Definitions:
- In this policy:
- Pier Law (PL) means Pier Law Limited with three offices in Christchurch (New Brighton, Kaiapoi and Styx Mill).
- ‘PL’, ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ mean Pier Law.
- ‘You’ and ‘your’ means each of our customers and includes persons who sign our Letter of Engagement, give us any personal information on behalf of a person who signs our Letter of Engagement, or otherwise engages or attempts to engage our services.
- ‘Privacy Act’ means the Privacy Act 2020 and any amendments to that Act.
- ‘Personal Information’ or ‘Personal data’ means any information that relates to an identifiable person.
- ‘Cookies’ are specific to the use of our website and any other web-related service provided by us. A cookie is a small text based file placed on your electronic device by a website to gather information about your visit. We can use this information to identify you, identify any links you have followed from our website, measure how effective our website is for users, and detect malicious activity.
- ‘AML Act’ means the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009.
- ‘Privacy Policy’ means this policy.
Introduction and Overview
- We recognise the importance of your privacy and how important it is for us to protect your personal information. We are committed to protecting personal information and ensuring compliance with all legal obligations under the Privacy Act and the privacy principles set out within them.
- This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, protect, store, use and share personal information. This Privacy Policy is part of our Terms of Engagement and sets out how and when it applies to you.
- This Privacy Policy covers every interaction you have with us and includes when you use our website, e-mail us, talk with us on the phone, or meet with us in person. Examples used in this policy do not cover every situation.
- Your engagement or continued use of our website provides your acknowledgement of this Privacy Policy and your consent to us collecting, storing, using and disclosing your personal information in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy.
- We reserve the right to change this policy at any time. We may make changes at our discretion or to ensure compliance with any New Zealand Law.
- We will display a copy of this policy on our website and will provide a copy to you on request.
Third Parties
- We work with third parties in a number of capacities so that we can deliver professional services to you.
- When you ask us to act for you:
- We sometimes consult with other professional service provides including but not limited to engineers, surveyors, accountants and medical professionals. We will only share personal information with other professional service providers with your permission.
- We sometimes engage third party agents to assist with our Customer Due Diligence (CDD) requirements under the AML Act. We will only share personal information with these third parties with your permission.
- We work with other agencies to protect and manage your personal information. We have policies that require those agencies to have measures in place to ensure that your personal information is kept secure:
- We engage private companies to manage our electronic data and IT equipment and to protect it from malicious attack. We give them access to our systems to facilitate efficient management and to allow our systems to be updated.
- We engage private companies to ensure that all physical documents are securely stored and disposed of.
- We engage private companies to insure us from business risks.
- We may also disclose your personal information to banks, other law firms, courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities, and anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose to in the context of your legal transactions with us.
- We will not disclose personal information to third parties except as required under New Zealand Law or with your consent.
- We occasionally provide you with links to third party resources. We are careful with websites we link you to, but we are not responsible for the way that they treat your private information and we do not provide any warranty express or implied for the accuracy or security of their content.
Collecting Personal Information
- We will usually collect personal information through forms completed by you, face-to-face interactions, interviews, telephone conversations, email correspondence, and from third parties. We may also obtain your information through our website https://www.pierlaw.co.nz/ which may include the use of ‘cookies’.
- Depending on the nature of your relationship with us, the personal information we will collect from you may include:
- Name, date or birth, address and contact details;
- Photographic identification;
- Family relations;
- Occupation;
- Documents;
- Signatures;
- Data;
- Text;
- Images;
- Payment details;
- Employment history;
- Education and qualifications;
- Location information;
- Device information (e.g. operation system version);
- Log information (e.g. IP address);
- Evidence of Source of Funds or Wealth (in some cases); and
- Any other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and marketing our services, and meeting our legal obligations.
- You are not required to provide us with your information. However, if you do not provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to supply you with the relevant service, we may not be able to provide you with information about our services, and we may be obliged to refuse to act for you. For potential employees or suppliers, we may not be able to consider you for employment opportunities or supply agreements.
- We reserve the right to send marketing materials, including email newsletters, to individuals who have provided us with their contact details. By providing your contact information, you consent to receive such communications from us.
Use of Personal Information
- We collect and store personal information for the purpose of conducting our business, to market our services and to meet our legal obligations, including in relation to our Privacy and Anti-Money Laundering compliance obligations.
