Privacy and Justice Connect

This Privacy Policy explains how Justice Connect (ABN 54 206 789 276) collects, uses, discloses and otherwise handles personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) which are contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

For the purposes of this policy, ‘personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.

If you have any questions or feedback about this policy or the way in which Justice Connect handles personal information you can contact us on the details below. You can also request a hard copy of this policy using the details below.

Contacting us

Privacy Officer 
Justice Connect
Mail:  PO Box 16013, Collins Street West, Melbourne, 8007
Email:  privacy@justiceconnect.org.au
Telephone: +61 3 8636 4400
Facsimile: +61 3 8638 4455

What types of personal information do we collect?

The types of personal information that we collect about you will depend on the type of dealings you have with us.  For example, if you:

  • seek legal assistance, we may collect your name, contact details, details of your guardian (if applicable), financial details (if necessary to confirm your eligibility for our services), information about your circumstances, and information about the matter you are seeking assistance with
  • provide legal assistance to our clients, we may collect your name, organisation and contact details
  • become a supporter of Justice Connect, we may collect your name, organisation, contact details and confirm whether you are a student
  • register for a subscription to a Justice Connect publication, we may collect your name, organisation and contact details and details about the information you access in our publications
  • make a donation to Justice Connect, we may collect your name, organisation, contact details, the amount and frequency of your donation and payment details
  • attend a professional development or training program or attend another Justice Connect event, we may collect your name, organisation, contact details, payment details (if applicable) and any dietary and accessibility requirements
  • participate in our surveys, we may collect your name, organisation contact details and your survey responses
  • download a Justice Connect precedent from our website or use a web application, we may collect your name, organisation and contact details and details of the precedent you downloaded or web application that you used
  • send us an enquiry, we may collect your name, contact details, information about your circumstances and details of your query
  • make a complaint, we may collect your name, contact details, the details of your complaint, information collected in any investigation of the matter and details of the resolution of the complaint
  • apply for a role at Justice Connect, we may collect the information you include in your application, including your cover letter, resume, contact details and referee reports

Sensitive information

Some personal information, such as information relating to racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or affiliations, health information (including mental health information and information about a disability), genetic information and whether or not you have a criminal record is sensitive and requires a higher level of protection under the Privacy Act. We may collect your sensitive information when we have your consent and when the collection is reasonably necessary for us to carry out one or more of our functions or activities.

Sensitive information is generally relevant to an assessment of whether a person is eligible for our legal services, and is relevant for the delivery of legal services.

Example – eligibility assessment

For many of our legal services for individuals, the personal circumstances of the individual are relevant to assessing whether that person falls within the eligibility criteria of that service. These services will need to collect information that is relevant to the eligibility criteria to make an assessment about whether a person is eligible to receive assistance or not. This might include information about whether a person has a mental illness, disability or substance abuse problem.

What if you don’t provide us with your personal information?

In some circumstances we allow individuals the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym, when dealing with us (for example, when viewing our website or making general phone queries).  Donations may also be made anonymously, but in this case Justice Connect may not be able to issue a tax-deductible receipt.

The nature of the business carried on by Justice Connect means that, generally, it is not possible for us to provide services to our clients or deal with witnesses or other individuals in an anonymous way.

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information in a number of ways, including:

  • through our websites (for example, if you choose to donate to Justice Connect online through our secure payment gateway)
  • when you correspond with us (for example by  letter, fax, email or telephone)
  • on hard copy forms
  • in person (for example, at job interviews and where we meet with a client to take instructions)
  • from referring third parties such as Legal Aid
  • at events and forums
  • from third parties such as Centrelink, the Federal Court Registry or referrers who refer you to us for assistance with your consent

Why do we collect personal information?

The main purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information are set out below.

Providing pro bono legal services

  • assessing whether clients meet our acceptance criteria
  • determining whether clients have any special needs, such as an interpreter or disability assistance
  • endeavouring to arrange for the provision of legal and non-legal assistance (e.g. social work) to eligible clients
  • referring clients to lawyers where the lawyer has agreed to provide assistance

Advocacy

  • carrying out law reform and policy work
  • promoting Justice Connect and its activities, including through events and forums
  • conducting research and statistical analysis relevant to Justice Connect’s activities
  • preparing client stories for use in advocacy work and in publications (clients will not be individually identified without their consent)

Education, information, and outreach

  • providing legal information or resources
  • running professional development programs for lawyers
  • running community training programs about the law
  • outreach activities, including community-based activities and online campaigns to promote our services

Research, evaluation, product and service design and development

  • carrying out research relevant to our work
  • evaluating our products and services
  • designing, developing and improving products and services

Fundraising

  • seeking funding and donations
  • organising fundraising events
  • reporting to funding providers

General administration

  • recruiting staff, contractors and volunteers
  • processing payments
  • answering queries and resolving complaints
  • evaluating our work and reporting externally

Direct marketing

Direct marketing is the promotion of goods and services directly to you including through emails, SMS, phone calls and the post. We will only send you direct marketing materials if you would reasonably expect to receive them or you have consented. If it is impractical to gain your consent, we will always provide a simple means for you to request not to receive the material (‘opting out’). We will not use your sensitive information for the purposes of direct marketing unless you have given us prior consent.

