Privacy Policy

Who we are

This is the privacy statement of J. & H. Mitchell LLP, trading as J. & H. Mitchell W.S., a Limited Liability Partnership, registered in Scotland under No. SO303818, which is a law firm practising in Scotland and regulated by The Law Society of Scotland.

This privacy statement explains how we collect and use personal information about you.

Clients of the firm you should read this notice alongside our general Terms of Business and Letter of Engagement.

1. What personal information we collect

The exact information we will request from you will depend on what you have asked us to do.

The personal information that we collect about you will be provided to us by you.

An important part of the ‘know your customer’ checks, that we as solicitors are required to do,  involves recording your full name, date of birth and residential address and verifying this information according to strict industry standards and government-approved guidelines. All clients must take part in these checks.  J & H Mitchell W.S employs third party suppliers to provide services including utilising the services of a credit reference agency (https://www.transunion.co.uk/legal-information/bureau-privacy-notice).

In addition we will collect the following additional information

• information about your contact with us e.g. meetings, phone calls, emails/ letters; and/or
• information you may provide us about other people e.g. beneficiaries, family, children.

For some transactions, such as buying a property, another important part of the process is confirming where the money that you provide will be coming from, for example a UK bank account, an overseas transfer or money from a third party and how you have obtained that wealth, for example investment income, savings, sale of another property, or an inheritance.

For some transactions, including any that may necessitate correspondence with HMRC or Revenue Scotland, and in particular for property purchases, we will also require to know your National Insurance Number.

We will provide you with a Personal Details Form when you first engage us as solicitors, and again not more often than once every three years.  Other than providing the information outlined above, there is no obligation on you to complete this form more fully than that with which you are comfortable.

2. How we use your personal information

• To deliver  legal  and estate agency services and meet legal regulatory obligations
• To provide you with the most appropriate advice based on your personal circumstances
• To verify identity
• To verify source of funds
• To communicate  with you by post, email or telephone
• To process your legal transaction including, providing you with advice, preparing documents and completing transactions
• To keeping financial records of your transactions and the transactions we make on your behalf
• To responding to any complaint or allegation of negligence against us
• To prevent and detect crime, fraud or corruption

3. With whom we share your personal information

There may be circumstances, in carrying our legal work, where we may need to disclose some of your information to third parties in order to complete this work on your behalf, for example:

• Solicitors acting on the other side of a transaction
• The Land Register of Scotland, in relation to the registration of legal deeds
• The Scottish Court Service, usually in relation to winding up estates or small claims
• Revenue Scotland, for Land & Buildings Transaction Tax in relation to residential and commercial property transactions
• HM Revenue & Customs, in relation to charities, Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and other UK tax matters
• Banks, Building Societies and other lenders
• Chartered Surveyors, primarily in relation to property valuations and Home Reports
• Companies House, for company law matters
• Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, for charity law matters
• Legal Searching firms, for property and planning matters
• Local Authorities, primarily in relation to Council Tax, Rates, payment of residential care homes and planning matters
• Genealogy firms, primarily for tracing beneficiaries and family members
• Law Accountants, for the purposes of an independent fee assessment
• Any disclosure to public bodies as required by law or regulation, such as the prevention of financial crime, money-laundering and/or terrorism

Where appropriate, we ensure that any third parties comply strictly and confidentially with our instructions and they do not use your personal information for their own purposes unless you have explicitly consented to them doing so.

There may be some uses of personal data that require your specific consent. If this is the case we will contact you separately to ask for your consent.

We will never sell or pass your information to third parties for marketing purposes.

4. If you do not provide your personal information

If you do not provide your personal information then we may be unable act on your behalf, or continue to act on your behalf, in particular where the information is required in order to comply with Money Laundering Regulations or to meet other legal or regulatory requirements.

5. For how long we retain your personal information

It is our policy to retain all client files (both physical and electronic) for a period of at least 10 years after the closure of the file. This includes customer due diligence documents and client financial information obtained for the purposes of compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations.

Our retention policy is based on the Law Society of Scotland guidelines

6. Using our website

You can visit and browse our website without providing any personal information.

You may choose to submit your personal information by contacting us through our website Contact Form. In such instance we will only process your personal information for the purpose of responding to your request and for no other purpose, without your prior consent.

