Disclaimer & Privacy

Your privacy on this website

Disclaimer

The information provided on this website is provided for general information only and it is not intended to be legal advice nor is it a substitute for legal advice. Women’s Legal Service NSW does not provide legal advice via email. No confidential information about the substance of a matter should be supplied, as it is not possible for Women’s Legal Service NSW to protect any confidential information provided by email. For legal advice please call our Legal Advice Lines.

The use of the information is the sole responsibility of the website user who must assess its suitability for their purpose. It is recommended that advice from a lawyer be obtained before acting on the information provided. Women’s Legal Service NSW endeavours to ensure that the information is accurate and up-to-date and does not assume responsibility for any errors or omissions in the published material.

If you have concerns about the information on this website you should contact Women’s Legal Service NSW.

Copyright

All articles and information provided on this website remain the copyright of Women’s Legal Service NSW. Permission is granted for individuals and not for profit organisations to download and reproduce articles and information, providing WLS NSW is cited as the source.

Links

The Women’s Legal Service NSW website contains links to other sites. The inclusion of a link to another site from this site does not imply any endorsement of that site’s privacy policies, practices or content.

Privacy Statement

Women’s Legal Service NSW does not provide legal advice via email. No confidential information about the substance of a matter should be supplied, as it is not possible for Women’s Legal Service NSW to protect any confidential information provided by email. For legal advice please call our Legal Advice Lines.

Women’s Legal Service NSW website records your visit and we may log some or all of the following details (generated automatically and anonymously), for statistical purposes:

  • Server addresses
  • Top level domain names (for example, .com, .gov, .au, .uk)
  • Dates and times of visits
  • Pages viewed and documents downloaded
  • Previous site visited
  • Browser type (for example, Internet Explorer, Firefox)

We cannot identify visitors to our site through these web logs. They only allow us to identify the total number of visits our site receives and what sections visitors are using. Women’s Legal Service NSW analyses these statistics to improve and refine the site.

Web statistics may be compiled in reports distributed to our funding organisations, such as Legal Aid NSW .

Women’s Legal Service NSW may record and file a user’s email address if they contact us via the site’s general email address reception@wlsnsw.org.au. An email address will not be used for any purpose other than that for which it was intended.

Client Privacy Policy

Women’s Legal Resources Limited (T/A Women’s Legal Service NSW) (ABN 88 002 387 699) recognises the importance of protecting the privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information.  This document is our privacy policy and it tells you how we collect and manage your personal information.

We respect your rights to privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and we comply with all of the Privacy Act’s requirements in respect of the collection, management and disclosure of your personal information.

Except that we cannot deal with you anonymously when you are seeking legal advice and we may not disclose to you all the information we hold about you. These exceptions arise from our role and obligations as legal practitioners.

What is your personal information?

When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Privacy Act.  In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you.  This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation.  If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

What is your sensitive information?

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information and is given a higher level of protection.  In this privacy policy, the term “sensitive information” has the meaning given to it in the Privacy Act.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

We may collect the following types of personal information:

  • identification and contact details, such as your name, mailing or street address, email address, telephone number and your age or birth date;
  • family type, country of birth, year of arrival in Australia, language spoken at home
  • financial information, such as your housing, occupation, financial status and income,
  • sensitive information, such as your racial or ethnic background, criminal history and health information,English proficiency, whether you need an interpreter,  including any disabilities you may have;
  • other personal or sensitive information, not covered above which we may be required to collect as a result of providing you with legal advice;
  • details of the services you have requested from us, which you have enquired about, or which we have provided to you, together with any additional information necessary to deliver those services and to respond to your enquiries; and
  • any additional information relating to you that you provide to us in-person, by telephone in writing or via email.

We also collect some information that is not personal information because it does not identify you or anyone else.  For example, we collect aggregated information (information not linked to any person) about how users use our website.  More information on this is provided below.

We are required to collect your name, address, date of birth and other personal information relevant to providing you with legal advice under the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) and the Legal Profession Regulation 2005 (NSW).

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so.  We will collect your personal information through conversations between you and our staff, whether in-person or via telephone or email. We may also receive documents created or provided by you.

