Privacy

Coulter Legal Pty Ltd (ACN 158 939 514) and its related entities (Coulter Legal, we, our or us) are committed to maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of our client’s (“you”) personal information.

Coulter Legal is an ‘APP entity’ within the meaning of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), which means it is obliged to adhere to the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles when collecting, using and disclosing personal information.

2.   Your Personal Information

Personal information is defined by the Privacy Act as information or an opinion about an identified or reasonably identifiable individual (Personal Information).

Coulter Legal respects the importance of your privacy and acknowledges that when you provide your Personal Information, you do so, on the provision that unless you give Coulter Legal permission Coulter Legal will only collect, use and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy and the overarching Privacy Act.

3.    Your Sensitive Information

Sensitive Information is a subset of your Personal Information that is given a higher level of protection under the provisions of the Australian Privacy Principles.

Coulter Legal will not collect Sensitive Information about you except with your consent or only where it is reasonably necessary to collect such information or required by law.

Sensitive Information includes the following details and information about you:

(a) medical information;

(b) genetic information;

(c) racial or ethnic origin;

(d) political opinions and perspectives;

(e) memberships to political, professional or trade associations;

(f) membership to trade unions;

(g) religious and/ or philosophical beliefs or aspirations;

(h) sexual identification and/ or orientation;

(i) criminal history;

(j) biometric information or templates; or

(k) health information.

4.    Collection and Storage

Coulter Legal collects Personal Information about individuals, where the information is necessary to conduct its business.

4.1 Kinds of Personal Information collected

The type of Personal Information Coulter Legal collects, includes the following details and information about you:

(a) name;

(b) contact details, including email address, telephone numbers, residential and/ or postal address;

(c) date of birth;

(d) gender identification and preference information;

(e) bank details and other payment data as necessary for processing payments and fraud prevention;

(f) employment, job title and/ or business details;

(g) associations and affiliates, including trusts and companies;

(h) CCTV footage when you attend our offices;

(i) relationships with individuals, including family members, friends and professionals;

(j) financial information;

(k) information about your legal matter;

(l) publicly available information;

(m) information legally required for compliance purposes, including information related to significant litigation or other legal proceedings against you or a third party related to you;

(n) information collected via electronic communications and cookies, which may include internet protocol addresses, the time, date and place of the communication;

(o) your opinions about our services; and

(p) any other personal information you provide to us voluntarily.

4.2 Collection of Personal Information

Personal Information is collected when you:

(a) provide it to Coulter Legal;

(b) visit and browse Coulter Legal’s website;

(c) interact with Coulter Legal electronically, via social media (including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn);

(d) contact Coulter Legal by email, telephone or facsimile; or

(e) visit our premises.

4.3 Collection from third parties

Coulter Legal may collect Personal Information from a third party where:

(a) the third party is, for example, Coulter Legal’s Related Bodies Corporate (as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)), business partners, employees, contractors, credit reporting bodies, service providers, or your representatives; or

(b) you have consented to the collection of the information; or

(c) Coulter Legal is required, or authorised under Australian law, court/ tribunal, to do so; or

(d) it is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain the information from you; or

(e) the information is publicly available.

5.    Purpose of collection

Coulter Legal collects, holds, uses, and discloses Personal Information for its Primary and Secondary Purposes.

6.    Use and Disclosure

Coulter Legal will only use or disclose your Personal Information for the Primary Purposes and, where you have not opted out, for Secondary Purposes, unless otherwise required by law.

Primary Purposes means conducting the business of Coulter Legal, including the supply of legal or other services and products to you. This includes through the use and support of online, digital or legal technology products, services or solutions as instructed or requested by you or your organisation.

