You have the right to know whether we process personal data about you, to receive a copy of it, and to be told what we do with it. That right is Article 15 of the GDPR. It costs nothing, you do not have to give a reason, and we answer within one month.
You do not need to be a client. Your name may appear in our records through any part of our work: for example, when we research companies that might become clients, when we act on another client's matters, or when you are on the other side of a dispute we handle. Whichever it is, that is personal data about you, and this is how you ask to see it.
What happens next
- We record your request and the clock starts on the day it arrives.
- We email you a link to confirm your email address. Please open it: we cannot answer until you do, although the month still runs from the day your request arrived.
- We establish that you are the person the data is about, and we may ask you for further proof of identity, for example an electronic signature. If you are signed in to our portal with the same address, both of these steps are already done. We are sorry for them: they are what stop somebody else asking for your file.
- We assemble everything we hold about you, and a person reads it before it goes.
- You receive it, with the Article 15 information that goes alongside it, and a plain list of anything we have held back and why.
What we may hold back
We are a law practice. Where your name appears inside a matter we handled for somebody else, that material is covered by the professional secrecy we owe that client, and by Article 15(4), which says the right to a copy must not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others. We will tell you that a category has been withheld and why. We will not quietly leave it out.
Your other rights
Access is one of several rights. Rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection are set out in our privacy notice, which also names the supervisory authority you can complain to if you are unhappy with how we answer.