Privacy Policy

Clark and Toop is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information provided to us. Personal information includes any information that can be used to identify an individual, such as a person’s name or address.

COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

What personal information do we collect?

In order to provide quality legal advice, we need to collect a broad range of personal information from our clients, prospective clients, other parties, relevant government agencies, courts and tribunals.

The personal information we collect may include sensitive information and health-related information. Sometimes, the collection of this information is required by legislation or by order of a court or tribunal.

We also collect personal information from potential employees and from those who provide support services to our lawyers and other staff.

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information in a variety of ways: in writing, in person, by telephone, and other electronic communication such as email.

Where possible, we obtain personal information with the express consent of the person involved. Most of the personal information that is held by us is obtained from clients when they instruct us, and subsequently as we act for them in a case.

Due to the nature of legal work, however, it is not always possible to collect information from an individual directly. For instance, if we are acting for a child in a matter, we may need to collect information from their litigation guardian. We may also need to collect personal information from other parties involved in litigation, or from lawyers, employers, hospitals, doctors, courts and trade unions.

When we obtain personal information about an individual we generally do so with the authorisation of both the individual and the information provider. In certain circumstances, however, we are not required to tell an individual that we have collected personal information about them.

Collecting personal information via our website.

Our web site server automatically makes a record of the computers used to visit our site and logs the following information for statistical purposes: Internet Protocal (IP) address, date and time of visit to the site, pages accessed (including graphics), documents downloaded, previous website visited, the type of browser used and the operating system your computer is using. This information is only used for aggregated statistical analysis geared towards judging the effectiveness of this web site and how it might be improved.

Our web site will use cookies if the computer you are using permits this. (A cookie is a text file stored on your computer and provides a record of when an individual visits a web site.) You can refuse cookies on your computer by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. Clark and Toop does not believe you must have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to make use of some facilities such altering text size and to participate actively in message boards, forums, polling and surveys that may be made available.

ACCESS AND VIEWING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Clark and Toop use personal information collected for internal use only. We fully appreciate the importance of confidentiality and work hard to ensure that your personal information is not compromised. Indeed, our premises have been the subject of rigourous security assessment and installation. Our staff have been instructed about the importance of maintaining a secure privacy policy.

Sometimes, however, we may need to disclose personal information subject to legal restrictions when dealing with your legal case. For example, we may need to reveal personal information to a medical witness or other experts we intend to use in support of your case, or, provide information to barristers to briefed to assist you in your case.

Disclosure of personal information may take place in situations permitted under the National Privacy Principles, for example, by law or order of a court or tribunal. We may also disclose personal information to others, such as barristers representing you or expert witnesses asked to advise about your case.

Beyond these circumstances, the personal information collected by Clark and Toop is for internal use only. Our offices are protected by a high standard of security and our electronic information systems restrict unauthorised access. Our staff and associates fully appreciate the importance of privacy and confidentiality of personal information and work hard to ensure that the security of personal information is not compromised.

Subject to certain legal restrictions, we will tell individuals what personal information we hold about them on request. If requests are complex and require extensive or detailed searches, a search charge may apply.

COMPLAINTS

Individuals wishing to obtain further information about our privacy policy, or who wish to make a complaint about our handling of a privacy issue may contact our Accounts Manager.