- We use personal information when you engage us to complete professional services for you. We can also use personal information from historical and related matters on which you or a related entity (for example a trust or a company you are a trustee or director of) has asked us to act. We may do so at our discretion, but this will usually be to promote efficiency in the services we provide to you.
- We may use your personal information to let you know about any updates to the law which we think will affect you, or if we think documents such as your Will, trust deeds or company records need updating.
- In accordance with our Terms of Engagement, we reserve the right to use personal information to recover any money owed to us.
- We reserve the right to use cookies and the information gathered from their use at our discretion. You may have the option of disabling the use of cookies in some circumstances. However, this may lead to our website or other web-based services not working either properly or at all.
- We are required to comply with a number of New Zealand laws and some overseas laws. We may have to use personal information to do so. For example, occasionally our clients have business or personal assets overseas. In those situations, we may be required to conduct our business in accordance with those overseas laws. Subject to our professional duties, and professional legal privilege, we may be required to comply with:
- Agencies such as the Department of Inland Revenue, the Department of Internal Affairs, and the New Zealand Police who investigate unlawful activities like fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and other illicit activities.
- The provisions of the AML Act.
CCTV
We engage the use of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) within our premises for the purpose of security for our staff, our equipment and for the security of client and staff personal sensible information. For more information on this, please email our Privacy Officer at info@pierlaw.co.nz.
Security and Storage of Personal Information
- We store all personal information either electronically or physically in New Zealand.
- Personal information that we store is held in locations managed either by us, or by third parties. Only authorised persons are permitted to access your personal information.
- Electronic personal information is stored securely on cloud-based servers. Electronic information is password protected and is only available on devices which have multi-factor authentication enabled.
- We are required under a number of different New Zealand laws to store information. We will use, disclose or retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected and as otherwise permitted or required by law. For example, we are required to keep clients personal information for up to 10 years, but we may keep some information for longer, even if you are no longer a client.
- The third party who independently manages our services actively monitors them to ensure that your information is safe and assists us in preventing cybersecurity breaches.
- Staff members provide the same level of security for personal information when working outside of our physical offices. For example, if working from home, staff members must not allow clients personal information to be accessed or to be accessible by family members or others living in or visiting their homes.
- If we have a reason to believe that there has been a breach of the privacy of personal information, we will assess the degree of harm likely to flow from that breach and take appropriate steps to minimise that harm. If, in our assessment, we consider that the breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify the Privacy Commissioner and the individual affected as soon as practicable after becoming aware of that privacy breach.
Accessing your Personal Information
- You have the right to access the personal information we hold on you and to request that your personal information be updated or corrected.
- We can provide this information to you digitally, or we can provide you access to physical copies of your information. We will attempt to provide this information within a reasonable amount of time.
- Persons who have legal authority can assess personal information. For example, directors of companies can access company information, trustees of trusts can access trust information, and persons who are appointed as an attorney in a power of attorney can access the information for the person they have been appointed attorney for.
- The Trusts Act 2019 has sections that require trustees to give trust information to beneficiaries. We will not disclose information directly to beneficiaries unless the trustees of that trust give us instructions to do so. If Pier Trustees is a professional trustee, we will consult with other trustees before disclosing information to beneficiaries.
- We may charge a fee for providing access to information and if so, we will advise you of the cost in advance.
Contact Information
- If you wish to contact us about matters concerning the privacy of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer:
Greer Herbison
Solicitor
greer@pierlaw.co.nz
160A Hussey Road
PO Box 76134
Christchurch 8548
Phone: +64 3 366 5540
- Our professional obligations require us to protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality. If you feel that we have failed to meet our professional obligations you can make a complaint to the New Zealand Law Society by emailing complaints@lawsociety.org.nz or by contacting the Lawyers Complaints Service on 0800 261 801.
Australian Clients
- If you have any queries or complaints about our collection, use or storage of your personal information (including a complaint relating to any failure by us to comply with our obligations under the credit reporting provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code), or if you wish to exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal information, please contact info@pierlaw.co.nz and address your email to The Privacy Officer. We will investigate and attempt to resolve any such complaint or dispute regarding the use or disclosure of your personal information.
- If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your complaint, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA):
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: 1300 363 992
Mail: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au