This Privacy Policy outlines our commitment to protecting the privacy of personal information provided to us, or otherwise collected by us, offline or online, including through our https://www.couldwelllegal.com.au (Website). In this Privacy Policy, “we,” “us,” or “our” means Couldwell Legal Pty Ltd trading as Couldwell Legal (ABN 90 666 693 447).
Our Commitment to You
At Couldwell Legal, your privacy is important to us. We are committed to protecting your personal information and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles, and relevant data protection laws.
We will never sell or rent your personal information, and we will always handle your data with care, transparency and respect.
What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It
We may collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for us to provide legal services, including:
- your name, address, phone number, email address, and occupation;
- your age and/or date of birth;
- information about your legal matter or personal circumstances;
- communications with you, including phone calls, emails, text messages, and meeting notes;
- billing and financial information, including your bank account and your credit card details;
- your preferences and/or opinions;
- information you provide to us through website interactions (e.g. contact forms, cookies)
- information you provide to us through customer surveys;
- details of products and services we have provided to you and/or that you have enquired about, and our response to you;
- your browser session and geo-location data, device and network information, statistics on page views and sessions, acquisition sources, search queries and/or browsing behaviour;
- information about your access and use of our Website, including through the use of internet cookies, your communications with our Website, the type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using and the domain name of your internet service provider;
- additional personal information that you provide to us, directly or indirectly, through your use of our Website, associated applications, associated social media platforms and/or accounts from which you permit us to collect information;
- any other personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party; and
- any other information you voluntarily provide to us.
We may collect these types of personal information directly from you or third parties.
Collection of Your Personal Information
We collect personal information directly from you through:
- phone calls, emails, or text messages;
- forms or documents you complete;
- in-person meetings or video conferencing;
- our website or social media channels; and
- joining our mailing list or participating in a survey or campaign.
We may also collect information from third parties (e.g., referrers, medical professionals, accountants, financial planners) where you have provided consent.
Use of VXT for Calls and Messaging
Couldwell Legal uses VXT, a secure cloud-based communication system, to manage our phone calls, voicemail, text messaging and internal communications.
Call Recording and Transcription
We may record and transcribe phone calls for the purposes of accuracy, note-taking, training, and efficient service delivery.
We will always seek your express consent before recording or transcribing any call.
Recordings and transcripts are stored securely and accessed only by authorised team members.
How We Collect, Hold and Use Your Personal Information
We collect, store, and use your personal information for purposes including:
- Providing Legal Services and Managing Our Relationship with You
- To provide legal advice and related service
- To manage and administer our relationship with you or your organisation
- To communicate with you and respond to your enquiries
- To comply with our legal obligations, court orders, or regulatory requirements
- To resolve any disputes or defend our legal rights
- Improving Our Services and Operations
- For internal record keeping and administrative purposes
- For analytics, market research, and business development
- To monitor compliance with our policies and standards
- To evaluate and improve our services, website, and communication
- Marketing and Client Engagement
- To send legal updates, client surveys, and promotional content (with your consent)
- To manage competitions, campaigns, or additional benefits
- To deliver targeted advertising, including via social media platforms
- Other Business Purposes
- For insurance, quality assurance, or audit purposes
- Process payments and manage billing
- To assess employment applications
- Improve our services and website
- For any other purpose related or ancillary to the above, or for which you have provided your personal information
Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties
We may disclose personal information to the following third parties:
- third party service providers for the purpose of enabling them to provide their services, including (without limitation) other legal professionals (e.g. barristers, courts. tribunals), IT service providers (e.g Microsoft 365, VXT), practice management systems (e.g. LEAP), data storage, web-hosting and server providers, debt collectors, maintenance or problem-solving providers, marketing or advertising providers (e.g. Flodesk), professional advisors and payment systems operators;
- our employees, contractors and/or related entities;
- our existing or potential agents or business partners;
- sponsors or promoters of any competition we run;
- anyone to whom our business or assets (or any part of them) are, or may (in good faith) be, transferred;
- credit reporting agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities, in the event you fail to pay for goods or services we have provided to you;
- courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement officers, as required by law, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings, or in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights;
- third parties, including agents or sub-contractors, who assist us in providing information, products, services or direct marketing to you. This may include parties located, or that store data, outside of Australia including in the United States; and
- third parties to collect and process data, such as Facebook, Google Analytics or other relevant businesses. This may include parties that store data outside of Australia including in the United States.
