Legal Notice
Carter-Ruck is firm of solicitors based in the City of London, England, and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA Number 44769).
The SRA rules can be found on the SRA website.
Complaints
Carter-Ruck is committed to delivering the very best service to our clients. If at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided then please inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the partner responsible for your case to discuss your concerns; they will do their best to resolve any issues. If you would like to make a formal complaint, this should please be addressed in writing to our Complaints Partner. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case and you will not be charged for the handling of a complaint. Complaints are processed in accordance with our Complaints Procedure.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
- Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint; and
- No more than one year from the date of act/omission; or
- No more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 09.00 and 17.00.
Email: [email protected]
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with them.
Privacy and data
Privacy Notice
Carter-Ruck is a data controller for the purposes of relevant data protection laws and is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number Z5098459.
In order to provide our services and to run our business we need to collect and hold personal data. The data we collect and process relates to our clients, individuals who enquire about legal services, individuals who feature in the matters on which we are instructed and candidates who apply for or enquire about jobs or work experience with us. We also hold data about witnesses, barristers, foreign lawyers, experts, advisors, and suppliers.
Where we have entered into a contract with you, including for the provision of legal services, those terms and conditions will apply.
The data we hold
We may obtain personal information directly from you, or we may collect it from third parties such as your employer, or from publicly available sources. The nature of the data we hold will vary from case to case, but it may include contact information, CV, education and employment details, information about family and lifestyle and social circumstances, financial information, information about business or professional life and your communications with us.
In some cases, depending on the subject matter of the case, we will also process “special category data” relating to health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or other beliefs, sexual life, trade union membership, criminal offences and alleged offences and criminal proceedings.
Why we process your data
We process this data in order to perform our contractual obligations to our clients in the provision of legal services, for the purpose of compliance with legal and regulatory obligations and where the processing is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate business interests, including considering and administering prospective client enquiries, recruitment, administration of processes, records and office management and marketing.
Where we process criminal offence data our lawful basis for processing is necessity for the purpose of, or in connection with legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings, for the purpose of obtaining legal advice or for the purpose of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights).
Where we process special category data our lawful basis for processing is necessity for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims alternatively we process special category with our clients’ consent.
Recipients of Data
We may need to share information with others outside the firm in order to perform the services requested, for the purpose of administering and running our business including the administration of IT functions, or where we are required to disclose information to comply with professional obligations or by law. Third party recipients may include suppliers and external service providers, the court, opponents and their legal representatives.
We usually keep information on our client files for 7 years, unless it is necessary to hold the data for a longer period.
Information Collected via our website
This will include:
- Information submitted to Carter-Ruck via any of our web forms;
- Subscriptions/preferences when you subscribe to receive legal briefings, updates or newsletters;
- Interactions with our social media presence;
- Technical information such as your IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system you are using, device type, hardware model, unique identifiers and mobile network information.
Carter-Ruck does not collect personal data about your online activities across third party websites or online services.
This data will be used to communicate with you (to send you legal briefings, updates or newsletters if you have subscribed to them) and to monitor the use of our Website. We will only process your data where you have given us consent to do so (for instance through our online forms) or where the processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests (to administer your query, to conduct our relationship with you and to provide services or information requested).
Marketing
We keep personal data necessary for our legitimate business interests for the purpose of marketing and business development. This includes contact details and information about professional roles. It will include clients and prospects and non-client work referrers.
We may use this information to provide information about our services or to send newsletters and marketing communications. Where we distribute marketing material, recipients may opt-out of receiving it at any time.
Cookies
A “cookie” is a piece of information that is stored on your computer when you visit a website. They are used to store a variety of information about your browsing session and to make websites work, or work in a more efficient way, by enabling them to recognise you and remember important information that will make your use of the website more convenient, such as remembering your username and password.
The information below explains the cookies we use on our website and why we use them:
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential to our Website in order to enable you to move around and to use the features, such as remembering information you have entered on forms when you move to other pages within a browser session.
Functionality cookies
These cookies allow us to remember the choices you make on our Website and permit us to provide enhanced and more personal features.
Performance cookies
These cookies collect information about your use of our Website and enable us to improve the way it works, such as showing us which are the most frequently visited pages on our Website. Performance cookies do not collect information that identifies you personally and all information that is collected by these cookies is anonymous.
Google Analytics
Our Website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”) to generate statistical information about website use. These tell us, for instance, how many unique visitors we have to the site and whether you have previously visited the site. Additional visitor information such as operating system, ISP, IP address, browser, screen resolution and country might also be identified. The data is shared with a third party company so that this company can produce a report of the statistical data. This data is then used by us to help us improve the site. These cookies are not used to identify individuals. You can view Google’s privacy policy here.
You can enable or disable cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. You can find out how to do this, and find more information on cookies on the Information Commissioner’s webpage on cookies: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/ or at http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
Rights of Data Subjects
Under relevant data protection laws, subject to some exemptions, data subjects have the right to request access to, correct, erase or restrict the processing of, or request the deletion of, personal data and to exercise a right to data portability in certain circumstances. Data subjects also have a right to object to the processing of their data.
If you have any questions about this notice or if you want to exercise any of the above rights, please contact the practice manager Tracey Smith ([email protected]), or send by letter to Carter-Ruck Solicitors, Data Protection Partner, The Bureau, 90 Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1EN.
Please note that if you are dissatisfied with the way the firm processes your personal information, you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Scams and illegal use of our name
The Carter-Ruck name and occasionally the names of individual lawyers within our firm have been used in various fraudulent scam emails. One of these fraudulent schemes involves seeking to attract a victim by suggesting that an inheritance can be obtained. There may be other schemes in operation.
Please note that this firm and its lawyers have no involvement in these or any other scams. Our name is being used in an unauthorised and illegal way. Please be aware that a phishing email may contain a fraudulent phone number or other contact details for Carter-Ruck. Please note that we do not use gmail, hotmail or yahoo addresses. Phishing or fraudulent emails may contain links to fake websites and may request you to share personal or financial information by using a variety of techniques.