1.     Our commitment to your privacy

1.1       In your relationship with Barristers’ Chambers Limited (BCL/we/us), you may share personal information with us. Depending on the nature of your relationship with BCL, this information may include:

  • your name;
  • date of birth;
  • addresses;
  • telephone numbers;
  • email addresses;
  • bank accounts and credit card details;
  • financial position of some defaulting tenants;
  • details of rent payments;
  • details of telephone calls, charges and payments;
  • allocation of chambers;
  • service requests, complaints and feedback;
  • your server address, top level domain name (eg, .com, .gov.au, etc), statistics on page views, traffic to and from the sites, and standard other web log information;
  • other metadata arising out of use of our services, as set out in our Communications and Technology Terms and Conditions;
  • any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our website or indirectly through your use of our website or online presence or through other websites or accounts from which you permit us to collect information; or
  • any other personal information that may be required in order to facilitate your dealings with us.

1.2           BCL recognises the importance of your privacy and how important it is to protect your personal information. BCL is committed to protecting the personal information which it holds and complying with all relevant privacy law in the jurisdictions in it operates including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The APPs regulate the manner in which personal information is handled.

1.3           This policy describes how BCL manages your personal information and safeguards your privacy.

1.4           By providing BCL with information about yourself, you consent to the collection, use, disclosure and transfer of information as set out in this policy.

 

2.      What information do we hold about you

2.1     We may collect personal information from clients, tenants, members of the Bar, non-members holding a Victorian barristers’ practising certificate, employees or persons seeking to use BCL services. We collect personal information that is necessary for us to:

  • lawfully and ethically conduct BCL’s business
  • provide the goods and services our clients and tenants require; identify suppliers, contractors and consultants with whom BCL may wish to deal;
  • provide employment;
  • assist in the provision of a safe environment for BCL’s clients, tenants, suppliers and other contacts
  • let clients and tenants know about other products and/or services which might interest them;
  • assist generally in managing transactions with BCL’s clients, tenants, suppliers and other contacts.

2.2         The kinds of personal information BCL collects and holds depends upon the type of dealings you have with us in respect of products and services we provide to you or obtain from you. We may collect these types of personal information either directly from you, or from third parties (including BCL’s parent, the Victorian Bar Inc).  It may be collected via:

  • applications to rent chambers or otherwise make arrangements to pay rent or other charges to us;
  • credit account application forms and supply or purchase agreements;
  • provision of credit or banking related information necessary to process payment of your purchases from us or our payments to you;
  • information you give us when you request a product, service or information (direct or referred) from us electronically, over the phone or in person;
  • access and usage our website or postings you make on any blog or forums on any site we may operate;
  • communications between us and you, including in relation to any complaints or enquiries;
  • subscription to our email updates or newsletters;
  • provision of information to the various barristers’ directories published from time to time in hardcopy or on the internet;
  • provision of information about the use of one of our products or services (direct or referred), or your opinions about that product, recorded when you respond to a survey an
  • provision of information from Barrister’s clerks, Personal Assistants (PA) and other authorised persons operating on your behalf.

In addition, when you apply for a job or position with us we may collect certain information from you (including your name, contact details, working history and relevant records checks) from any recruitment consultant, recruitment websites, your previous employers and others who may be able to provide information to us to assist in our decision on whether or not to make you an offer of employment or engage you under a contract. This Privacy Policy does not apply to acts and practices in relation to employee records of our current and former employees, which are exempt from the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth).

2.3         Provision of the personal information we may request from you is optional, but if you choose not to provide personal information to us, we may not be able to fulfil your request or provide you with the product or service you require. Sometimes, however, there are situations where we are required by law to collect certain personal information from you and, if this is the case, we will inform you of the law that imposes this requirement.

2.4         Where practical, you may interact with us anonymously.  For example, providing feedback to us that does not require a response from us.  However, in many cases it will not be possible to interact with us anonymously because we need your personal information to be able to provide the products, services or information you are requesting. For example, if you wish to subscribe to an email newsletter then we need an email address for you.

2.5         Where appropriate and practical, at the point of collection of your information we may provide you either an “opt in” or “opt-out” mechanism. An “opt-in” mechanism will provide you the opportunity to positively indicate that you would like or do not object to our sending you further communications. An “opt-out” mechanism will provide you the opportunity to indicate that you do not want us to send you further communications, and if you “opt-out” we will not send you any. At any time, you may opt out of such future contact by contacting us.

2.6         When we collect personal information from you, we will generally tell you why the information is being collected, unless the reason for its collection is self-evident.

