Privacy Notice
Privacy Policy
This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) applies to the processing of personal data by BLZ Limited in the course of providing legal services and carrying out its business operations.
We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this Notice carefully as it sets out the types of personal data BLZ Limited collects, how BLZ Limited collects and processes that data, who it shares it with and certain rights and options that you have in this respect and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
Who we are
When we refer to “BLZ Limited” or “BLZ Solicitors” or “BLZ” or “We” in this Notice, we mean BLZ Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales with registered company number 13046776 and registered address at Suite S52, Cheadle Place, Stockport, England, SK8 2JX. We are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation, which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and the Data Protection Act 2018 and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.
Our contact details
For any questions, comments or requests regarding this Notice, we can be contacted in the following ways:
- Email: Info@blzsolicitors.co.uk;
- Telephone: 0161 660 6519
- Post: BLZ Solicitors, Suite S52, Cheadle Place, Stockport, SK8 2JX
Who this notice applies to
This Notice is relevant to you if we process your personal data in the course of providing or marketing our services. For example, if you are (or are employed by) our client or prospective client, supplier, consultant, advisor, counterparty, litigant or otherwise involved in proceedings involving any of our clients.
Personal information we collect and hold about you
The type of personal information we collect about you depends on the relationship we have with you.
We may collect and use the following personal information about you:
- Identity Data. This includes your name, date of birth, civil status, passport number or other ID, photographic identification, gender, national insurance number, tax number and status.
- Contact Data. This includes your home address, email address, telephone number.
- Financial and Payment Data. This includes your bank account details and other data necessary for payment processing and fraud prevention.
- Professional Information. Including job title, employee number, business contact details, employment history, educational or professional background.
- Business and Legal Matter Information. This includes information provided in relation to a current, prospective or past contractual, client or other relationship between you (or your employer, company or other) and BLZ Limited. It also includes and information provided by you (or your employer, company or other) involved in a legal matter.
- Profile Data. This includes information from forms you fill in, feedback, communication preferences, marketing preferences or anything else in relation to our services.
- Sensitive Personal Data. In order to provide legal services to you, we may be required to collect and use sensitive personal information about you, including your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union activities, physical or mental health, sexual orientation, details or criminal offences, genetic or biometric data. For example, in personal injuries claims this may include your medical records and history. Where we process sensitive data, we do so to in order to provide legal services and legal advice.
- Communications, documentation and information provided in relation to any legal services provided by BLZ Limited, including any dispute, investigation, dispute or other or any other information that may identify you that you have voluntarily provided to us or we have collected from publicly available sources
Information about other people
In the process of your claim, you may provide us with information relating to other individuals (such as contact details of a witness or family member). Before providing this information, you must obtain the consent of the person to provide any information and that we are allowed to use it for your claim.
How your personal information is collected
We collect most of this personal information directly from you in person, by telephone, email and/or our website.
On occasions we may obtain information from third parties, such as background checks or if you have authorised someone to conduct litigation on your behalf.
We may also obtain information from your employers, former employers, government agencies, information service providers, public registers or other records.
How and why we use your personal information
We only use your data in accordance with data protection laws. We will only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so, for example:
- to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
- for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps before entering into a contract with you;
- to register you as a client of BLZ Solicitors;
- to communicate with you;
- to provide legal services as instructed by you;
- to process payments or billing;
- for our legitimate interests or those of a third party;
- to carry out a conflict check and in relation to risk and compliance checks or auditing;
- to protect the security of our systems and prevent/detect security threats, fraud or other criminal or malicious activities;
- for insurance purposes;
- to comply with court orders or regulatory bodies;
- to carry out market research and obtain feedback in relation to our services;
- to monitor compliance with our policies; or
- where you have given consent
Promotional communications
We may use your personal information to send you updates by email, post or social media communications about our product, services or events.
We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information for promotional purposes. This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by contacting BLZ Solicitors.
Who we share your personal information with
We routinely share personal information with:
- third parties we use to help deliver our products, services and events, for example, payment service providers, hosting services, cloud services, CRM management, event organisers/suppliers.
- our professional advisors, including our legal advisors. With Barristers, consultants, mediators or other experts when this is necessary.
- With Courts, law enforcement authorities, regulators, government officials or other parties when it is legally required.
- other third parties we use to help us run our business, for example, auditors, accountants, marketing agencies, website hosts or administrative/audit functions.
- our insurers and brokers (if applicable).
- our bank (if applicable).
- We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you.
Where, and for how long, your personal information is held
We store your information within the UK and the European Economic Area (“EEA”). If we need to transfer your personal data to another person in a country which does not provide an adequate level of data protection, we will only do so to the extent this is necessary to perform a contract we have concluded with you or in your interest; for important reasons of public interest (such as the detection or prevention of money laundering); or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or subject to safeguards that assure the protection of your personal data.
We will continue to keep your personal data for as long as this is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collect and use it, as these are explained in this Notice, including for complying with our legal and regulatory obligations (for example auditing, reporting and accounting requirements), for the provision of legal services and for the establishment or defence of legal claims. Thereafter, we will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this notice. Usually this is for 7 years but different retention periods apply for different types of personal information, we carry out an annual audit to establish what is still necessary. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal information, we will securely destroy, delete or anonymise it.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to protect your information and prevent it from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.
Updating your personal data
You should make sure that you provide us with accurate and up-to-date information. If any personal data that you have provided to us changes (for example if you move house) or if you become aware that we hold any inaccurate information about you, please let us know. We will not be responsible for any losses arising from any inaccurate, inauthentic, deficient or incomplete personal data provided to us.
Your rights
You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
- The right to be provided with a copy of your personal information (the right of access).
- The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information.
- To be forgotten. The right to require us to delete your personal information in certain situations.
- Restriction of processing. The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, for example if you contest the accuracy of the data.
- Data portability. The right to receive the personal information you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party in certain situations.
- To object. The right to object: at any time to your personal information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling) in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information, for example processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests
- Not to be subject to automated individual decision making. The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please contact us. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is manifestly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
How to complain
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this privacy notice
We reserve the right to change this Notice from time to time in order to reflect any changes to the way in which we process data. We will provide you with details of accessing the privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.
Location
Suite S52,
Cheadle Place,
Stockport,
SK8 2JX
Office Hours
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday - Friday