Privacy Policy

Last updated: 01.12.2025

This Privacy Policy explains how JSH Law Ltd collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information when you contact us, use our website, request a consultation, instruct us, pay an invoice, communicate with us, or provide documents to us in connection with litigation support or McKenzie Friend services.

This Privacy Policy should be read alongside our Terms of Service, Client Agreement and Terms of Business, Complaints Procedure, Disclaimer, Safeguarding Statement, and any matter-specific agreement or task confirmation issued to you.

Who we are

JSH Law Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales under company number 16870438.

Our correspondence address is:

JSH Law Ltd
c/o Mayes Business Partnership
Red Rose Court
Accrington
United Kingdom
BB5 5JR

Email: jessica.hill@jshlaw.co.uk

For the purposes of UK data protection law, JSH Law Ltd is usually the controller of personal information processed in connection with enquiries, client matters, billing, file administration, complaints, debt recovery, safeguarding, and website use.

Important status notice

JSH Law Ltd provides litigation support and McKenzie Friend services to litigants in person. We are not authorised or regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board, CILEx Regulation, or any other approved legal services regulator.

The personal information we process may relate to legal proceedings, family matters, safeguarding issues, children, police involvement, social services, health, education, finances, domestic abuse, allegations, court orders, evidence, and other sensitive matters. You should only provide information that is relevant and necessary for the work you are asking us to carry out.

Personal information we may collect

Depending on your enquiry, matter, or use of our services, we may collect and process:

• your name, address, email address, telephone number, and other contact details;
• details of your matter, dispute, proceedings, hearing dates, court orders, deadlines, and procedural history;
• documents, correspondence, evidence, statements, schedules, chronologies, bundles, reports, and other materials you provide to us;
• communications between you and us, including emails, messages, WhatsApp messages, voice notes, call notes, meeting notes, attendance notes, and client portal communications;
• billing information, invoices, payment records, transaction details, and debt recovery records;
• identity, contact, and relationship information about other people involved in your matter;
• information relating to children, family members, former partners, witnesses, professionals, schools, local authorities, police, Cafcass, social services, medical professionals, courts, or other agencies;
• technical information from website use, such as IP address, browser type, device information, website pages visited, cookies, and analytics data where applicable.

Special category and sensitive information

Some information you provide may be sensitive or special category data. This may include information about health, disability, mental health, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sex life, sexual orientation, domestic abuse, safeguarding, children, social care, criminal allegations, criminal proceedings, police involvement, or other highly personal matters.

We will only process sensitive information where it is relevant and necessary for the purpose for which it is provided, and where we have a lawful basis and any additional condition required by data protection law.

You must not provide unnecessary sensitive information. If you provide sensitive or third-party information to us, you confirm that it is relevant to the matter and that you are providing it lawfully and fairly.

Third-party personal information

Litigation support often involves information about people other than the client. This may include children, former partners, family members, witnesses, professionals, experts, court staff, social workers, police officers, Cafcass officers, teachers, medical professionals, and other third parties.

You are responsible for ensuring that any third-party personal information you provide to us is accurate, relevant, necessary, and provided lawfully. You must not send us third-party personal data unless it is genuinely relevant to the work you are asking us to carry out.

Family court, confidentiality, and restricted documents

Some documents and information may be confidential, subject to family court restrictions, subject to reporting restrictions, subject to safeguarding restrictions, or subject to an order limiting publication, disclosure, copying, or use.

You are responsible for ensuring that any documents you provide to us may lawfully be shared with us and used for the purpose for which you provide them.

You must tell us immediately if any document, order, report, transcript, recording, screenshot, photograph, message, police material, social services material, Cafcass material, school record, medical record, or other information is subject to any restriction on use, disclosure, publication, or onward sharing.

