Legal Notices
Blue Sky Law respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. Our privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website or engage us to provide legal services for you and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. We also set out below the rules which govern the use of this website.
This privacy policy is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy policy.
This was last updated 26 January 2023.
- Important Information and who we are
- The data we collect about you
- How we collect your personal data
- How we use your personal data
- Disclosures of your personal data
- International transfers
- Data security
- Data retention
- Your legal rights
- Glossary
- Information about us
- Accessing our site
- Intellectual property rights
- Reliance on information posted
- Our site changes regularly
- Our liability
- Information about you and your visits to our site
- Viruses, hacking and other offences
- Linking to our site
- You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you
- Links from our site
- Trademarks
- Jurisdiction and applicable law
- Variations
- Your concerns
- Acceptable Use Policy
Privacy Policy
Blue Sky Law respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. Our privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website or engage us to provide legal services for you and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. We also set out below the rules which govern the use of this website.
This privacy policy is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy policy.
Important information and who we are
Purpose of this privacy policy
This privacy policy aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you send us an enquiry, and when you are in the process of engaging with us or have engaged with us to provide legal services to you.
This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.
It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy notice or policy (or fair processing notice or policy) we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements other privacy notices and policies and is not intended to override them.
Controller
Blue Sky Law Limited is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Blue Sky Law”, "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy).
Contact details
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact Stephen Gaunt at Blue Sky Law Limited in the following ways:
Email address: info@blueskylaw.co.uk
Postal address: Chapel Cottage, Glenridding, Penrith, CA11 0PG
Telephone number: 017684 82575
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes
We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 26th January 2023. Historical versions can be obtained by contacting us.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Third-party links
Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
The data we collect about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
- Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, gender, signature(s), National Insurance number(s) and photographic identification data.
- Contact Data includes billing address, postal address, email address and telephone numbers.
- Employment Data includes employment and job application details such as employment history, qualifications and equality monitoring information.
- Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
- Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and details of other transactions which are necessary in the course of our engagement with you.
- Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and services.
We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.
In certain circumstances, our collection of the different categories of data set out above may include the collection of Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). We also may collect information about any criminal convictions and offences data.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of our engagement with you (as set out in our engagement letter and terms of business), and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the services set out in the engagement letter.
1. How we collect your personal data.
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including:
In the process of carrying out work for you (or your business) where we will in almost all instances act as a controller. In very limited circumstances we may act as a processor in which case we will let you know and ensure that an appropriate contract is put in place.
When we communicate with you by email or other electronic correspondence, by telephone or using video conferencing software. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
- contact us for information
- engage our services; or
- give us feedback.
Networking (for example, at in-person or virtual events).
Otherwise through providing our legal services and operating our business.
We also collect data from and about you via our website:
Through automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies.
Through third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources:
- Technical Data from analytics providers such as Google based outside the UK;
- Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services such as Creditsafe based inside the UK.
- Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the UK.
- Identity Data, Contact Data, Financial Data and Transaction Data from sources such as:
• other parties involved with your matter
• other professionals and third parties recommending you as a client to our firm
• social media sources such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
How we use your personal data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests as a legal services provider and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation. These legitimate interests include our interests in managing our relationship with our clients, prospective clients and their staff, hosting clients and others at our offices, hosting virtual and in-person events and ensuring appropriate standards and compliance with policies, practices or procedures.
Click here to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.
Except as previously referred to int his section, we do not generally rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data.
Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
| Purpose / Activity | Type of data | Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest |
|---|---|---|
| To register you as a new client |
|
Performance of our engagement with you |
To perform our engagement with you, including:
|
|
|
| To manage our relationship with you which will include notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy |
|
|
| To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) |
|
|
| To deliver relevant website content to you |
|
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how clients and customers use our services, to develop our services, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
| To use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, client relationships and experiences |
|
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of clients and customers for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
| To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you |
|
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our business) |
Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see the symbol on the bottom left-hand corner of our website.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact Stephen Gaunt on the above contact details If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
Disclosures of your personal data
We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above.
- External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
- Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
International transfers
Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
- Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK. For further details, see European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries.
- Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US. For further details, see European Commission: EU-US Privacy Shield.
Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.
Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
Data retention
How long will you use my personal data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see ‘Your legal rights’ below for further information.
In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:
- Request access to your personal data.
- Request correction of your personal data.
- Request erasure of your personal data.
- Object to the processing of your personal data.
- Request restriction of processing your personal data.
- Request transfer of your personal data.
- Right to withdraw consent.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Glossary
LAWFUL BASIS
Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us
Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.
THIRD PARTIES
External Third Parties
- Service providers acting as processors based in the United Kingdom who provide IT and system administration services.
- Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based predominantly in the United Kingdom (but who may also be located anywhere within the World where we reasonably require their assistance to carry out our services to you) who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
- HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and professional bodies (including the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Law Society in England and Wales, Information Commissioner’s Office) and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
- Courts, lawyers advising other parties in your matter or to other professionals (such as overseas law firms, patent agents, accountants, experts or barristers)
- Google: we share your data with Google so that we can make use of its Google Analytics product.
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
You have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object to the processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
- If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
- Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
- Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
- You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. This right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
Please note that depending on the nature and extent of your request, we may be unable to continue acting for you. In this event, you will remain liable for our fees and disbursements incurred before the request was made.
Terms of Website Use
This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website www.blueskylaw.co.uk (our site), whether as a guest or a registered user. Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site.
By using our site, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please refrain from using our site.
Information about us
www.blueskylaw.co.uk is a site operated by Blue Sky Law Limited (We). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 6294428 and have our registered office at Chapel Cottage, Glenridding, Penrith, CA11 0PG. Our postal address is also at Chapel Cottage, Glenridding, Penrith, CA11 0PG. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Our VAT number is 909 1888 88.
Accessing our site
Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without notice (see below). We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.
From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our site, or our entire site, to users who have registered with us.
If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.
When using our site, you must comply with the provisions of our acceptable use policy.
You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.
Intellectual property rights
We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to material posted on our site.
You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our site must always be acknowledged.
You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.
Reliance on information posted
Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.
Our site changes regularly
We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.
Our liability
The material displayed on our site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, we, other members of our group of companies and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude:
- All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.
- Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for:
- loss of income or revenue;
- loss of business;
- loss of profits or contracts;
- loss of anticipated savings;
- loss of data;
- loss of goodwill;
- wasted management or office time; and
- for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.
This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
Information about you and your visits to our site
We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
Viruses, hacking and other offences
You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.
By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.
We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.
Linking to our site
You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.
You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you
Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our acceptable use policy.
If you wish to make any use of material on our site other than that set out above, please address your request to info@blueskylaw.co.uk.
Links from our site
Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.
Trademarks
"Blue Sky" is a UK registered trade mark of Blue Sky Law Limited.
Jurisdiction and applicable law
The English courts will have non-exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our site. These terms of use are governed by English law.
Variations
We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.
Your concerns
If you have any concerns about material which appears on our site, please contact s.gaunt@blueskylaw.co.uk.
Thank you for visiting our site.
Acceptable Use Policy
Prohibited uses
You may use our site only for lawful purposes. You may not use our site:
- In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.
- In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
- For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
- To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards.
- To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
- To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.
You also agree:
- Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of our terms of website use.
- Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
- any part of our site;
- any equipment or network on which our site is stored;
- any software used in the provision of our site; or
- any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.
Changes to the acceptable use policy
We may revise this acceptable use policy at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are legally binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in this acceptable use policy may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.