2.7         We will collect personal information directly from you whenever it is reasonable and practicable to do so. We may, at times, also collect personal information from other parties such as third party services where they are integrated with our services or websites, credit reporting and collection agencies, unrelated third parties as well as from your agents or representatives (such as your legal or financial adviser) and from publicly available sources of information

2.8         Sensitive information is personal information such as health information and information about racial or ethnic origin that is generally afforded a higher level of privacy protection. In order to comply with privacy legislation obligations, we will collect sensitive information where it is reasonably necessary to do so and you have consented, or we are required to do so by the law.

 

3.     Your privacy on our websites

3.1           A cookie is information that a website transfers to your browser for identification purposes. We may use cookies on our websites and our websites may record information if individual visits the site. The information recorded may include the date and time of the individual’s visit to the site, the pages accessed, any information downloaded and any information and details entered by the individual for any reason.

3.2           We may use information collected via our websites for statistical, reporting and website administration, maintenance and analytical purposes.

3.3           We respect your privacy. Any personal information we collect about you will only be used for the purposes for which it is collected, or for related purposes (such as to improve our products and websites). We will not disclose it without your consent, except as described in this privacy policy.

3.4           We may keep and file personal information you provide when dealing with us to assist us in providing you with our services and/or information of interest in respect of your business or your interest as a consumer. For example, we may send publications or other information on our products and services to you or follow up on your interest in particular products and services, unless you tell us not to. We may also, in certain circumstances, share your personal information with our advisers/partners who need to know that information to assist us in providing you with our range of products and services.

3.5           At times we may retain third parties to process and analyse data we collect on our websites, including your personal information, primarily to help us improve our products and services and our websites. We may also disclose information to affiliates and other third parties necessary to process your transactions or service your account (including print service providers, call centres and mail houses, our accountants, auditors and lawyers and credit reporting and collection agencies). We may also disclose your personal information in corporate transactions involving the transfer of all or part of our business or its assets or in a corporate restructure. If we do this, we generally require these parties to protect your information in the same way we do.

3.6           We may also be required or authorised by law to disclose your personal information in certain circumstances. For example, we may disclose your personal information to a court in response to a subpoena or to the tax office. We may also disclose information to other persons where you have provided your consent to do so and to credit reporting agencies.

3.7           Once we no longer require your personal information for any of the purposes for which it was collected, we will, subject to any legal obligations and responsibilities, take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information.

 

4.     How do we protect your personal information?

4.1           When transmitting personal information from a computer to us, you should keep in mind that the transmission of information by email or over the Internet is not completely secure or error-free and you should take special care in deciding what information to send to us via email.

4.2           We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, modification, or unauthorised access and disclosure. These steps include access control for our buildings, confidentiality obligations imposed on our employees and use of security measures for computer system access. We do not, however, accept any responsibility for the unauthorised access or use of personal information held by us. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all liability and responsibility for any damages you may suffer  due to any loss, unauthorised access, misuse or alteration of your personal information, either during transmission of that information to us or after we receive it.

4.3           You may be able to access external websites, operated by companies unrelated to us, by clicking on links we have provided. Those other websites are not subject to our privacy standards and we are not responsible for their privacy practices or the content of such other websites. You should contact those websites directly to ascertain their privacy standards, policies and procedures.

 

5.     What rights do you have in relation to your personal information which we hold?

5.1           We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you become aware of any errors in your personal information or you change your personal details such as your name, address or bank account details, we ask you to contact us as soon as possible.

5.2           In most cases, you can gain access to personal information that we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions allowed by law. You can contact us if you would like details of your personal information which we may hold, or if you would like us to correct it. We will handle any request in accordance with the relevant privacy legislation. We may require you to complete a request form and we also reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for providing access to personal information we hold about you. We will deal with requests as quickly as possible, but requests for a large amount of information, or information which is not currently in use, may require time to process.

5.3           Generally, if you request us to do so we will amend any personal information about you held by us which is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. If we disagree with you about the accuracy, completeness or currency of personal information held by us, if you ask we will take reasonable steps to associate with that information a statement to the effect that you claim this to be the case.

5.4           You may also contact us to request us to stop using your personal information to contact you about our products and services. If you no longer conduct business with us, you can ask us to remove your personal information. You can contact us if you wish to obtain more information about the way we manage personal information about you which we hold, or if you are concerned that we may have breached your privacy and wish to make a complaint.

 

Contact Us

Address:

Attn Paul Clark

Barristers’ Chambers Limited

Level 13, 200 Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Email: paul.clark@vicbar.com.au

Phone: 03 9225 7962

 

Changes to this privacy statement

We may change our privacy policies from time to time to comply with new laws or industry codes of practice which are developed. It is your responsibility to refer to our privacy policies from time to time to familiarise yourself with any changes. We encourage you to visit our website regularly for any updates to our privacy policy

 

Effective: November 2019

To download a PDF version of this Privacy Policy, please click here.

 

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