How we collect information

We may collect personal information directly from you when you:

• contact us through the website, email, telephone, WhatsApp, social media, client portal, or another communication method;
• book a consultation or request work;
• complete an enquiry form, onboarding form, client agreement, or cancellation form;
• send documents, evidence, messages, screenshots, recordings, court papers, or other materials;
• pay an invoice or communicate about billing;
• make a complaint or raise a dispute.

We may also receive information from third parties where relevant to your matter, including solicitors, barristers, courts, local authorities, schools, professionals, family members, witnesses, or other people involved in the case, provided that receiving and using that information is lawful and necessary.

How we use personal information

We may use personal information for the following purposes:

• responding to enquiries and deciding whether we can assist;
• setting up and administering client files;
• providing litigation support and McKenzie Friend services;
• reviewing documents, evidence, court orders, and correspondence;
• preparing drafts, chronologies, position statements, hearing notes, schedules, indexes, bundle materials, and related documents;
• communicating with you about your matter;
• recording instructions, attendance notes, case activity, decisions, and work carried out;
• issuing invoices, processing payments, and managing accounts;
• dealing with unpaid fees, invoice disputes, debt recovery, and legal claims;
• responding to complaints or allegations;
• protecting our legal, contractual, commercial, and legitimate interests;
• complying with legal obligations, court orders, safeguarding duties, tax duties, accounting duties, and regulatory requirements that apply to us;
• maintaining website security and improving website performance;
• keeping appropriate business, file, billing, and compliance records.

Lawful basis for processing

We may rely on one or more lawful bases for processing personal information, depending on the circumstances.

These may include:

• Contract: where processing is necessary to take steps before entering into a contract with you or to perform a contract with you;
• Legal obligation: where processing is necessary to comply with legal, tax, accounting, court-related, or other legal obligations;
• Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of another person, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms;
• Consent: where you have given consent for a specific purpose;
• Vital interests: where processing is necessary to protect someone’s life or safety in exceptional circumstances.

Our legitimate interests may include providing services, administering files, communicating with clients, keeping accurate records, managing billing, recovering unpaid fees, responding to complaints, defending or bringing legal claims, preventing misuse of our materials, protecting confidentiality, managing safeguarding concerns, and operating our business safely and effectively.

Special category data and criminal offence data

Where we process special category data or criminal offence-related data, we will only do so where permitted by law. This may include processing that is necessary for legal claims, substantial public interest, safeguarding, protection of vital interests, or where you have given explicit consent where consent is appropriate.

We may process information relating to allegations, police involvement, criminal proceedings, safeguarding concerns, domestic abuse, protective orders, risk assessments, or related matters where this is relevant and necessary for the work requested, for safeguarding reasons, for legal claims, or for protecting our legitimate interests.

Who we may share information with

We will not sell your personal information. We may share personal information where lawful and necessary with:

• you and people authorised by you;
• courts, tribunals, public authorities, or other bodies where required or appropriate;
• solicitors, barristers, experts, advisers, or professionals involved in your matter, where authorised or necessary;
• service providers who support our business, such as email, cloud storage, document management, billing, case management, accounting, website hosting, payment, and IT providers;
• professional advisers, insurers, accountants, bookkeepers, or consultants;
• debt recovery support, courts, or legal advisers where fees remain unpaid or a dispute arises;
• safeguarding agencies, emergency services, local authorities, police, or other relevant bodies where we consider disclosure necessary for safeguarding, legal compliance, or serious risk management;
• any person or organisation where disclosure is required by law, court order, or another lawful obligation.

Service providers and digital systems

We may use third-party software and service providers to manage communications, documents, billing, file administration, website hosting, analytics, payments, accounting, secure storage, productivity, and business operations.

These providers may process personal information on our behalf or in connection with services they provide to us. We take reasonable steps to use reputable providers and appropriate security measures, but no digital system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

International transfers

Some digital systems, cloud services, email platforms, software providers, or support services used by us may process data outside the United Kingdom.