We may also collect personal information from third parties with your consent.

What happens if we can’t collect your personal information?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described above we may not be able to provide legal services to you.  We may also be unable to provide you with information about services that you may want or need.

For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

We collect personal information about you so that we can provide legal advice and to provide best possible quality of customer service.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to provide legal services to you and to send communications requested by you;
  • to answer your enquiries and provide information or advice about our services;
  • for planning, quality control and for the creation of anonymised case studies;
  • to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
  • to process and respond to any complaint made by you; and
  • to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination.

Your personal information will not be disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

To whom may we disclose your information?

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • our employees,  contractors or service providers for the purposes of providing our legal services, fulfilling requests by you, and to otherwise provide services to you including IT systems administrators,  couriers, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, barristers and consultants;
  • any organisation for any authorised purpose with your express consent.
  • in accordance with NSW Solicitors’ professional conduct rules, information permitted or required to be disclosed by law, or in circumstances where the law would probably compel its disclosure… for the sole purpose of avoiding the probable commission or concealment of a serious criminal offence.
  • we do not direct market, nor do we provide your personal information to other organisations for the purposes of direct marketing.

How can you access and correct your personal information?

You may request access to any personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting us (see the details below).  Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you).

There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold.  For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality.  If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal.

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request us to amend it.  We will consider if the information requires amendment.  If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

When you visit our websites

In some cases we also collect your personal information through the use of cookies.  When you access our website, we send a “cookie” (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer.  We use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure transaction patterns in the aggregate.  We use this to research our users’ habits so that we can improve our online services.  If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.

We log server addresses, top level domain names (for example, .com or .gov), dates and times of visits, pages viewed and documents downloaded, previous sites visited and browser type (for example, Internet Explorer, Firefox) to analyse trends, administer the website and gather broad demographic information.  This information is annonymised and collected automatically.  We provide this information to third parties that fund our services.

What is the process for complaining about a breach of privacy?

If you believe that your privacy has been breached, please contact our Executive Officer using the contact information below and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it.

We request that complaints about breaches of privacy be made in writing, so we can be sure about the details of the complaint. If you are unable to write a letter, you can ask to talk to the Principal Solicitor or Executive Officer of the Centre. If you need the assistance of an interpreter, you may ask the Executive Officer to arrange this for you, or you may contact the Executive Officer through the Telephone Interpreter Service on telephone 131 450.

You may wish to be represented by another person such as a friend or family member.

Our Executive Officer deals with privacy complaints and any complaints should be directed to our Executive Officer using the contact details below.

The Executive Officer will deal with your complaint by:

  1. Reading your written complaint, and/or talking to you or your representative.
  2. Reviewing any relevant file or written records kept by the centre
  3. Talking to the staff member(s) concerned

Within 30 days, you will receive a response from the Executive Officer outlining the results of the investigation.  This will let you know whether any  action has been taken as a result of your complaint and, if not, why not.

If you remain unsatisfied with our response you may complain to the Privacy Commissioner by telephone: 1300 363 992, by email enquiries@oaic.gov.au or by post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001.

Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia?

We do not disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia.

Security

We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.  We may hold your information in either electronic or hard copy form.  Personal information is destroyed or de-identified when no longer needed.

We use a RapidSSL SSL Certificate on our website to encrypt and secure all information from your computer to our servers. Be sure to visit our website using https:// to ensure you are using the SSL Certificate installed, A secure padlock icon will be displayed in your browser. The SSL will enable 256-bit encryption which is the industry standard.

We cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online.  We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online via email is transmitted at your own risk.

Links

Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties.  We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website.  Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns or a complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy or a possible breach of your privacy, please use the contact link on our website or contact our Executive Officer using the details set out below.

We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially.  Our representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved.  We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in timely and appropriate manner.

Please contact our Executive Officer at:

Executive Officer
Women’s Legal Service NSW
Post: PO Box 206 Lidcombe NSW 1825
Tel: 8745 6900
Fax: 9749 4433
Email: reception@wlsnsw.org.au

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time.  Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our website.  Please review it regularly.

This privacy policy was last updated: February 2015.

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