Swanwick Murray Roche Privacy Policy
SMR 1892 Pty Ltd ACN 651 237 357 as trustee for the SMR Unit Trust trading as “Swanwick Murray Roche” (ABN 53 235 344 526) (“we“, “us” or the “Company“) are committed to protecting your privacy.
At https://www.smrlaw.com.au/ (“this site“), we understand the importance of keeping personal information private and secure. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy“) describes generally how we manage personal information and safeguard privacy. If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us. This Privacy Policy forms part of, and is subject to the provisions of, our Website Terms of Use (https://smrlaw.com.au/wtou/).
Liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation (personal injury work exempted).
| We care about your privacy: We will never rent, trade or sell your email address to anyone. We will never publicly display your email address or other personal details that identify you. |
The Australian Privacy Principles
We will treat all personal information in accordance with any and all obligations that are binding upon us under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). The Privacy Act lays down 13 key principles in relation to the collection and treatment of personal information, which are called the “Australian Privacy Principles”.
Collection of personal information
We collect personal information that is necessary for our business functions and activities. The types of personal information we collect may include:
- name and date of birth;
- residential and business postal addresses, telephone/mobile/fax numbers and email addresses and other contact details;
- payment information;
- your computer and connection information; and
- any information that you otherwise share with us.
How we may collect your personal information
We collect personal information online using electronic forms, by paper forms, by telephone, by email and in person.
Information that you provide to us
We may collect personal information that you provide to us about yourself when you:
- use this site, including (without limitation) when you:
- register for access to premium content or request certain premium features; or
- complete an online contact form to contact us;
- when we meet with you or have any other contact with you and you provide us with personal information;
- provide information to us by telephone or through marketing or competition application forms; or
- send us an email or other communication.
IP addresses
This site may also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network. The Company collects and manages IP addresses as part of the service of providing internet session management and for security purposes. The Company may also collect and use web log, computer and connection information for security purposes and to help prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving, this site.
Recording of phone calls/meetings
We may record conversations and phone calls with you for the purpose of accurate record keeping, training our staff and to assist our team in the efficient running of client matters. Recording and transcripts are stored securely and accessed only by authorised team members. If you do not wish to be recorded, please contact our team by email and we will reach out to you without a call recording.
Cookies
This site uses “cookies” to help personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file or a packet of information that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server to identify and interact more effectively with your computer. There are two types of cookies that may be used at this site: a persistent cookie and a session cookie. A persistent cookie is entered by your web browser into the “Cookies” folder on your computer and remains in that folder after you close your browser, and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to this site. A session cookie is held temporarily in your computer’s memory and disappears after you close your browser or shut down your computer. Cookies cannot be used to run programs. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. In some cases, cookies may collect and store personal information about you. The Company extends the same privacy protection to your personal information, whether gathered via cookies or from other sources.
You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your internet browser’s instructions to learn more about these functions. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of this site.
Why we use cookies
This site uses cookies in order to:
- remember your preferences for using this site;
- show relevant notifications to you (eg, notifications that are relevant only to users who have, or have not, subscribed to newsletters or email or other subscription services); and
- remember details of data that you choose to submit to us (eg, through online contact forms).
Many of these cookies are removed or cleared when you log out but some may remain so that your preferences are remembered for future sessions.
Third party cookies
In some cases, third parties may place cookies through this site. For example:
- Google Analytics, one of the most widespread and trusted website analytics solutions, may use cookies de-identified data about how long users spend on this site and the pages that they visit;
- Google AdSense, one of the most widespread and trusted website advertising solutions, may use cookies to serve more relevant advertisements across the web and limit the number of times that a particular advertisement is shown to you; and
- third party social media applications (eg, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, etc) may use cookies in order to facilitate various social media buttons and/or plugins in this site.
How we may use your personal information
We collect, store, and use your personal information for purposes including:
- Providing Legal Services and Managing Our Relationship with You
- To provide legal advice and related service
- To manage and administer our relationship with you or your organisation
- To communicate with you and respond to your enquiries
- To comply with our legal obligations, court orders, or regulatory requirements
- To resolve any disputes or defend our legal rights
- Improving Our Services and Operations
- For internal record keeping and administrative purposes
- For analytics, market research, and business development
- To monitor compliance with our policies and standards
- To evaluate and improve our services, website, and communication
- Marketing and Client Engagement
- To send legal updates, client surveys, and promotional content (with your consent)
- To manage competitions, campaigns, or additional benefits
- To deliver targeted advertising, including via social media platforms
- Other Business Purposes
- For insurance, quality assurance, or audit purposes
- Process payments and manage billing
- To assess employment applications
- Improve our services and website
- For any other purpose related or ancillary to the above, or for which you have provided your personal information
From time to time we may email our customers with news, information and offers relating to our own services or those of selected partners. Your personal information may also be collected so that the Company can promote and market products and services to you. This is to keep you informed of products, services, and special offers we believe you will find valuable and may continue after you cease acquiring products and services from us. If you would prefer not to receive promotional or other material from us, please let us know and we will respect your request. You can unsubscribe from such communications at any time if you choose.
