Privacy Policy

1. ABOUT THIS POLICY

This Privacy Policy explains how Hugo Law Group Pty Ltd (ACN 650 380 019) (we, us or our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, including through our website www.hugolawgroup.com.au (Site). We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

As lawyers, we also owe our clients duties of confidentiality, and much of the information we hold is protected by legal professional privilege. Those obligations continue to apply alongside this Privacy Policy and in many cases give your information greater protection.

You do not have to provide personal information to us. However, if you do not, we may not be able to act for you, respond to your enquiry or provide our services.

2. SUMMARY

This is a summary of how we handle personal information. More detail is set out in the sections referred to below.

3. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Clients and prospective clients: the personal information we collect may include:

• your name, date of birth, address, email address and telephone number;
• identification documents;
• information about your legal matter, including your instructions, charges, bail conditions, court and police records, criminal history and correspondence;
• financial information needed for our fees and trust account, including bank account and credit card details;
• health information, including medical, psychological and psychiatric records and reports, where relevant to your matter; and
• other sensitive information where it is relevant to your matter (see section 5).

Other people: in the course of acting for our clients we also collect personal information about other people, such as witnesses, complainants, co-accused, opposing parties, family members, referees, experts and other lawyers. This information usually comes from briefs of evidence, court documents and our clients.

Website users and enquirers: your name, contact details and the nature of your enquiry, and information about your use of our Site (see section 14).

Job applicants: information in your application, references and background checks.

4. HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect personal information directly from you, including in meetings, by telephone, by email and through our Site. We also collect personal information from third parties in the course of your matter, including police and prosecuting authorities, courts and tribunals, legal aid commissions, corrective services, medical and other service providers (with your authority), other parties and their lawyers, people who refer you to us, and public records and searches.

If we receive personal information we did not ask for, we will decide whether we could have collected it lawfully. If not, we will destroy or de-identify it where it is lawful and reasonable to do so.

5. SENSITIVE INFORMATION

Sensitive information includes information about criminal records, health, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and biometrics. It is given a higher level of protection under the APPs.

We collect sensitive information where it is reasonably necessary to provide our legal services and you consent, or where the Privacy Act otherwise permits, including where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal or equitable claim. We use and disclose sensitive information only for the purpose for which it was collected, for a directly related purpose you would reasonably expect, or as required or authorised by law.

6. WHY WE COLLECT, USE AND DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to:

• provide legal advice and representation and manage your matter;
• communicate with you and respond to enquiries;
• conduct conflict checks and verify identity;
• meet our trust accounting, record keeping and other obligations under legal profession legislation;
• issue bills, collect fees and recover costs, including costs ordered in your favour;
• comply with court orders, our professional obligations and the law;
• manage our practice, including quality assurance, supervision, insurance and risk management;
• operate and improve our Site;
• send you information about our services, where you have not opted out (see section 13); and
• consider applications for employment.

7. WHO WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION TO

Depending on the nature of your matter, we may disclose personal information to:

• courts and tribunals, including the Sentence Administration Board;
• police and prosecuting authorities, including the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions;
• legal aid commissions and corrective services;
• government agencies relevant to your matter, such as the Department of Home Affairs;
• other parties to proceedings and their lawyers;
• barristers, experts, interpreters, mediators, process servers, transcription services and costs consultants;
• our insurers and professional advisers;
• our technology, document management, cloud and legal support service providers; and
• anyone else where you consent, or where we are required or authorised by law to do so.

Our service providers may only handle personal information in accordance with our instructions and are bound by confidentiality obligations. We do not sell personal information.

8. USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

We use Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) tools, including to support legal research, document review, due diligence, data analysis, automation, translation, and transcription. We maintain policies, guidelines, and training to support responsible use and compliance with relevant ethical rules and data protection laws and regulations. Where such tools are used in delivering our legal services, appropriately qualified and experienced members of our fee-earning teams review outputs for accuracy and completeness.

9. OVERSEAS DISCLOSURE

We use internationally based technological and support services in the course of our legal practice. These include:

• legal support personnel located in India, who assist our Australian lawyers with administrative and paralegal tasks, working on our systems and under the supervision of our Australian lawyers; and
• technology and cloud service providers that may store or process data outside Australia.

Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient does not breach the APPs. This includes binding the recipient by contract to handle personal information consistently with the APPs, to keep it confidential, to apply appropriate security measures and to notify us of any data breach.

Other than in using these services, we do not disclose personal information overseas unless your instructions involve dealing with parties located overseas. In that case, we may disclose select personal information to overseas recipients associated with your matter in order to carry out your instructions.

10. STORAGE AND SECURITY

We hold personal information electronically in secure document and practice management systems, with access limited to personnel who need it. We use measures including access controls, multi-factor authentication and staff confidentiality obligations to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Material that is especially sensitive, or subject to court orders, is subject to further access restrictions.

We operate a paperless filing system. Physical documents are scanned and stored electronically. We retain client files for at least seven years after our final account, after which we securely destroy or de-identify them, unless the law requires us to keep them longer.

No method of transmitting information over the internet is completely secure. If you send us information electronically, please consider the risks. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that the personal information we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

11. DATA BREACHES

If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in the Privacy Act.

12. ACCESS AND CORRECTION

Access: you may ask for access to the personal information we hold about you by contacting us in writing. We will respond within a reasonable time, usually within 30 days. We may refuse access where the Privacy Act permits, including where the information is subject to legal professional privilege, where giving access would unreasonably affect the privacy of others, or where it would prejudice legal proceedings. If we refuse, we will tell you why. We may charge a reasonable fee for providing access.

Correction: if you believe that information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to correct it.

13. MARKETING

We may send you information about our services. You may opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe facility in the communication or by contacting us.

14. OUR WEBSITE, COOKIES AND ANALYTICS

Our Site uses cookies and analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to understand how the Site is used. These tools may collect information such as your browser type, device, pages visited and approximate location, and may store data outside Australia. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, although parts of the Site may not work as intended.

15. PEOPLE ACTING FOR OTHERS

If you give us personal information about someone else, you must be authorised to do so. Where we act for a young person or a person under a disability, we may deal with a parent, guardian or litigation guardian as permitted by law and our professional obligations.

16. COMPLAINTS

If you have a question or complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact the lawyer responsible for your matter or our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will acknowledge your complaint within [7] days and aim to respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the OAIC at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

17. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version is always available on our Site and on request.

18. CONTACT US

Privacy Officer, Hugo Law Group

Level 10, 15 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2601
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (02) 5104 9640