Where this involves a restricted international transfer, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate transfer mechanism or safeguard is in place where required by data protection law. This may include adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful safeguards.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including service delivery, file management, legal compliance, accounting, tax, insurance, complaints handling, safeguarding, debt recovery, and dispute resolution.

Matter files and related records may usually be retained for up to 6 years after the end of the matter or last substantive contact, unless a longer period is required or justified by the nature of the case, safeguarding issues, complaints, unpaid fees, litigation risk, insurance requirements, regulatory matters, or legal obligations.

We may retain matter files, communications, drafts, attendance notes, invoices, payment records, WhatsApp messages, emails, client portal records, and related documents for as long as reasonably necessary for legal, contractual, tax, insurance, complaints, safeguarding, debt recovery, and legitimate business purposes. After that period, records may be securely deleted or destroyed.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.

No email, messaging, cloud, telephone, website, or internet-based system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You should avoid sending unnecessary sensitive data and should use secure methods where available.

You are responsible for ensuring that your own email account, device, messaging account, cloud storage, and internet connection are secure.

Your rights

Subject to legal conditions and exemptions, you may have the right to:

• request access to your personal data;
• ask for inaccurate data to be corrected;
• ask for data to be erased;
• ask for processing to be restricted;
• object to certain processing;
• request data portability in limited circumstances;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

These rights are not absolute. In legal, litigation, safeguarding, complaint, debt recovery, confidentiality, third-party rights, and dispute contexts, we may be required or entitled to retain, redact, restrict, or withhold certain information.

Subject access requests and data rights requests

If you make a data subject request, we may need to verify your identity and clarify the scope of the request.

We may withhold or redact information where disclosure would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others, breach confidentiality, reveal third-party personal data, prejudice legal claims, reveal internal protected material, interfere with safeguarding, disclose information we are entitled to withhold, or fall within another lawful exemption.

If your request is manifestly unfounded, excessive, repetitive, unclear, or disproportionate, we may respond in accordance with our rights and obligations under data protection law.

Children’s information

Because many matters involve family proceedings, safeguarding, education, children’s welfare, or parental disputes, we may process personal information relating to children where relevant and necessary for the work requested.

Children’s information should only be provided where it is relevant, necessary, accurate, and lawfully shared. We may retain children’s information where necessary for safeguarding, litigation support, complaints, legal claims, debt recovery, file administration, or legitimate business purposes.

Safeguarding

Where information provided to us raises a safeguarding concern, risk of harm, risk to a child, risk to a vulnerable person, or serious risk to any person, we may use or disclose relevant information where we consider it lawful, necessary, and proportionate to do so.

This may include sharing information with safeguarding agencies, local authorities, police, emergency services, courts, or other appropriate bodies where required or justified.

Recording, publication, and misuse of information

You must not record calls, meetings, conferences, consultations, court-related attendances, or discussions involving us without our prior written consent, unless recording is expressly permitted or required by law.

You must not publish, post, share, quote, screenshot, forward, circulate, or otherwise disclose our communications, drafts, attendance notes, invoices, internal comments, working materials, or documents on social media, websites, campaign pages, messaging groups, review platforms, or public forums without our prior written consent, unless required by law or court order.

Nothing in this Privacy Policy prevents you from making a genuine complaint, seeking independent legal advice, complying with a court order, exercising statutory rights, making a lawful disclosure to an appropriate authority, or giving truthful evidence where lawfully required.

Cookies and website analytics

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies to operate the site, improve performance, understand visitor behaviour, maintain security, and improve user experience.

You can usually manage cookies through your browser settings. If a separate cookie notice or cookie banner is displayed on the website, that notice should be read alongside this Privacy Policy.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security, content, or policies of external websites. You should read the privacy policy of any external website you visit.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, systems, legal obligations, or business practices. The latest version will be published on this page with an updated date.

Contact and complaints

To contact us about privacy or data protection, email jessica.hill@jshlaw.co.uk.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concern first where possible.

Information about the Information Commissioner’s Office can be found at https://ico.org.uk/.