Secondary Purposes means matters incidental to conducting the business of Coulter Legal, including:

(a) business marketing;

(b) data use and collection for internal business purposes;

(c) storage and security of the information;

(d) debt collection;

(e) credit-reporting;

(f) complying with the Australian Federal and State legislation and international laws and treaties;

(g) complying with court orders;

(h) insurance purposes;

(i) for monitoring and compliance with our policies and standards of business; and

(j) any purpose related and/ or ancillary to the above and any other purpose for which your personal data was provided to Coulter Legal.

In particular, Coulter Legal may:

(a) use the Personal Information to:

(i) verify your identity;

(ii) provide its products or services to you, to assist you with enquiries, or to provide you with better customer service;

(iii) administer and manage the products and services Coulter Legal provides to you, to charge and bill you for them, and to collect any amounts you may owe Coulter Legal;

(iv) ensure the safety and security of our staff, clients, and premises (including by use of CCTV surveillance); and

(v) meet our legal, regulatory, and professional obligations, including to prevent fraud; and

(b) reproduce and store the Personal Information for the Primary or Secondary Purposes.

Where lawful and practical, you may deal with us anonymously or use a pseudonym. However, if you do not provide us with your Personal Information, we may not be able to provide you with some or all of our products and services.

We may disclose Personal Information to:

(a) Our employees, contractors and services providers;

(b) Courts, tribunals, regulators, or law enforcement agencies;

(c) Barristers, experts, valuers, insurers, contractors, consultants, or other service providers;

(d) Other third parties with your consent, or where authorised or required by law.

Some of these third parties may be located outside of Australia. Where we disclose information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient is bound by an obligation of confidentiality, where it is lawful and appropriate to do so.

7.    Marketing

Coulter Legal may use your Personal Information to send you marketing. When you receive Coulter Legal’s marketing, Coulter Legal will provide you with an option to opt out of receiving future direct marketing. If you do not elect to opt out of receipt of future marketing, Coulter Legal may continue to send you marketing until you opt out.

If you require further information in relation to opting out of Coulter Legal’s marketing, please contact Coulter Legal’s Privacy Policy Officer (details provided below).

8.   Cookies

A cookie is a file used to store information about your website visit. The cookies Coulter Legal uses do not identify individual users. Coulter Legal may use cookies for targeted online advertising. We also use Google Analytics to understand website traffic and improve our services. Google may collect aggregated data such as pages visited, time spent on-site, and device information. Additionally, we may share de-identified data with Google for insights, benchmarking, and site recommendations.

Most internet browsers are set to accept cookies. If you prefer not to receive them, you can adjust your internet browser to reject cookies, or to notify you when they are being used. For more information check your browser settings or visit Google – Opt-outs for the web.

Coulter Legal’s Privacy Policy does not apply to, and Coulter Legal is not responsible for, the content or privacy practices of any external websites accessed through links on Coulter Legal’s website.

Coulter Legal does not endorse, approve, or make any representations regarding the accuracy, relevance, or completeness of content on third-party websites.

You are encouraged to read and understand the privacy policies and terms of use of any linked or referenced external websites. Any interactions, transactions, or correspondence with external websites are at your own risk.

9.    Data Quality and Security of your Personal Information

Protecting your Personal Information is a priority for Coulter Legal. Coulter Legal may hold your Personal Information in electronic and physical files or on secure servers, storage and archive systems, including the Cloud. Cloud means a system of networked computing facilities, software and databases that provide remote data storage and processing services via the internet.

It is important to Coulter Legal that the Personal Information it maintains, and uses is accurate, complete and up to date. If at any time your Personal Information changes, contact the Privacy Officer using the details below so that it can update Coulter Legal’s records.

Whilst Coulter Legal takes caution to protect your Personal Information, no data transmission over the internet or electronically can be completely secure. Coulter Legal will take reasonable steps to protect the Personal Information it retains from misuse, loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Coulter Legal will not be liable for any loss, corruption, delay or loss of confidentiality arising from any data or information transmitted electronically.

