the person dealing with your complaint.

Investigation: Your complaint will be thoroughly investigated, and a full review of your file will be conducted.

The person investigating the complaint will speak to the member or members of staff involved. They may ask you for further information and may also ask to meet with you.

Timeframe: We aim to provide a full written response within 28 days. If this is not possible because of the complexity of the matter or other extenuating circumstances, we will explain the reason for the delay and provide you with an updated timescale.

Response and Resolution

We will send you a detailed written response setting out our findings and any action we propose to take to resolve the matter.

If you remain dissatisfied after receiving our formal written response, you may request that the other Director carry out a further independent review. This review will be completed within 14 days.

We will endeavour to resolve all formal complaints within eight weeks of receiving the complaint.

Legal Ombudsman

If we are unable to resolve your complaint, you may be able to have it independently considered by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about poor service provided by legal service providers.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will ordinarily check that you have first attempted to resolve the complaint with us.

A complaint must normally be referred to the Legal Ombudsman:

• No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or

• No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint; and

• Within six months of receiving our final written response to your complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at:

Address: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Telephone: 0300 555 0333, between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm
Relay UK: 18001 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

The Legal Ombudsman can award compensation of up to £50,000. Its service is available to most individuals, small businesses, charities and trusts.

Solicitors Regulation Authority

You may report concerns about conduct, behaviour or professional ethics to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This may include concerns involving dishonesty, misuse of client money, discrimination or serious breaches of professional rules.

The SRA does not ordinarily resolve complaints about the standard of service provided or award compensation. Complaints about service are generally dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman.

Further information about reporting concerns is available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s website.

Complaints About Your Bill

This procedure covers complaints about our service. If your concern relates to your bill, you may also have the right to apply for an assessment under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Complaints About Personal Information

We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle your personal information. However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745
Website: www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Accessibility

We will make reasonable adjustments to ensure that our complaints process is accessible to all clients, including those with disabilities or language needs. Please contact us if you require this procedure in another format or need assistance in making a complaint.

Record-Keeping

All complaints, investigations and steps taken towards resolution will be recorded and stored securely.

Review

This procedure is reviewed annually by the Practice Manager and/or the Directors to ensure that it remains effective and in line with current regulatory guidance.

Alwena Jones & Bright Ltd
Company Number: 14072021
SRA ID: 8006884