Privacy Policy

The Launceston Community Legal Centre (“the Centre”) respects clients’ rights to privacy and confidentiality and complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended). Protecting your privacy and personal information is an important aspect of the way we manage our services.

This Privacy Policy sets out the Centre’s procedures in relation to management of your personal information.

COLLECTION

The personal information that we collect and hold about you will depend on how you interact with our Centre.

Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether true or not. It may include:

• identifying information such as your name and date of birth;

• contact information such as your postal address, email address and telephone

• contextual information such as family type, country of birth, year of arrival in Australia, language spoken at home, occupation;

• sensitive information, such as racial or cultural background, criminal history and health information, English proficiency, need for an interpreter, or disability;

• records of our communications with you (including any messages you send to us;

• where we provide you with legal advice, information about your case or situation including financial details and (if applicable) details of your guardian;

• if you make a complaint, details of your complaint and information collected in any investigation of the matter, and details of how the complaint was resolved;

• where you apply for a role with us, information you include in your application, including resume, contact details and references;

In order to provide advice or assistance we will ask you to provide some personal information including your name. In order to verify your name, we will also ask to see some form of personal identification documentation such as a driver’s licence. Without this information we may not be able to provide you with our services or respond to queries or requests that you send us.

USE

The Centre collects your personal information to enable us to

Provide legal services (including to assess whether you are eligible for assistance to assess your case and to refer or arrange non-legal assistance);
to carry out education and training programs (including for staff and volunteers);
to conduct research and statistical analysis relevant to our activities;
to undertake fundraising and marketing activities (including seeking grants)
to undertake law reform and policy work;
to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about our services;
to recruit staff, contractors and volunteers;
- to carry out planning and quality control activities and other internal business processes (including the creation of anonymous case studies, to administer our website and update records);

for use in monitoring and evaluating our services, including as part of peer review of service, and reporting externally to funding providers;

to process and respond to any complaints or issues;

to keep you informed about our activities, including by sending out newsletters; and

to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

DISCLOSURE

We may also use and disclose your information for other purposes as authorised by you, or in accordance with your requests or instructions. We may also disclose information about you to:

• people or organisations you have authorised us to interact with on your behalf;

• our staff (including volunteers and contractors) who need the information to discharge their duties;

• other community legal service providers for file audit purposes;

• our business providers and service providers (for example IT systems administrators);

• professional advisers who we engage to provide advice (for example other solicitors and barristers);

• any organisation for any authorised purpose with your express consent;

• our funding providers (although personal information will only be provided with your consent)

a court for obtaining copies of documents relevant to your matter;

our insurer, where you have made a claim of professional negligence against us; and

government authorities or other people where we are required by law

SECURITY AND STORAGE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information that we collect, use and disclose is accurate, up to date, complete and relevant. These steps include promptly updating personal information when we are advised that the information has changed. We store personal information for as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected or as required by law (7 years). We generally store the personal information that we collect in electronic databases, some of which may be held on our behalf by third party data storage providers. Sometimes we also keep hard copy records of this personal information in physical storage facilities. We use a range of physical and technical security processes and procedures to protect the confidentiality and security of the information that we hold, and we update these from time to time to address new and emerging security threats. The steps we take to secure the personal information we hold include:

• website protection measures (such as encryption, firewalls and anti-virus software);

• access restrictions to our computer systems (such as login and password protection);

• restricted access to our office premises; and

• staff training and implementation of workplace policies and procedures that cover access, storage and security of information.

While we endeavour to protect the personal information and privacy of users of our website, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you disclose online, and you disclose that information at your own risk. If you are concerned about sending your information over the internet, you can contact us by telephone ((03) 6334 1577) or post (Suite 2, Level 2, 42-48 St Johns Street, Launceston, 7250).

You can also help to protect the privacy of your personal information by letting us know as soon as possible if you become aware of any security breach. Any links on our website to third party websites that are not operated or controlled by us are provided for your convenience. We are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of those websites. Third party websites should have their own privacy and security policies, which we encourage you to read before supplying any personal information to them.

ACCESS, CORRECTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION

We try to ensure that the personal information we hold about you is accurate, complete, relevant and up-to-date. You have the right to request access or the correction of any personal information about you that is inaccurate or out of date. Any requests should be made in writing using the contact details set out below. To protect the integrity and security of the information we hold, we may take steps to verify your identity. If you are a client, the Principal Solicitor will view the file and approve any copies of material to be given to you before access is provided. If access can be granted, a copy of the relevant part of the file will be made available to you as soon as practicable after this. We will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information if we are satisfied that it is inaccurate, out of date, complete, irrelevant or misleading. If we have provided your personal information to third parties, we will also notify them of the correction if you ask us to do so, unless it is impractical or unlawful. There may be cases where we are unable to provide the information you request, such as where it would interfere with the privacy of others or result in a breach of confidentiality. In these cases, we will let you know in writing why we cannot comply with your request and available complaint mechanisms.

If you require any further information about the Centre’s management of personal information or have any queries or complaints, you should contact the Privacy Officer at the Launceston Community Legal Centre, 42-48 St John Street, Launceston, or call (03) 63 341577 or emailing admin@lclc.net.au