Privacy Policy

Introduction

ELMS Legal Ltd, sometimes referred to as ELMS Legal is a law firm regulated by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx).

ELMS Legal takes data protection seriously and are committed to the highest standards of data protection. This Privacy Notice provides important information about how we process personal data in accordance with data protection principles.

ELMS Legal is a law firm appointed by its clients to collect debt, which may result in litigation action being taken and the provision of advocacy services. ELMS Legal acts as a data processor in respect of data provided to us by clients under their contractual instructions to us and a data controller in circumstances where data is used for our own business purposes.

ELMS Legal can be contacted at info@elmslegal.co.ukor by post at 31 Handley Street, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, NG34 7TQ or by phone on 01529 406097.

The Data Protection Officer may be contacted by writing to the Data Protection Officer at the address above.

Purpose of Processing

ELMS Legal processes personal data for legitimate purposes including:

  1. Advocacy/Litigation

This includes acting under the contractual instructions of our clients.

ELMS Legal may also process personal data for the following legitimate purposes:

  • To comply with legal and regulatory obligations
  • To run the business in an efficient and effective manner
  • To comply with data protection fundamental rights and freedoms including the right of access
  • To detect, investigate, report and otherwise seek to prevent fraud, money laundering, financing terrorism and other financial crime
  • To investigate, resolve and respond to complaints
  • For outsourcing to third party service providers such as printing and postage
  • For producing management information
  • To complete income and expenditure forms
  1. Debt Collection

This includes, for example, contact by letter, telephone, mobile phone, email and managing payments, which may result in legal action being taken.

  1. Debt Administration

This includes updating court portals and managing payments by way of letters, telephone, mobile phones and emails, which also could result in legal action being taken.

Legal Basis for Processing

ELMS Legal processes data on the following lawful reasons:

  • Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract
  • Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
  • Processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests
  • Processing is necessary for the prevention of financial crime including fraud and money laundering
  • Processing is necessary for information security e.g. payments are made using a secure system
  • Processing is necessary for monitoring payment arrangements, complaints data and other management information
  • Processing is necessary for validating current addresses

Categories of Personal Data

ELMS Legal uses different types of personal data for identification purposes such as:

  • Forename
  • Middle names
  • Surname
  • Current address and postcode
  • Previous address and postcode

This information is usually provided by clients in the first instance and subsequently validated by the individuals concerned.

If a person has been given consent to act as an authorised third party (this will usually be a friend or family member), ELMS Legal will also process this category of data in relation to the authorised person.

The types of data that ELMS Legal processes is as follows:

  1. Financial

This includes information about:

  • your outstanding balance
  • income and expenditure
  • information in relation to transactions including payments made, any charges (such as late payment charges), interest and/or fees (such as court fees)

Some of this information is provided directly by you and some is provided by clients.

  1. Contractual

ELMS Legal may be provided with access to evidence of any contractual relationship between you and a client.

  1. Vehicle Details

For parking matters ELMS Legal may be provided with your vehicle details from its clients including:

  • Make
  • Model
  • Registration
  • Images
  • Site information
  1. Socio-demographic

As a consequence of processing your identification and contact details as well as your financial data, ELMS Legal has an understanding of your socio-demographic data. This may include, for examples, your age, your employment status, your income, your marital status and the size of your family.

As already outlined, some of this information is obtained from clients and some of it is obtained directly from you.  Your income and expenditure information may mean that your account is placed on hold for a period to provide breathing space to seek independent money advice, for example.

  1. Documentary Data

Documentary data is usually provided directly by you or an authorised third party.

  1. Public

ELMS Legal may make reference to public records such as the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, Companies House, the Individual Insolvency Register and others.

  1. Consent

This is where you have provided consent. In most cases this will be your explicit consent to process your data.

  1. Card Payments

Card payments are processed securely on our behalf by Barclays.

Sources of Data

ELMS Legal obtains personal data from clients, authorised third parties (family members etc.), public sources and HM Prison Service.

Data Transfer

Personal data is not transferred outside of the European Union (EU) without appropriate safeguards.

Data Storage

Customer data is retained for no longer than necessary. As such, data is retained for as long as an account remains open. Upon account closure, data is retained for six years to comply with regulatory requirements.

Right of Access

You may request access to your personal data. You may access information such as:

  • Your name, address, contact details, vehicle details and notes of conversations between you and ELMS Legal.

Some information you may not be entitled to includes:

  • Some communications between ELMS Legal and clients which are subject to legal professional privilege.

To make a subject access request you will make such a request in writing to the address outlined above and please specify as to what information you are looking for.

Right to Rectification

Reasonable steps are taken to ensure the accuracy of the data processed by ELMS Legal. If you believe any of your information is not accurate, complete or up to date, please contact ELMS Legal where steps to rectify your data will be taken where evidence is provided.

Right to Erasure

This is also known as the right to be forgotten and applies in certain limited circumstances such as when:

  • Your data is no longer needed for the purposes it was collected
  • There is a legal obligation on ELMS Legal to delete the data
  • You object and ELMS Legal has no overriding legitimate grounds to continue processing your data

The right to be forgotten does not apply where ELMS Legal processes your personal data because:

  • There is a legal obligation to do so
  • It is needed to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim

Complaints

If you have a complaint, please request a copy of our complaints policy in the first instance as we are committed to resolving your complaint fairly and quickly.

Cookies

ELMS Legal Ltd (“ELMS”) operates https://elmslegal.co.uk/ (the “Site”). This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive from users of the Site.

Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a web site and stored on your computer’s hard drive.

Like many sites, we use “cookies” to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Site.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of (25 May 2018) and will remain in effect except with respect to any changes in its provisions in the future.

We reserve the right to update or change our Privacy Policy at any time.

If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either through the email address you have provided us, or by placing a prominent notice on our website.