Privacy Policy

Thornes Legal Limited trading as Thornes Solicitors is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about you, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to reception@thornessolicitors.co.uk or by writing to Lich Gates, Wolverhampton, WV1 1UA

Who are we?

Thornes Solicitors is a firm of solicitors providing the following legal services: Family, Matrimonial, Wills & Probate and Conveyancing. Thornes Solicitors is registration in England and Wales number 8563982 and the registered office is Lich Gates, Wolverhampton, WV1 1UA. Thornes Solicitors is registered with the Legal Aid Agency.

How do we collect information about you?

• Directly from you. For example, if you contact us via the telephone or by walking in to our reception for initial advice and guidance. This could include your name, email address, home address, landline number and mobile number.

• Through your use of our website. If you contact us through the direct email facility on the ‘Contact Page’ of our website.

We use the following information for the purposes described in this Policy:

• Your contact information.We will hold contact information you provide to us (e.g. name, address, phone numbers, email address) when you contact us for initial advice and if you instruct us to act on your behalf or when you submit your details on the ‘Contacts Page’ on our website to receive communication from us.

By providing your information in the circumstances described above, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

How is your information used?

We use your information to:

• Help identify you when you get in touch with us
• Keep internal records
• Monitor account status
• Notify you of changes to our service
• Update you on the progress of your case
• Seek your views or comments on the services we provide

How do we use cookies?

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. 

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. 

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Who has access to your information?

• Thornes Employees

We only authorise access to those employees who need the information to carry out their job responsibilities.

• Third Party Service Providers Working on our Behalf 

We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing your matter and providing services to you on our behalf such as other legal professionals and medical practitioners. However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the information that is necessary to conclude your matter. We expect these third parties to have the same levels of information protection that we have. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties for them to use for their own purposes unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime. For more information please email reception@thornessolicitors.co.uk

Please note: We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes

How long do we keep your information for?

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We will hold your personal information on our systems for the duration of your matter. Thereafter we will retain your details in our archive in accordance with statutory regulations. This period varies according to the nature of your case after which time your file will be destroyed. For further information on the statutory retention timescales please discuss this with your solicitor. In the event that you do not instruct us then the details taken thus far will be securely destroyed and any electronic records/communication will be deleted.

How can you access and update your information?

The accuracy of your information is important to us. You have the right to ask for a copy of the information Thornes Solicitors holds about you. If you want to see this information or update any changes simply email reception@thornessolicitors.co.uk

How do we keep your information safe?

We know how important it is to protect and manage your personal data. We use computer safeguards such as firewalls and data encryption, and we enforce physical access controls to our buildings and files to keep this data safe. We only authorise access to employees who need it to carry out their job responsibilities. However, whilst we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data, please note that we cannot guarantee the security of any personal data that you transfer over the internet to us.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website. In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

Review of this Policy

We keep this Policy under regular review and may need to update it from time to time in response to changing legal or business developments. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This Policy was last updated in May 2018.