Privacy Policy

Scope of this policy

Nevile & Co. (ABN 35 633 788 511), referred to as ‘we’ ‘us’ and ‘our’, is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal information that we collect from you, hold and use. ‘Personal information’ is simply information that identifies you. We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles, found in the Privacy Act 1988.

This policy applies to personal information that you provide to us directly, through online channels and personal information that we receive from third parties. This policy does not apply to employee records, and most of the information that we collect about corporate entities.

Collecting your personal information

a. Personal information we collect

The type of personal information Nevile & Co. collects and holds includes but is not limited to your:

contact details, including name, address, phone numbers (including Skype, WeChat and WhatsApp ID), email address, website URL;
date of birth;
occupation;
credit card and bank account details;
Australian Business Number (ABN);
photographs of you including copies of photo identity documents such as drivers licence and passport.

For specific types of legal work, and particularly for migration matters, Nevile & Co. from time to time collects and holds sensitive personal information, including your:

place of birth, nationality, racial and ethnic origin;
political opinions or membership of a political association;
religious or philosophical beliefs or affirmations;
professional or trade association or union membership;
criminal record;
health, genetic or biometric information.

b. Information collected from our websites

Nevile & Co. automatically collects and stores the following information about visitors to its website:

Server IP address
Domain name
Date and time of visit
Web pages accessed and documents downloaded
Previous site visited
Type of browser used
Screen monitor resolution

This information is collected in an aggregated form and cannot directly identify individual visitors. We only use the information to measure the number of visitors to the different parts of the site and to help us make the site more useful to you. If we do not collect this information, we may be unable to tailor our website content to your preferences. You are able to browse our site without entering any personal information so you can remain completely anonymous during your visit.

c. How we collect personal information

We collect personal information about potential clients, clients, referrers, contractors, job applicants, website and email subscribers, consultants, interns, people who attend our events or functions, and people who make enquiries or otherwise come into contact with us.

We collect personal information through the following avenues:

our website and social media pages;
via documents, such as Will instruction sheets and new client data forms;
at property information sessions in Australia or overseas;
during meetings with you;
phone or written enquiries and contact;
from third parties, such as referrers and recruitment agents;
job applications;
consultant and intern intake procedures;
at Nevile & Co. events.

We only collect sensitive information from potential clients or clients, via information collection documents such as migration forms, during meetings with you, or via other communication or correspondence with you.

What will Nevile & Co. use your personal information for?

Nevile & Co. will only use or disclose your personal information for the primary purpose for which it was collected, or a directly-related secondary purpose. In other words, we will only use your personal information in a way in which you would be likely to expect us to use it. Some of the main purposes for which we use personal information are:

a. Provision of legal services

Nevile & Co. will use your personal information to act on your behalf in providing legal services. We may need to use it to contact you, advise you or prepare documents such as conveyancing documents, Wills, Court documents, applications or agreements.

As part of providing legal services to you we may use your photo identity documents to complete identity verification procedures for our file or otherwise as required for your legal matter.

b. Promotion and marketing

Nevile & Co. may use your personal information for direct marketing, such as emailing you our newsletters, information about our services and upcoming property development opportunities. We may also invite you to Nevile & Co. events and functions. Our direct marketing will always contain an ‘unsubscribe’ mechanism, and we will remove you from our direct marketing lists if you ‘unsubscribe’. If we receive your personal information from a third party, we will only use it for direct marketing purposes if you have consented, and have not unsubscribed.

We sometimes use photographs taken at our events, which may include photographs of attendees, in our promotional and marketing materials or on our website and social media platforms.

c. Payments and invoicing

We use your personal information to process payments made by you into our trust account and or in payment of our invoices or disbursements.

d. Job applications and engaging third parties

Nevile & Co. collects personal information from consultancy or internship applicants, sometimes indirectly through recruitment agencies, in order to assess, and if successful, employ or otherwise engage the applicant. We may also collect personal information from contractors to enable us to engage them in various capacities.

What will Nevile & Co. use your sensitive information for?

Your sensitive information will only be used where necessary to provide legal services to you, in accordance with paragraph ‘a. Provision of legal services’ above. For example, we may need to use your sensitive information in applying for a Visa on your behalf.

Sharing your personal information

Nevile & Co. may, in accordance with the above specific purposes only, disclose your personal or sensitive information to:

Our employees, consultants or interns;
Other parties involved in your legal matter, including other law firms, our agents, barristers, Courts or government bodies;
Our auditors or other contractors;
Anyone you authorise us to disclose it to.

Other than the above, we will not disclose your personal information without your consent unless disclosure is necessary to prevent a threat to life or health, authorised or required by law, reasonably necessary to enforce the law or necessary to investigate a suspected unlawful activity.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies in order to provide a better user experience. Cookies are a small text file our website stores on your computer, and are used to determine whether your computer uses Javascript (a software language used in websites), and a session cookie, to determine whether you are a registered, logged-in user.

Off-site links

Our website contains links to other websites. Nevile & Co. is not responsible for the privacy policies, practices or content of any site that may be linked to or from our website. We recommend that you review the privacy policy of each site you visit.

Storing your personal information

Nevile & Co. stores your personal and sensitive information on our electronic databases, including our LEAP system which is stored in the Cloud. We also store some of your personal and sensitive information in our hard copy legal files or in our secure Deed Packet Register. Where a hard copy legal file containing your personal and sensitive information exists, after your file is closed, it is stored for 7 years with an external storage provider, then it is destroyed.

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal and sensitive information whether it is stored electronically or in hard copy.

Your personal and sensitive information that is no longer required by us or by law will be destroyed or de-identified, unless it is retained for direct marketing purposes.

Right to request access and correction

You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold, and seek to have it corrected and updated. Such requests can be made by contacting Nevile & Co. directly on the contact details below. No fee will be charged for complying with these requests, but we may charge you for any reasonable photocopying fees incurred. If you want us to delete your personal information, please contact us and we will take all reasonable steps to delete it, unless we are prevented from doing so by law.

This Privacy Policy does not affect our right to exercise a lien over your legal file in certain circumstances as set out in our cost disclosure or cost agreement documentation.

Right to deal with us anonymously or via pseudonym

You may interact with us anonymously or via pseudonym, however, if you do so, or you choose not to provide us with personal information that we reasonably require, we may not be able to:

act on your behalf in your legal matter or provide legal advice to you;
adequately deal with your enquiry or fulfil your request.

How to complain

If you believe Nevile & Co. has breached the Australian Privacy Principles or a binding registered Australian Privacy Principles code, you may complain by using the following procedure:

Contact Nevile & Co. on the below contact details and provide us with the details of your complaint;
We will:
- record your complaint in writing and ask for further information if required;
- We will assess your complaint and contact you within 28 days of the date of the complaint to discuss options to resolve it;
- Work with you to implement any agreed action to resolve the complaint;
- Contact you to follow up about resolution of the complaint;
If the above process does not deal satisfactorily with your concerns, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner via:
- Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
- Tel: 1300 363 992
- Fax: (02) 9284 9666

Our contact details

Privacy Officer
Nevile & Co. (ABN 35 633 788 511)
Address: Level 11, 100 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000
Tel: (03) 9664 4700
Email: nevileco@nevile.com.au