Our website uses Cookies and Google Analytics. For more information see below.

For the terms and conditions of use for our website please see the separate ‘Terms & Conditions” page on our website

7. Transmission of Data Overseas

We will not transfer your personal information to a country outside the European Economic Area without your prior consent and without first having assessed the adequacy of protection for individual rights in respect of personal data available in that country.

8. What security exists?

We are committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information. We use appropriate standards of technology and operational security to protect personal information including a Secure Server and network firewall connection.  Operationally, access to personal information is restricted to authorised personnel who are under a duty to maintain the confidentiality and security of such information.

9. Internet and Data Storage

The Internet is inherently insecure. Personal information submitted by means of the Internet may be vulnerable to unauthorised access by third parties. Submission of personal information using the Internet is at your own risk. We will take reasonable and appropriate technical measures to ensure that your personal information is stored in a secure manner. However, we shall have no liability for disclosure of data due to errors in transmission or the fraudulent, negligent or other illegal acts of a third party, such as ‘Hacking’. Any transmission of personal information on or through the use of our website is at your own risk

10. Your rights

Access to your information – You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.

Correcting your information – We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deletion of your information – You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

• You consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained.
• We are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see “Withdrawing consent to using your information” below.
• You have validly objected to our use of your personal information – see “Objecting to how we may use your information” below.
• Our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

Objecting to how we may use your information – You have the right at any time to require us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes.  In addition, where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.

Restricting how we may use your information – In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information.  This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information.  The right might also apply where this is no longer a basis for using your personal information but you don’t want us to delete the data.  Where this right to validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Withdrawing consent using your information – Where we use your personal information with your consent you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.

Please contact us in any of the ways set out in the Contact information and further advice section if you wish to exercise any of these rights.

10. Changes to our privacy statement

We keep this privacy statement under regular review and will place any updates on this website.

Paper copies of the privacy statement may also be obtained by e-mailing us at j@hmitchell.co.uk, or by writing to us at 51 Atholl Road, Pitlochry, or by telephoning us at 01796 472606.Information and further advice

If you require further information or advice please write to J. & H. Mitchell W.S., 51 Atholl Road, Pitlochry, Perthshire, e-mail to j@hmitchell.co.uk, or telephone to 01796 472 606.

11. Complaints

We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle personal information but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, whose contact details are as follows:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone – 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

Website – https://ico.org.uk/concerns

This privacy statement was last updated on December 2019.

Cookies

What are Cookies?
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information, often including a unique identifier, which are downloaded to your computer when you visit a website – if your browser preferences allow it. Cookies are then accessed by the originating website on each subsequent visit. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s computer.

How are cookies used on our website?
The cookies we use are there to allow you to perform the services you require and to assist us in providing a better website for our users. We do not use cookies to store information that identifies you as an individual. Details on cookies used are provided below. We encourage you to accept the cookies we serve. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our or any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. Please see the ‘How to control and delete cookies’ section for more information.

Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics cookies to hold information about your visit to our site. This helps us better identify the use and popularity of our services and how successfully the website is functioning. If you do not wish us to do this, you can opt out of the Analytics service by installing an add-on for your browser. This can be found at http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Alternatively you can delete/restrict the cookies as for any other cookie – see ‘How to control and delete cookies’ for more information.

Types of cookies
Session cookies are created temporarily when a user visits a website. Once the user leaves the site/closes the browser, the session cookie is deleted.  A persistent cookie file remains on the user’s computer and is re-activated when the user visits the website that created that particular cookie. These cookies expire after a certain period (set in the file), or can be removed manually.

Classification of cookies
The cookies on this website have additionally been categorised based on the categories found in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) UK Cookie Guide:

Cookies used on our website

How to control and delete cookies
You can manage cookie usage through your browser settings. The help function in your preferred browser should provide you with the correct information. Some browsers provide helpful cookie guides:

• Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647&p=cpn_cookies
• Firefox: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Cookies
• Internet Explorer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835
• Safari 5 for Mac: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/5.0/en/9277.html
• Opera: http://help.opera.com/Linux/10.50/en/cookies.html

Alternatively, http://www.allaboutcookies.org provides advice on how to do this, and further information on cookies and how to manage them.

N.B. In the case of some mobile devices, it may be necessary to consult the device’s instruction manual to manage cookies effectively.