Thompsons Solicitors LLP processes your personal data as a “data controller” which means we are responsible for determining how and why your information is processed. We are responsible for ensuring that our systems, processes, supplier arrangements and staff are compliant with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018.
As a firm of solicitors, we also have to comply with court rules and the rules of professional conduct. Those rules include a duty of client confidentiality.
We are committed to safeguarding your privacy when you use our services. This notice sets out how we may use the personal data collected before, during and after your relationship with us. Please read it carefully as it contains important information about who we are, how we process your personal data, your rights in respect of your personal data and who to contact if you have queries or a complaint.
Compliance with data protection law is overseen by the UK data protection regulator which is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This firm is accountable to the ICO for its data protection compliance and our ICO registration reference is Z7260258. Our contact details are:
Thompsons Solicitors LLP, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LW.
Telephone: 0800 0 224 224
Contact details: enquiries@thompsons.law
WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect usage data of people who visit our website. This includes date and time of visit, IP addresses of computers accessing our site, details of pages visited and web browsers used to access the site. If you are a website visitor, this privacy notice should be read together with our Cookie Policy which can be found on our website.
If you then make an enquiry via our website or by email, letter or telephone we will collect further data from you including your name, contact details and information relevant to your enquiry/case.
Calls to our free legal advice department and legal enquiries team are recorded for training and monitoring purposes.
When providing details, you are asking us to process your personal data to allow us to provide you with advice and assistance on a potential legal claim. We will use and store your information for that purpose.
When assessing whether we can provide legal services and/ or when providing legal services to you, we may go on to collect further information from you such as details of your work history and some “special category” data such as trade union membership, health records, data which reveals racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief and/or data which reveals sexual orientation. We may also collect data relating to criminal convictions and offences if applicable. We will only ask you for information that is necessary to assess/pursue your legal claim.
It is important to ensure that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date, and you should let us know if anything changes, for example if you move address or change your phone number or email address.
WHAT WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR
- To assess whether we can provide legal services to you and to provide legal services to you
- To detect and combat fraud
- To identify you
- To help us prevent money laundering
- For analysis to help us manage our practice and to improve our services
- To analyse website usage and to determine the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns
- To help trade unions improve protection and rights for working people and the victims of accidents.
- To provide statistics and management information to trade unions but this will not include personal data
- To respond to claims and to exercise and defend our legal rights
LAWFUL BASIS AND PURPOSE OF PROCESSING
We will only use your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection legislation which includes the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. That involves having a “lawful basis” or in simple terms, a lawful reason for processing your data.
The processing of your personal data is necessary for us to take steps to enter into a contract with you, to perform a contract with you and to enable us to comply with our legal obligations. In some situations, we may use your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests unless your interests and fundamental rights override those interests. Our legitimate interests include management of our relationship with you and management of our business. For example, it is in our legitimate interests to improve our services and we may use your personal information to send you a client satisfaction survey at the conclusion of your matter.
Sometimes, there are several grounds for justifying the use of your personal data.
In some situations, we only process your personal data if you provide consent, for example if we wish to use your personal data for marketing and publicity purposes. Where we rely upon your consent to use your personal information, you have the rightto withdraw that consent at any time by contacting our Data Protection Officer at Risk&ComplianceBirmingham@thompsons.law.
The withdrawal of your consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your consent before its withdrawal. We may still be permitted to hold and process the relevant personal information if we are entitled to do so on bases other than your consent.
We may transcribe a call or meeting to help us to document a discussion or to assist with the preparation of a document such as a witness statement. We may also record video conferences. We will tell you if we plan to use transcription and/or video recording. If you object we will not use this functionality. Transcripts of meetings and calls will be stored on your file.
We only use your personal data for the purpose for which we collected it and it will not be further processed in a manner that is incompatible with that purpose. If we wish to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will contact you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do this.
WHERE WE GET YOUR DATA FROM
We process information that is received directly from you. We may also receive information from third party sources connected to your case such as your trade union, witnesses, litigation friend or deputy, the defendant/respondent or their insurer, government bodies such as the DWP, your current or past employer, the Court or Tribunal, experts instructed on your case, medical treatment providers and case manager.
WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH
We will never sell your details to third parties. During or after your case, we may need to pass information about you to other people or organisations in order to provide services or to comply with our legal obligations. These third parties may include your trade union, the defendant/respondent or their insurer, witnesses, litigation friend or deputy, the Court or Tribunal, barrister, medical or other experts instructed on your case, case manager and insurance providers.
We will tell you who we are sending your information to and what we are sending unless we are prohibited by law.
We may disclose your information to authorities such as the police, National Crime Agency, an official receiver and HMRC but only with your agreement or where we are required by law to do so.
We may need to pass your information to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the Legal Ombudsman or the Solicitors Regulation Authority if you make a complaint about us to them.
External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice. These firms and organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.
Sometimes we outsource work to companies or people, such as medical reporting agencies, who we use to instruct an appropriate medical expert on your case. Data sharing of this type enables us to progress your matter in an efficient way. We have contractual relationships with all third parties who may handle your data. These external firms are required to keep your information confidential and to only use it for the specified purpose.
SECURITY
Thompsons Solicitors is committed to ensuring the security of your information and employs a range of appropriate security measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way. Those measures include technological controls and regular staff training.
We have a data breach reporting policy and procedure. Should we experience a personal data breach, we will notify you and any applicable regulator in accordance with our legal and regulatory requirements.
INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS
When handling your claim or enquiry, we may transfer your data outside of the United Kingdom. This may be to a country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or that is otherwise considered to have data protection rules that are equivalent to those in the United Kingdom. Personal data may also be transferred to a country which is not considered to have the same standards of protection for personal data as those in the United Kingdom. If that is the case, we will take all steps required by law to ensure sufficient protections are in place to safeguard your personal information.
RETENTION PERIODS
We will keep your personal information on your file for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it has been obtained. This will be for as long as we continue to have a relationship with you and then for a minimum period of 7 years after the closure of your enquiry or file. When closing your matter, we will tell you how long we will keep your file for and the reason why. At the end of that period, we will destroy your file. We will not destroy documents that you ask to be kept in safe custody. We will return any of your documents to you if you ask for them. We may keep copies of these documents but we will tell you this.
Your personal data such as basic contact information, date of birth and claim type will be kept for longer than 7 years to help us manage our service.
Audio call recordings are retained for 12 months. Video recordings are retained for 60 days.
DATA RIGHTS
You have the following rights subject to some legal exemptions:
- The right to be informed about how your personal data is being used
- The right to access the personal data we hold about you
- The right to request rectification of any inaccurate personal data we hold about you
- The right to request erasure of your personal data in certain limited circumstances
- The right to restrict processing of your personal data where certain requirements are met
- The right to request that we transfer your personal data to you or to another service provider
- The right to object to certain automated decision-making processes which use your personal data. Please note we do not use automated decision-making in relation to your personal data
- The right to object to the processing of your personal data.
Requests to exercise your data rights are processed free of charge unless you request a copy of data we have previously provided to you or if your request is manifestly unfounded, unreasonable or disproportionate. Should that be the case, we may charge you a reasonable fee based on our administrative costs.
Whilst this notice provides a general summary of your data rights, further information can be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk
If you wish to exercise any of your data rights or have any questions or concerns about the use of your information, please contact our Data Protection Officer who is also the firm’s Head of Risk & Compliance at Risk&ComplianceBirmingham@thompsons.law.
If you are unhappy with the way in which we are processing your personal data, we hope you will raise your concerns with us so that we may attempt to resolve them. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office direct.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. You should check this policy tocheck that you have seen the most recent version. This policy was last updated in November 2025.