Opting out

You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us by:

  • advising us if you receive a marketing call that you no longer wish to receive these calls;
  • using the unsubscribe facility that we include in our commercial electronic messages (such as email and SMS) to opt out of receiving those messages, or
  • contacting us by email at privacy@justiceconnect.org.au, by phone on (03) 8636 4400, by facsimile (03) 8638 4455 or by sending a letter to Publications, Justice Connect, PO Box 16013, Collins Street West, Melbourne, 8007.

Who do we disclose your personal information to?

The nature of the services provided by Justice Connect means that it is often necessary for us to disclose your personal information to other parties. We will ordinarily let you know who we will disclose your personal information to when we collect the information from you (unless there are practical reasons for not informing you).

Common third parties we might need to disclose your personal information to include:

  • the legal providers that give legal assistance to our clients
  • Health Justice Partnerships partners (with your consent)
  • other community legal service providers (for file audit purposes)
  • our funding providers (although personal information will only be provided with consent)
  • financial institutions for payment processing
  • referees whose details are provided to us by job applicants
  • our contracted service providers which include:
    • information technology service providers
    • conference, function and training organisers
    • marketing, communications and research agencies
    • freight and courier services
    • printers and distributors of direct marketing material
    • external business advisers (such as recruitment advisors, auditors and lawyers)
  • A court (for obtaining copies of documents relevant to your matter)

In the case of these contracted service providers, we may disclose personal information to the service provider and the service provider may in turn provide us with personal information collected from you in the course of providing the relevant products or services

Cross border disclosures

We may disclose personal information to our contracted information technology service providers that are hosted off-shore.

Storage and security of the information we hold

We hold personal information in both hard copy and electronic formats.  Paper files are stored in secure cabinets onsite. They may also be archived in boxes and stored offsite in secure facilities.

If you are a client, we will return any of your original documents that we have to you when your matter has been finalised.  Copies of your documents will remain on your file with us and will generally be kept for 7 years after the date that your file has been closed.

The security of your personal information is important to us and we use the recommended industry standards when storing and dealing with your personal information. We use a secure server using the latest 128-bit SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption technology to process any financial transactions.

The steps we take to secure the personal information we hold include:

  • website protection measures (such as encryption, firewalls and anti-virus software)
  • access restrictions to our computer systems (such as login and password protection)
  • restricted access to our office premises
  • staff training and implementation of workplace policies and procedures that cover access, storage and security of information.

Website security

While Justice Connect strives to protect the personal information and privacy of users of our website, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you disclose online and you disclose that information at your own risk. If you are concerned about sending your information over the internet, you can contact Justice Connect by telephone or post (details under ‘Contacting Us’).

You can also help to protect the privacy of your personal information by letting us know as soon as possible if you become aware of any security breach.

Third party websites

Links to third party websites that are not operated or controlled by Justice Connect are provided for your convenience.  Justice Connect is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of those websites. Third party websites should have their own privacy and security policies, which we encourage you to read before supplying any personal information to them.

Access and correction to personal information

We will take reasonable steps to provide you with access to your personal information. We may however charge a fee to cover our reasonable costs of locating the information and providing it to you.

We will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information if we are satisfied that it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. If we have provided your personal information to third parties we will also notify them of the correction if you ask us to do so, unless it is impracticable or unlawful.

Requests to access and correct your information should be made by email, post or phone using the details provided under the ‘Contacting Us’ heading. Note that we will need to verify your identity before processing your request. We will endeavour to respond to your request within 30 days.

If we do not agree with your request to access or correct your information, we will provide you with written reasons for our decision and available complaint mechanisms.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about how Justice Connect has collected or handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details provided under the heading ‘Contacting Us.’

We will ask you to complete a Privacy Complaint Form, which provides us with the details we need from you to assess your complaint. We can assist you with completing the Form if required.

We will endeavour to respond to your complaint within 30 days of receipt of the Privacy Complaint Form (while complex cases may take longer to resolve, we will keep you updated on the progress of your complaint).

If you are unhappy with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or, in some instances, other regulatory bodies, such as the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, the New South Wales Privacy Commissioner or the Victorian Health Services Commissioner.