Our Privacy Policy

Last updated October 2018

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND HOW DO WE COLLECT IT?

Generally speaking we collect your personal information directly from you as part of providing legal services when you provide your personal information to us in person, over the phone, via email or Settify or otherwise (unless it is unreasonable or impractical for us to do so in which case we may collect your personal information from a publicly maintained record or an information service provider).  Alternatively, if you are not a client, we may collect your personal information from a client to assist with providing legal services.

We will usually collect your name and contact details such as your email address, telephone number and residential and postal addresses. We may also collect personal information considered to be “sensitive information” as defined under Australian Privacy Laws (as defined below).  Sensitive information includes information about an individuals’ sexual preferences or practices, religious beliefs or affiliations and “health information” (including, for example, information about mental health, disability and wishes about the provision of health services to you).

We collect your sensitive information if you consent and the collection of that information is reasonably necessary to provide legal services to our clients. We also collect sensitive information if required or authorised to do so by law and otherwise in accordance with Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (“Australian Privacy Laws”).

WHY DO WE NEED TO COLLECT PERSONAL AND SENSITIVE INFORMATION?

We need your personal information (including sensitive information) to provide legal services to you (if you are our client) or to meet our obligations to our clients (if you are not a client).  We also need your personal information to perform our other business functions including internal record keeping, creating and updating our databases, managing our relationship with you, and ensuring compliance with our contractual and other legal obligations to our clients. If you do not provide us with your personal information we may not be able to assist you with legal services (if you are our client) or it may affect our ability to assist our client with legal services (if you are not our client).

If you do not wish to provide your personal information to us, please tell one of our lawyers and we will only request information that is required by law.  We will, if practicable, allow you to use a pseudonym or to not identify yourself unless this is impractical or against the law.

TO WHOM DO WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Generally speaking we will disclose your personal information for the purposes for which we collect it, made known to you at the time.  Typically, this is only for the purpose of providing our legal services (where appropriate, on a confidential basis), to tell you about other legal services we provide and to invite you to our events.  We may also disclose your personal information in other ways with your consent and as required by law.

We are unlikely to disclose your personal information to any person or entity outside of Australia but will inform you if and when this is necessary.

We may disclose your personal information (including sensitive information) to a third party with your consent for purposes related to providing legal services to you.  This includes to communicate with your medical practitioner, psychologist, school or employer.

In some instances, if you do not provide us with consent to disclose your personal information (including sensitive information) to a third party or otherwise provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to assist you with providing legal services.

WE TREAT PERSONAL INFORMATION CONFIDENTIALLY AND KEEP IT SECURE

We take all reasonable steps to keep the personal information we hold secure and to ensure it is protected against misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or inappropriate disclosure.  We hold personal information in both hard copy and electronic forms in secure systems accessible only to authorised staff.

To the extent that our obligations under the Australian Privacy Laws in relation to our use of your sensitive information vary from our obligations with respect to our use of your personal information that is not sensitive information, we will comply with the obligations applicable to sensitive information.

FAMILY LAW AND WILLS & ESTATES SERVICES – SETTIFY

KHQ has partnered with Settify Pty Ltd (“Settify”) to provide free, early stage online information regarding family law and wills & estates matters. KHQ pays Settify a fee for providing this service to you.

Personal information submitted via the online form is collected directly by Settify and will be handled in accordance with Settify’s privacy policy (which you can view here).

All personal information disclosed to us (either by Settify or by you directly) will be handled in accordance with this privacy policy.

Family law services – Settify online form

If having used the online form you’d then like to make an appointment with one of our lawyers, Settify will provide us with your name, contact details and date of birth, and your partner’s name, contact details and date of birth, so we can verify whether we can act for you.  If we can’t act for you, then Settify will not supply us with any further personal information you have provided.

If we have no conflict and are able to act for you, Settify will provide us with the balance of the personal information you entered via the online form.

Wills and estate services – Settify online form

If you submit the online form, Settify will provide us your name, contact details, date of birth and any other information you provide about yourself or a someone else on their behalf (if they are the prospective client).  This includes information about the prospective client’s relationship status, disability (if any) and information relating to health.

YOU CAN ACCESS AND UPDATE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You can access your personal information subject to certain limitations under the Australian Privacy Laws.  If you would like to access or update your personal information, please contact us using the details set out below. In most cases, a summary of your personal information is available free of charge.

We encourage you to contact us to update your personal information to ensure it is accurate, current and complete. We will take reasonable steps to process your request.

To protect all personal information held by us, we may require you to confirm your identity before access to your personal information is granted.  If necessary, reasonable costs may be charged to you in accessing your personal information, subject always to the Australian Privacy Laws.

USING OTHER SITES

This site may contain links to other websites.  Unless it’s one of our websites, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of the owners of those websites.

We recommend that you read the privacy policy of any website that asks you to provide your personal information.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We may need to change our privacy policy from time to time.  When we do amend it, the changes will be effective immediately upon being made public on our website.  We will use reasonable measures to notify you of any relevant changes to this privacy policy, but please be aware that it is your responsibility to review our privacy policy regularly and made sure you keep us with any changes.

OUR CONTACT DETAILS

If you have a question or a complaint about how we collect, use or disclose your personal information (including any breach of the Australian Privacy Law), please contact our office, attention to the privacy compliance officer.  Our contact details can be found on the Contacts page.

Or for more information about privacy issues in Australia and protecting your privacy, please visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website at https://www.oaic.gov.au.