Mediation Privacy Policy
Ribet Myles LLP (referred to as “RM”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this policy) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data.
This Mediation Privacy Policy explains how our mediation service uses (or ‘processes’) the personal data you share with us. It supplements the Privacy Policy on our website, which will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website or when we collect your personal data in other ways, such as when you instruct us to represent you in a legal matter, and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
It is important that you read this Mediation Privacy Policy and our Privacy Policy so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. If you have any questions about the policies, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out below.
Who is covered by this policy?
People who mediate with us and their families.
People who contact us to explore the possibility of mediating with us.
People who may be invited to explore the possibility of mediating with us, because someone connected with them has contacted us to explore the possibility of mediating with us.
2. What personal data is involved?
Our mediation clients (and prospective mediation clients) provide us directly with almost all of the data we process. The only exceptions are:
a. when data is provided by solicitors or some other professionals (at the clients’ request or with their consent); or
b. when someone who is interested in resolving an issue by mediating provides us with an email address or other contact information so that we can offer the other person a meeting to explore whether or not mediation might be a good way forward.
3. How is the personal data gathered?
a. We collect and process data:
i. when you contact us using an email address or by telephone (unless you block the actual number you are calling on);
ii. while exploring with you whether or not mediation is a real option for your family.
b. We also collect and process personal data during the mediation process itself – including but not limited to personal, financial and health data. The data collected sometimes includes personal data about children over 13 but we consider that it is not proportionate to contact every child over 13 with a separate privacy notice about the limited information we hold about them.
4. What control do you still have over your data?
a. Your information can only be shared outside the mediation process with your knowledge and prior consent (unless we are required to share it with someone in order to meet our professional obligations as mediators registered with the Family Mediation Council – this exception is explained in more detail below).
b. We will handle your personal data only in ways you would reasonably expect and we will not do anything unlawful with the data.
c. As explained more fully in our Privacy Policy, under certain circumstances you have various rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:
Request access to your personal data.
Request correction of your personal data.
Request erasure of your personal data.
Object to 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 jribet@rmfamilylaw.co.uk.
d. 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.
e. 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.
f. 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.
g. The right to have information deleted (‘erased’) applies if the personal data is no longer necessary for its original purpose – if you want us to delete your data, that is very likely to mean that mediation is not suitable or is no longer possible.
5. What do we do with your data and why is it legal for us to use it?
a. As family mediators, we are ‘processors’ of personal data for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation. Processing (or using) personal data always has to be for a legitimate purpose – our purposes relate to mediation, either providing our mediation services to people who have signed our Agreement to Mediate, or giving families the opportunity to find out more about family mediation as a way of resolving a family issue.
b. In order to provide these mediation services, we also have to comply with the professional obligations imposed upon us by the Family Mediation Council (FMC). These include obligations to make your personal data available to other people in certain limited circumstances. Our practice supervisors or a complaints handler may have sight of our files (as explained below) but access is strictly controlled and on a confidential basis.
c. If you decide to mediate with us, we ask your consent to processing your personal data by signing our Agreement to Mediate. If you sign our Agreement, you consent to us processing your personal data as part of your contract with us – our legal basis for processing your data if you are mediating with us is contract. This includes us retaining and storing your personal data for as long as is necessary in connection with the Agreement, to include a period of 6 years after the mediation concludes, in case of complaint. It also includes giving us permission to share your personal data with our practice supervisors and/or any person appointed by the Family Mediation Council to consider a complaint about the mediation. We may retain data for research and statistical purposes, but only on the understanding that if used for this purpose all identifying details will have been removed. We will also always keep a small amount of information after file closure to do conflicts of interest searches in the future to comply with our professional duties. We will not process your data for any other purpose.
d. Before this, while you and we are working out whether or not mediation is a good option for your family, we will usually process a very limited amount of your personal data, for example your contact details, so that we can communicate with you and assess your suitability for family mediation.
e. If you have contacted us, we are able to process your personal data for the limited purpose of exploring with you whether or not mediation is a good way forward for your family. Because you have contacted us, asking us to do this, our legal basis for processing the very limited personal data that you give us is still contract (even though you have not yet signed the Agreement).
f. If you have not contacted us, we are only able to process your contact details (usually a telephone number and/or an email address) in order to offer you the opportunity to explore family mediation as an option. In this case our legal basis for processing your personal data is the public task of giving families access to mediation as an alternative to litigation. The Children and Families Act 2014, s 10, introduced a mediation information and assessment process and requires the majority of people to show that they have attended a mediation information and assessment meeting, and have considered family mediation as an option, before they ask the court to make a decision about their family. Contacting someone to give them access to this mediation information and assessment process is therefore a way to protect their legal rights within the family justice system.
6. Contacting us
Contact details
Ribet Myles LLP
Email address: enquiries@rmfamilylaw.co.uk
Postal address: Chancery House, 53-64 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1QS
Telephone number: 020 7242 6000
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.
7. Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of any changes
We keep our privacy policy under regular review.
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.