Privacy Policy

Who We Are

Richards Medico Legal Ltd (company number 17170094, registered office 1st Floor, 31–33 Hoghton Street, Southport, PR9 0NS) is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), reference ZC130093. This policy explains how we handle personal data in connection with this website and our medico-legal practice, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Whose Information We Hold

• People who contact us, usually solicitors, insurers and counsel: name, contact details and the content of the correspondence.
• People who are the subject of a case in which we are instructed, usually a claimant, and sometimes family members or clinicians named in the records. This includes health information: medical records, imaging, witness statements and legal documents. We do not collect this information from those individuals themselves. It is sent to us by the instructing solicitors or other parties to the proceedings.

This Website

The website uses no cookies, analytics or tracking, and has no forms. Our hosting provider, Netlify, records technical information such as IP addresses in its server logs so that it can deliver and secure the site.

How We Use Information

We use it to assess whether we can accept an instruction, including a conflict of interest check; to prepare expert reports; to answer questions on reports, take part in experts' discussions and give evidence; to invoice for our work; and to meet our legal, regulatory and insurance obligations. We do not use personal data for marketing and do not make automated decisions about anyone.

Legal Basis

• Correspondence and instructions: contract with the instructing party, and our legitimate interests in running a medico-legal practice.
• Accounting records: legal obligation.
• Health information: this is special category data. We process it because it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(f)). Where records contain information about criminal allegations, we process it under the legal claims condition in Schedule 1, paragraph 33 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who We Share It With

We share it with the party who instructed us and, as the proceedings require, with the court, other parties' legal representatives and other experts in the case; with our professional advisers and insurers where necessary; and with IT service providers who act on our instructions. We never sell personal data.

Email is provided by Microsoft 365 and stored in the United Kingdom. The website is hosted by Netlify, Inc. in the United States. Netlify is certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (the “UK–US data bridge”), which UK law recognises as providing adequate protection for personal data transferred to it.

How We Protect It

Case papers are held on an encrypted computer and are not synchronised to cloud storage. Papers that arrive by email also remain in our UK-hosted mailbox until they are deleted in line with the periods below. Access is limited to the expert, and papers are not shared beyond the recipients listed above.

How Long We Keep It

• Case papers sent to us by instructing solicitors, such as medical records and imaging: securely destroyed, or returned if requested, once we are told the case has concluded.
• Our own case file (the letter of instruction, our reports, notes and correspondence): kept for seven years after the case concludes, or, if we are not told that it has concluded, seven years after our last work on it. This allows us to answer later questions about our evidence and to deal with any claim concerning it.
• Accounting records: six years, as the law requires.
• Enquiries that do not lead to an instruction: deleted after 12 months.
• Conflict of interest records: the names of the parties and the dates of each enquiry and instruction are kept for as long as we practise, because we must check every new enquiry against them before accepting it. Nothing else from the case is kept for this purpose.

We may keep information for longer if we are told that proceedings may continue, or if the law requires it.

Your Rights

You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you; to have it corrected; to have it erased; to restrict or object to its use; and, in some cases, to receive it in a portable format. Some rights are limited where the data is needed for legal proceedings. For example, we cannot erase material that forms part of evidence in a live case. To exercise any right, email contact@richardsmedicolegal.co.uk. We will reply within one month.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concern first.

Changes to This Policy

We will update this page if our practices change. The date at the top shows when it was last revised.