When we may disclose your personal information
We may disclose personal information to the following third parties:
- third party service providers for the purpose of enabling them to provide their services, including (without limitation) other legal professionals (e.g. barristers, courts. tribunals), IT service providers (e.g Microsoft 365, VXT, Docusign), practice management systems (e.g. LEAP), data storage, web-hosting and server providers, debt collectors, maintenance or problem-solving providers, marketing or advertising providers (e.g. Bambrick, Flodesk), professional advisors and payment systems operators;
- our employees, contractors and/or related entities;
- our existing or potential agents or business partners;
- sponsors or promoters of any competition we run;
- anyone to whom our business or assets (or any part of them) are, or may (in good faith) be, transferred;
- credit reporting agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities, in the event you fail to pay for goods or services we have provided to you;
- courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement officers, as required by law, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings, or in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights;
- third parties, including agents or sub-contractors, who assist us in providing information, products, services or direct marketing to you. This may include parties located, or that store data, outside of Australia including in the United States; and
- third parties to collect and process data, such as Facebook, Google Analytics or other relevant businesses. This may include parties that store data outside of Australia including in the United States.
By providing us with personal information, you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to third parties who reside outside Australia and acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that those third parties comply with Australian privacy laws.
Contacting us about privacy
If you would like more information about the way we manage personal information that we hold about you, would like to opt out of any marketing communications or are concerned that we may have breached your privacy, please contact us by email to enquiries@smrlaw.com.au or by post.
Access to your personal information
In most cases, you may have access to personal information that we hold about you. We will handle requests for access to your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. All requests for access to your personal information must be directed to the Privacy Officer by email using the email address provided above or by writing to us at our postal address. We will deal with all requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible. Requests for a large amount of information, or information that is not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given. We may charge you a fee for access if a cost is incurred by us in order to retrieve your information, but in no case will we charge you a fee for your application for access.
In some cases, we may refuse to give you access to personal information that we hold about you. This may include circumstances where giving you access would:
- be unlawful (eg, where a record that contains personal information about you is subject to a claim for legal professional privilege by one of our contractual counterparties);
- have an unreasonable impact on another person’s privacy; or
- prejudice an investigation of unlawful activity.
We may also refuse access where the personal information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings.
If we refuse to give you access, we will provide you with reasons for our refusal.
Correcting your personal information
We will amend any personal information about you that is held by us and that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date if you request us to do so. If we disagree with your view about the accuracy, completeness or currency of a record of your personal information that is held by us, and you ask us to associate with that record a statement that you have a contrary view, we will take reasonable steps to do so.
Storage and security of your personal information
We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality of the information that you provide us and we will take all reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from unauthorised use or alteration. In our business, personal information may be stored both electronically (on our computer systems and with our website hosting provider) and in hard-copy form. Firewalls, anti-virus software and email filters, as well as passwords, protect all of our electronic information. Likewise, we take all reasonable measures to ensure the security of hard-copy information.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Our Services and Our Business
Our firm uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to support the delivery of legal services and to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and client value. These tools may assist with routine tasks such as legal research, document analysis or drafting support.
AI tools are used to assist our legal practitioners; they do not replace professional judgment. All outputs are reviewed and verified by qualified lawyers before being relied on or provided to clients. We use these tools only in contexts where we are competent to assess their capabilities and limitations, and we remain fully responsible for the legal services we deliver.
We do not input personal, sensitive or identifying client information into AI tools unless that information has been de-identified or we have obtained your informed consent to do so.
Some AI platforms process data on servers located outside Australia, including in the United States. While we apply strict internal safeguards, including de-identification, disabled chat history, and restricted access, we cannot guarantee that overseas service providers (such as OpenAI) will comply with Australian privacy laws in full. For that reason, we avoid entering personal or sensitive information into these tools unless appropriate protections, including client consent, are in place.
We are committed to using AI responsibly, proportionately, and transparently, in line with our professional duties under the Legal Profession Act (Qld) and the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2023, including our obligations to maintain client confidentiality, exercise competence and provide proper supervision.
As AI tools are integrated into our standard workflows, we provide this notice to keep you informed. If you have any questions about our use of AI, or how it relates to your matter, we encourage you to contact us via enquiries@smrlaw.com.au
Third party websites
You may click-through to third party websites from this site, in which case we recommend that you refer to the privacy statement of the websites you visit. This Privacy Policy applies to this site only and the Company assumes no responsibility for the content of any third party websites.
Re-marketing
We may use the Google AdWords and/or Facebook re-marketing services to advertise on third party websites to previous visitors to this site based upon their activity on this site. This allows us to tailor our marketing to better suit your needs and to only display advertisements that are relevant to you. Such advertising may be displayed on a Google search results page or a website in the Google Display Network or inside Facebook. Google and Facebook may use cookies and/or pixel tags to achieve this. Any data so collected by Google and/or Facebook will be used in accordance with their own respective privacy policies. None of your personal Google and/or Facebook information is reported to us.
You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ads Settings page (https://www.google.com/settings/ads). Facebook has enabled an AdChoices link that enables you to opt out of targeted advertising. You may also opt out of any marketing or promotional communication that we send you, simply by contacting us by email or clicking on the opt out link on any communication we send to you.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
From time to time, it may be necessary for us to revise this Privacy Policy. Any changes will be in accordance with any applicable requirements under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. We may notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on this site.
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If you require any further information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, you can visit the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website (see www.privacy.gov.au).
