Privacy Statement

Introduction

At Law Access, we understand that your personal information is important.

We have a responsibility to care for your information when you entrust it to us – and we take that seriously.

To help you understand how information flows in our service, and make the best choices about your privacy, we have set out some information below.

We hope this gives you a clear picture of how Law Access collects and handles personal information.

Collection

We may collect personal information directly from you when you:

  • visit or use our website;
  • contact us to enquire about our pro bono legal referral service;
  • apply for assistance from us;
  • seek to refer a matter to us;
  • express your interest in helping Law Access as a pro bono lawyer, student, intern or volunteer; or
  • contact us about fundraising.

We may collect the following types of personal information:

Personal and contact details

This may include your name, address, email address, phone number(s), date of birth and signature.

Financial information

This may include information about your income, savings, assets, debts, employment details and household structure. We may ask you for copies of bank statements or other financial documents.

Legal circumstances

This may include information about the legal matter(s) for which you are seeking assistance.

Personal circumstances

This may include information about family and domestic violence, homelessness, loss of employment or incarceration.

Sensitive information

Sometimes, we collect and handle sensitive information. This is a special type of personal information and may include information about an individual’s:

  • race or ethnicity (like languages spoken at home);
  • health information (like disabilities or physical or mental health issues);
  • gender (like pronouns or identification);
  • religious beliefs, membership of a political association, professional or trade association or union; or
  • criminal record.

We collect personal information about third parties if you provide it to us.

For example, we may collect information about a child or an older relative if you are applying for assistance on their behalf.  All information will be handled in line with this policy.

Use

We use the information we hold to deliver our services including to:

  • assess applications for pro bono legal assistance;
  • respond to queries from applicants, other referrers or pro bono lawyers;
  • send applicants, other referrers or pro bono lawyers information;
  • refer applicants to other legal services or pro bono lawyers;
  • improve our website and services;
  • compile statistics about how our services are used (in a way that doesn’t identify individuals); and
  • comply with legal requirements including any reporting or compliance.

Disclosure

We may disclose the information we hold to:

  • third parties where an individual has authorised us to do so or where we are legally required;
  • students, interns, volunteers, other legal services, pro bono lawyers or barristers helping us provide services (who must keep it confidential);
  • consultants, contractors or other external service providers where we think it is reasonably necessary to help us provide our services (and who must keep it confidential); and
  • government, law enforcement or regulatory bodies as required by law.

We may also share de-identified information publicly for reporting, analysis, fundraising and other operational purposes.

Storage and security

We take reasonable steps to protect information from unauthorised access, misuse or loss and treat personal information as highly confidential.

We have policies that apply in the event of a data breach and to ensure we keep personal information only for as long as we need it.

Information may be stored electronically, in hard copy, or in cloud storage (which may be located outside Australia). While we try to keep data secure, no internet transmission or storage system is completely secure.

Accessing your personal information

You can:

  • ask us to access the personal information we hold about you; and
  • request we correct information that is wrong or out of date.

We may not be able to help in some limited situations (for example, if providing access would be unlawful or could affect others’ privacy).

Links

Our website may contain links to third parties. We are not responsible for these other organisations or their websites.

Contacting us

If you wish to:

  • access your personal information;
  • make a privacy complaint;
  • give us feedback on whether this policy was useful to you; or

have questions or concerns about how we handle your information, please contact us:

Email: lawaccess@lawaccess.org.au
Mail: PO Box 3359 Broadway NEDLANDS WA 6009