Cookies & Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Safeguard Legal is a legal consultancy established in France, providing unreserved legal support services. We are not a law firm and are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

We act as the data controller for this website and our associated intake systems.

As a remote business, we do not operate from a public office address.

For all data protection queries, you can contact us at: services@safeguardlegal.co.uk

2. Information We May Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Contact Information: Name, company, telephone number, postal address, and email.

Business and Client Matter Data: Information provided via our secure intake forms that is necessary to support you in your matter.

Special Category Data: In certain matters, for example family law or child arrangements, we may process sensitive personal data such as health information or racial or ethnic origin where it is relevant to your case.

Children's Data: Information relating to minors (under 18) where necessary for consultancy relating to custody or child arrangements. This data is only processed where strictly necessary and is handled with additional care and safeguards.

Technical Data: IP address, browser type, device information, and website interaction data used to ensure functionality and improve performance.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

In accordance with GDPR requirements, we process personal data on the following lawful bases:

Providing consultancy services Data category: identity and matter-related data. Lawful basis: performance of a contract.

Family law and custody matters Data category: special category data and children's data. Lawful basis: establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (Article 9(2)(f) GDPR) and, where required, explicit consent.

Business administration Data category: identity and contact data. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.

Website security and functionality Data category: technical data. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.

Newsletters and updates Data category: contact data. Lawful basis: consent, which can be withdrawn at any time.

4. Data Retention

We apply a structured retention policy:

Client Matter Records Retained for two years following the conclusion of your matter. Documents and correspondence are retained during this period to allow us to respond to any queries arising from the work. After this period, all matter data is securely and permanently deleted.

Payment and Transaction Records Stripe payment records are retained for ten years to comply with French tax law. This applies to transaction data only , name, amount, date, and payment reference. It does not extend the retention of your client matter data, correspondence, or documents beyond the six-year period above.

Family Law and Children's Data May be retained until the child reaches adulthood where necessary to ensure legal certainty.

Deletion Once retention periods expire, data is securely and permanently deleted.

5. Security & Internal Systems

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data:

Encrypted Intake Forms used for secure submission of information
Secure Internal Storage within controlled systems
Access Controls limited to authorised individuals on a strict need-to-know basis
System Security Measures, including encryption and access management controls

6. International Transfers

As we operate from France and use third-party providers for IT infrastructure, your data may be processed within the UK, the European Economic Area (EEA), and other jurisdictions.

Where data is transferred outside the UK or EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, including Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA).

Third-party providers we use include:

Wix for website hosting, form processing, and CMS data storage
Cloud storage providers
CRM and secure form processing platforms

Each provider is selected on the basis that appropriate safeguards are in place for any international data transfers.

7. Your Rights

Under GDPR, you have the right to:

access your personal data
correct inaccurate data
request erasure of your data
restrict processing
object to processing
request data portability

Where processing is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

We may retain certain data where required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or to comply with legal obligations including French tax requirements.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at: services@safeguardlegal.co.uk

8. Cookies & Website Use

We use cookies and similar technologies to ensure the proper functioning of our website and to understand how it is used.

Where required, we obtain your consent before placing non-essential cookies.

You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings.

9. Contact & Complaints

If you have any questions about this policy or how your data is handled, please contact us at: services@safeguardlegal.co.uk

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Depending on your location, this may be:

the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés) in France: www.cnil.fr
the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the United Kingdom: www.ico.org.uk

We would always ask that you contact us directly in the first instance so that we have the opportunity to address your concern before a complaint is made to a supervisory authority.

Safeguard Legal is an independent legal consultancy. We are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and do not conduct reserved legal activities as defined by the Legal Services Act 2007.