You may also assist Coulter Legal to keep your Personal Information secure by ensuring appropriate back-up, security and virus check procedures are in place for any data or information provided to or received from Coulter Legal electronically. Please use your discretion and exercise caution when providing your Personal Information.

In the event that Coulter Legal becomes aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual, Coulter Legal will promptly assess the incident and, where required under the Privacy Act, notify both the affected individuals and the relevant regulatory authority. The notification will include a description of the breach, the likely consequences, and the measures taken or proposed to be taken to address the breach.

10.   Data Retention

Coulter Legal retains Personal Information for as long as deemed necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, comply with our legal obligations or reporting requirements, for business purposes or where we consider it may be required to resolve disputes. After this time, Coulter Legal will securely destroy your information

11.  Accessing, Correcting and Deleting Your Personal Information

You may request access to Personal Information that Coulter Legal holds about you at any time. However, this right of access is subject to some exceptions permitted by law. To make a request, please put your request in writing to the Privacy Officer using the contact details below.

In normal circumstances Coulter Legal will give you full access to the Personal Information held about you as soon as practicable, subject to and in accordance with the Privacy Act and this policy. However, in some circumstances Coulter Legal may require proof of identity, impose a charge or deny your request if it would be unreasonable to provide you with access, unlawful or would impact on the privacy of another person.

Coulter Legal reserves the right to charge a reasonable fee for searching for and providing access to your Personal Information. In the event Coulter Legal refuses you access to your Personal Information, Coulter Legal will provide you with an explanation for that refusal.

You may deal with Coulter Legal anonymously where it is lawful, practicable and reasonable to do so.

You can request that information about you be corrected or deleted. However, Personal Information may be retained in certain files in order to resolve disputes or for auditing purposes. Some Personal Information may also be retained in Coulter Legal’s technical systems in accordance with its data security procedures.

If you choose to withdraw your consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Information, such withdrawal will not affect any actions taken by Coulter Legal prior to receiving your withdrawal. Requests for withdrawal should be made in writing to the Privacy Officer, and Coulter Legal will confirm in writing the extent to which such withdrawal can be accommodated given statutory and operational requirements.

12.  CCTV Surveillance

Coulter Legal’s public and common areas (such as building entrances, reception areas, hallways, and other public spaces within Coulter Legal premises and entrances and exits to office areas) are continuously monitored by Closed Circuit Television systems (CCTV) for the purposes of safety, security, crime prevention and complying with legal obligations or responding to law enforcement requests. The cameras record visual footage only (no audio).

Coulter Legal has taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the appropriate signage is visible by all employees, clients and visitors to the premises.

CCTV footage may be collected as personal information where an individual is identifiable. The collection and use of CCTV footage is conducted in accordance with the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Footage may be used to investigate security incidents or criminal activity and may be provided to police, government or other authorised third parties where required by law.

CCTV footage access is restricted to authorised personnel within Coulter Legal only, it is securely stored and is retained only for as long as necessary to fulfil its intended purpose, after which Coulter Legal will take all reasonable steps to ensure it is securely deleted and/ or destroyed in a reasonable timeframe.

13.  Changes to this Policy

Coulter Legal may in its absolute discretion review and change this Privacy Policy from time to time. The amended Privacy Policy will be published on Coulter Legal’s website and will apply without Coulter Legal giving you express notice of any change. This Policy was last updated on 17 September 2025.

14.  Complaints

This Privacy Policy and use of Coulter Legal’s website are governed by the laws of Australia. If a dispute arises under this Privacy Policy, you agree to attempt to resolve the dispute under those laws.

15.  Governing Law

This Privacy Policy and use of Coulter Legal’s website are governed by the laws of Australia. If a dispute arises under this Privacy Policy, you agree to attempt to resolve the dispute under those laws.

Privacy Officer:   Thomas White

Address:             Level 1, 235 Ryrie Street, Geelong, Victoria, Australia 3220

Phone:                03 5273 5271

Email:                  info@coulterlegal.com.au