Inner West Property Lawyers are dedicated to ensuring that your personal information is protected. We have developed this policy (Privacy Policy) to provide you with information about how we protect your privacy during the course of your matter and your use of the iwpl.com.au site (the Site). In addition to our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act) Inner West Property Lawyers has strict professional obligations to you and the Courts. Additionally, your records and communications with Inner West Property Lawyers is subject to legal professional privilege in connection with our services.

1. What is personal information?

‘Personal information’ means any information or opinion about an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual. This includes your name, your contact details, and any information you submit through the Site. It may include information or opinions contained in your communications with us.

‘Sensitive information’ is a sub-set of personal information and includes information or opinions about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, memberships, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, health or criminal record.

2. Collecting and storing personal information

We collect your personal information directly from you during the course of our business relationship. We may also collect it from other sources, for example, by searching public records and other sources, such as your employer or colleagues, and online.

During the course of a providing you with our services, we usually collect and hold the following kinds of personal information about you:

· Your name, address, job title, contact information, and any other information submitted by you through the Site;
· Information about your dealings with us; and
· If you are a client or potential client of Inner West Property Lawyers, information any organisation you are associated with, including information on other employees and management in your organisation, payment information and information about your legal matters.

We only collect, use or disclose sensitive information about you if it is reasonably necessary for us to do so in order to provide our services, and/or if you have consented to us doing so, or if the Act or the Law allows or requires us to do so without your consent.

3. Our purposes for handling your personal information

We collect, hold, use or disclose personal information:

· To provide our services;
· To obtain the services of third party service providers as part of providing our services;
· To provide you with our communications;
· To manage and improve our legal services and client relationships;
· Where we are otherwise required or authorised to do so by the Act or any other Law; and
· Otherwise, to run our business.

Without collecting personal information we would not be able to provide you with some or all of our services.

4. Disclosures

Subject to our professional obligations to our clients, we may disclose personal information:

· To other entities (such as other legal professionals, experts and/or valuers we have engaged, and other parties involved in your matter) as part of providing our services to our clients;
· To third party services, agents and contractors;
· To our professional advisers and insurers;
· To regulators, government agencies, and law enforcement agencies or as otherwise required or authorised by the Act or other Law; and
· To others where you have provided your consent for us to do so.

We do not routinely disclose personal information internationally. We do disclose personal information overseas when it is appropriate to providing our services to you.

If we do disclose your information, we are usually able to require that the recipient is bound by an obligation of confidentiality, where it is lawful and appropriate to do so. If information is disclosed to a Court or other government authority, it may not be possible to require that it be kept confidential.

5. Marketing

We may send legal updates or other communications to you from time to time (Marketing Information). You may opt out at any time if you no longer wish to receive our Marketing Information. You can make this request by using the contact details provided below, or by ‘unsubscribing’ from our email marketing messages.

We do not disclose your personal information (including your email address) to any third party for the purpose of allowing them to market their products or services to you.

6. Data quality & correction

The accuracy of your personal information is important to us and to providing you with our services. We seek to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date and, in the case of use or disclosure, relevant.

If we believe that the information we hold is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, we will take reasonable steps to correct that information and (if you ask and it is reasonable and practicable for us to do so) to notify that correction to third parties that may have received the incorrect information from us. If you believe that information we hold about you should be corrected, you may also request that we do so, by using our contact details below.

If we do not agree with the corrections you have requested, we are not obliged to alter your personal information.

7. Data security

As an online business, we hold your personal information in electronic files only, unless we have been provided with paper-based records by you or another party in relation to your matter. We take all appropriate measures to protect that information from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

We have a broad range of security safeguards in place to protect your personal information, including that:

· All electronic records are protected by virus and firewall protection procedures, and require a username and password to access;
· Sensitive personal information is only accessible by Inner West Property Lawyers staff who have a direct need to know that information in connection with your matter; and
· Physical and logical security protocols are in place to address the possibility of security threats, whether internal or external.

When we no longer require your personal information, it is securely destroyed and/or deleted from our systems. For information relating to a legal/conveyancing matter, this occurs seven years after the completion of your matter, or earlier if you request that we destroy or return certain information.

8. Access

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting Inner West Property Lawyers. If we refuse access, we will provide you with a written notice which sets out (unless the Act or another Law allows us not to specify a reason) the reasons for the refusal and how you can complain about our refusal. We may recover our reasonable costs for giving access to your personal information. Please be aware that due to our professional obligations, we may not be able to confirm that we act for a particular client or whether we hold any information about any person at a particular time or at all.

9. Enquiries and complaints

If you have any enquiries, concerns or complaints about this Privacy Policy, our handling of your personal information or our compliance with the Act or any related codes, please contact our Privacy Officer at hello@iwpl.com.au.

We usually respond in writing within 30 days, unless we need further information to respond to your enquiry, concern or complaint.

If you would like to make an inquiry or complaint about how we handle your personal information, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or via email at enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

10. Changes to this privacy policy

We review this Privacy Policy from time to time and may make changes to it without notice to you. An up-to-date copy of our Privacy Policy is available on the Site. This Privacy Policy was last amended on 18 January 2025.

11. Personal information about our people

Inner West Property Lawyers collects information about our employees and others we work with as part of their engagement with us. This may include sensitive information.

We may disclose this information to third parties in connection with vetting, and otherwise in connection with their relationship with Inner West Property Lawyers. These third parties are usually in Australia but may be based overseas. When disclosing this information we ensure that the recipient is bound by an obligation of confidentiality, where it is lawful and appropriate to do so.

Under the Act, personal information about a current or former employee may be held, used or disclosed in any way that is directly connected to the employment relationship. We handle employee information in accordance with legal requirements and our applicable policies in force from time to time.