Privacy Policy

Last updated 14 September 2021

Shine Lawyers NZ Ltd (referred to in this document as we, us or our) is bound by the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) as contained in the Privacy Act 2020 (the Act), which came into force on 1 December 2020. The Act is to ensure your personal information is kept secure and treated properly both domestically and internationally. It applies to us because we collect, store, and use personal information about you in conducting our business.

In terms of the Act, we are required to report a privacy breach to the affected individuals (which will include you) and the Privacy Commissioner, unless the Act provides otherwise.

What is a privacy breach?

A privacy breach is any unauthorised or accidental access to or disclosure, alteration, loss, or destruction of personal information or an action that prevents us from accessing the information on either a temporary or permanent basis.

We are only to report a notifiable privacy breach, which means a privacy breach that is reasonable to believe has or is likely to cause serious harm to yourself or an affected individual as described in the Act. If any such breach occurs, we are obliged to notify you and also report the breach to the Privacy Commissioner.

The IPPs 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.

We take your privacy very seriously, not just because of the Act but because of the nature of our work and the trust relationship between us and you. We urge you to confirm your contact details to reduce the possible risk of an unintended privacy breach.

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 collecting and using this information/data to assist you with your enquiry and to offer any of our services that may be relevant to you. You also agree to provide such data as reasonably requested to enable us to do so.

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. We will get your permission first.

Client

When you become a client at Shine Lawyers NZ Ltd, 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 doesn’t 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.

Disclosure of personal information to overseas entities

There may be situations where we store personal information with vendors who have been contracted to provide customer support and technological solutions, where we consult overseas-based experts regarding your claim or your matter is funded by an overseas-based litigation funder. If these situations apply to you, we will be required to disclose your personal information to recipients outside New Zealand. To the best of our knowledge at this time, any such recipients would likely be located in Australia.

You are required to consent in terms of the Act that we may disclose personal information to an overseas organisation or if we reasonably believe that the overseas organisation meets at least one of the criteria listed in the Act, read with the relevant IPP/s (including IPP 12). Please note that these recipients may not be required to protect the information in a way that, overall, provides comparable safeguards to those in the Act. You acknowledge that you hereby provide your consent for disclosure to an overseas organisation in terms of the Act.

Required by law

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 request access or correction to your personal information held by Shine Lawyers by making a written request by post to the Privacy Officer, Shine Lawyers, PO Box 273, Auckland 1140, or email to our Privacy Officer on [email protected].

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

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 seeking.