This Privacy Policy outlines the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose Personal Information.

TLFC is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.

Privacy Policy

We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) to the extent that they apply. The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information. A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time and is available on our website. The revised Privacy Policy will take effect when it is posted on our website.

This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions which appears on our website.

How and why do we collect your Personal Information?

Personal Information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, such as:

  • name;
  • postal address or street address;
  • email address;
  • telephone number and other contact details;
  • age or date of birth; and
  • such other information we deem as Personal Information.

Personal Information is obtained in many ways including by:

  • correspondence;
  • telephone and facsimile;
  • email;
  • via our website www.tlfc.com.au;
  • from your website, from media and publications;
  • from other publicly available sources; and
  • from third parties.

We will only collect Personal Information by lawful means and will not do so in an unreasonably intrusive way. We do not guarantee website links or policy of authorised third parties.

TLFC will only collect, hold, use and disclose Personal Information and Sensitive Information that is reasonably necessary for us as an organisation to carry out our activities and functions. These activities and functions include:

  • providing our professional services to you;
  • dealing with other parties in relation to your matter;
  • dealing with service providers;
  • consulting to, with and for anyone necessary to deliver our services;
  • to achieve our firm / business objectives and for the administration of our business;
  • to send you information, correspondence and news about our company and our services;
  • handling privacy complaints and issues; and
  • processing of job applications.

We will not release Personal Information to un-related parties, nor will we use Personal Information for direct marketing purposes, unless it relates specifically to our business. In this case, TLFC will use personal email addresses and other electronic media for communication to you, in relation to business matters.

You will, at all times, be able to request not to receive such direct marketing from us. You may unsubscribe from our mailing/marketing lists at any time by contacting us in writing or selecting to unsubscribe option in the marketing email.

How will Sensitive Information be used?

Sensitive Information is defined in the Privacy Act to include information or opinion about such things as an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union or other professional body, criminal record or health information.

Sensitive Information will be used by us only:

  • for the primary purpose for which it was obtained;
  • for a secondary purpose that is directly related to the primary purpose;
  • with your consent; or where required or authorised by law.

If we rely on your consent as the basis for our use of your Sensitive Information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

Information provided by Third Parties

Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

How may Personal Information be disclosed?

We will generally not disclose Personal Information unless you have consented to such disclosure. Exceptions to this may include where the disclosure of the information is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a Court / Tribunal order or where it is disclosed in order to carry out our activities, services and functions as set out above.

We may disclose your Personal Information to:

  • our employees and related bodies corporate;
  • barristers we have briefed on your behalf;
  • banks and financial institutions in order to process payments or organise finance, settlements and other matters on your behalf;
  • third parties in relation to your matter such as agents, valuers or other solicitors;
  • provide information and update details with regulators such as ASIC and ITSA statutory authorities;
  • municipal bodies;
  • our service providers, including our IT and data and file storage providers; and
  • as required by law.

Security of Personal Information

We may hold your Personal Information in either electronic or hard copy form.

Personal Information is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

When your Personal Information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information. However, most of the Personal Information is or will be stored in client files which will be kept by us for a minimum of 7 years.

How you may access or correct the Personal Information that we are holding?

We shall take all reasonable steps to make sure that any Personal Information we collect, use, hold or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date.

You can access the Personal Information we are holding about you at any time (subject to the exceptions explained below). We ask that such a request is to be in writing. There will be no charge for providing the information to you.

If you would like to access such information, please contact us and we will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible. TLFC will give access in the manner requested unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so. Access will generally be granted within 30 days of the request.

There are some circumstances in which the APPs provide that we can refuse your request for access to your Personal Information. This includes:

  • if we believe the access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of any individual; or
  • if the access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals; or
  • if the information contains commercially sensitive information; or
  • if we can refuse the request by law.

We shall inform you of our decision and reasons for any refusal of your request.

We will try to make sure that the Personal Information we hold is up to date, correct, complete and relevant. However, from time to time, we may need your assistance to identify if we are holding incorrect or out of date Personal Information. If you would like to update or correct the Personal Information that we are holding, please contact us (our contact details are set out at the bottom of our privacy policy).

A dated record will be kept of any corrections to Personal Information. We will not charge you for any request to correct your Personal Information.

How to complain about a breach of the APPs and how we will deal with such a complaint

If you would like to make a complaint about our handling of your Personal Information or if you think we have breached the APPs or any other binding APP code that has been registered under the Privacy Act, please contact us with your complaint in writing. We will endeavour to deal with your complaint as quickly as possible. We may give a copy of your complaint to any affected party for their comment so we can properly investigate any issues. We will determine what (if any) action we should take to resolve the complaint and notify you of our decision and our reasons.

If you are not satisfied with the way we have dealt with your complaint you may file a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.aoic.gov.au.

Overseas disclosure of Personal Information

It is not expected that, under normal circumstances, Personal Information will be released to any overseas recipients. If there is a request to release information to an overseas recipient then we will contact you and request your consent to release the information to the specific person or organisation.

We may, however, from time to time, be required to disclose Personal Information outside of Australia to third party suppliers, contractors or cloud providers located in various countries. When you provide your Personal Information to us, you consent to the disclosure of your information outside of Australia and acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that overseas recipients handle that Personal Information in compliance with Australian Privacy Law. We will, however, take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipient will deal with such Personal Information in a way that is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Contact us

You may contact us in person or by writing at Level 2, 333 Queen Street, Melbourne Vic 3000

By phone: +61 3 8600 9333 | Facsimile: +61 3 9670 6359 | or by email: [email protected]