Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

As at 31 August 2017

Leonardus Smits Lawyers (referred to in this document as we, us or our) is bound by the National Privacy Principles (NPPs).
The NPPs govern the way in which we must manage your personal information and this policy sets out how we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage personal information about you.
Your privacy

We are committed to protecting your privacy with your rights and needs in mind.
Giving consent

You are not obliged to disclose personal or sensitive information about yourself or your contact details when you visit our website.
By voluntarily providing us with any personal information, you consent to us using this information to assist you with your enquiry and to offer any of our services that may be relevant to you.
Personal information we collect and method of collection
The personal information that we collect and hold about you, depends on your interaction with us. Generally, we will collect, use and hold personal information for the purposes of:
1. providing services to you or someone else you know;

2. providing you with information about other services that we, our related entities and other organisations that we have affiliations with, offer that may be of interest to you;

3. facilitating our internal business operations, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements; and

4. analysing our services and customer needs with a view to developing new or improved services.

Pre-client

We collect personal information about you during the pre-client stage to determine if we are able to assist you with your legal matter. We hold onto this information to ensure any future communication with you is relevant.
We may monitor and record telephone calls for training and security purposes.
Client

When you become a client of ours, we collect all information necessary to process your legal matter. We are required by law to keep this information for seven years once your case is closed.
Website

We collect website activity statistics such as number of visitors, pages visited, time and date of visit and where you accessed our website from, so that we can make informed decisions relating to improving our website and the service we deliver. This information is anonymous and does not identify a person.
When you visit our website a cookie is placed on your computer which is later used to display advertising on other websites you may visit. The cookie does not contain personal information that can identify you, but may contain information about the page you visited on our website. If you do not wish for this to occur, you can remove cookies from your computer, by following the standard procedures for your internet browser to do so.
Third party disclosure

We may disclose information to third parties when outsourcing services, such as data storage, debt collection, bulk distribution and mailing, direct marketing, technology support services and obtaining expert help from consultants to improve our services.

We have contractual agreements with our service providers to protect your information up to the same standards as if we stored the information ourselves and to prevent them using the information we provide for any purposes than our own.
Compellable Disclosure

There are times when we will be required by law to disclose any personal information we have about you, such as in the instance of an investigation into bankruptcy, counter-terrorism, fraud, taxation etc.
Your information

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete, up-to-date and securely stored.
We strive to protect your personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access; however we cannot guarantee security.
You can access your personal information held by us by making a written request to us at our business address or at our practice email address
For clients, you should contact your legal team directly.

In some circumstances, we are permitted to deny your request for access, or limit the access we provide.

Please contact us at such address if you also:
• believe the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or out-dated
• would like us to de-identify your personal information submitted through this website
Failure to provide information

If the personal information you provide to us is incomplete or inaccurate, we may be unable to provide you, or someone else you know, with the services you, or they, are seek