By providing us with personal information, you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to third parties who reside outside Australia and acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that those third parties comply with Australian privacy laws.
How We Treat Personal Information That Is Also Sensitive Information
Sensitive information is a subset of personal information that is given a higher level of protection under the Australian Privacy Principles. Sensitive information means information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional associations or memberships, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal records, health information or biometric information.
Sensitive information includes:
- an individual’s racial or ethnic origin;
- health information;
- political opinions;
- membership of a political association;
- professional, trade association or trade union;
- religious beliefs or affiliations;
- philosophical beliefs;
- sexual orientation or practices;
- criminal record;
- genetic information;
- biometric information that is to be used for certain purposes; and
- biometric templates.
We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent, or as otherwise permitted by law.
Your Rights and Controlling Your Personal Information
- Choice and consent: Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By providing personal information to us, you consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us; however, if you do not, it may affect your use of this Website or the products and/or services offered on or through it.
- Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person’s consent to provide the personal information to us.
- Restrict: You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information. If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us at admin@couldwelllegal.com.au.
- Access: You may request details of the personal information that we hold about you. An administrative fee may be payable for the provision of such information. In certain circumstances, as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), we may refuse to provide you with personal information that we hold about you.
- Correction: If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us at admin@couldwelllegal.com.au confirming what information is inaccurate. We will take reasonable steps to correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading or out of date.
- Complaints: If you believe that we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles and wish to make a complaint, please contact us using the details below and provide us with full details of the alleged breach. We will promptly investigate your complaint and respond to you, in writing, setting out the outcome of our investigation and the steps we will take to deal with your complaint.
- Unsubscribe: To unsubscribe from our e-mail database or opt-out of communications (including marketing communications), please contact us at admin@couldwelllegal.com.au or opt-out using the opt-out facilities provided in the communication.
Storage and Security
We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.
We cannot guarantee the security of any information that is transmitted to or by us over the internet. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that the personal information we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.
We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. This includes:
- Password-protected systems and secure cloud platforms
- Internal policies around confidentiality and data access
- Ongoing staff training and accountability
Cookies and Web Beacons
We may use cookies on our Website from time to time. Cookies are text files placed in your computer’s browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information. However, they do allow third parties, such as Google and Facebook, to cause our advertisements to appear on your social media and online media feeds as part of our retargeting campaigns in addition to improving its relevant to our clients and the visitors to our Website. If and when you choose to provide our Website with personal information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.
We may use web beacons on our Website from time to time. Web beacons (also known as Clear GIFs) are small pieces of code placed on a web page to monitor the visitor’s behaviour and collect data about the visitor’s viewing of a web page. For example, web beacons can be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a visitor viewing that page.
Embedded Content From Other Websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Our Website may contain links to other websites. We do not have any control over those websites and we are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any personal information which you provide whilst visiting those websites. Those websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy.
Viruses and Links
We make no representation or warranty that the material on our Website or any link to another website is free from viruses or other defects. We strongly encourage all visitors to our Website to run appropriate virus checks and ensure that an anti-virus software is up to date, especially prior to accessing any downloaded file from our Website.
Information and material contained on our Website may be provided via links to other websites. We make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, authenticity or any other aspect of the information or material on such websites. Unless otherwise state, we do not have any arrangement(s) nor do we endorse or recommend any of the information, goods or services referred to on any of the websites linked to our Website.
How Long We Retain Your Data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our Website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What Rights You Have Over Your Data
If you have an account on this Website, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where We Send Your Data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Our Services and Our Business
Our firm uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to support the delivery of legal services and to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and client value. These tools may assist with routine tasks such as legal research, document analysis, or drafting support.
AI tools are used to assist our legal practitioners; they do not replace professional judgment. All outputs are reviewed and verified by qualified lawyers before being relied on or provided to clients. We use these tools only in contexts where we are competent to assess their capabilities and limitations, and we remain fully responsible for the legal services we deliver.
We do not input personal, sensitive, or identifying client information into AI tools unless that information has been de-identified or we have obtained your informed consent to do so.
Some AI platforms process data on servers located outside Australia, including in the United States. While we apply strict internal safeguards, including de-identification, disabled chat history, and restricted access, we cannot guarantee that overseas service providers (such as OpenAI) will comply with Australian privacy laws in full. For that reason, we avoid entering personal or sensitive information into these tools unless appropriate protections, including client consent, are in place.
We are committed to using AI responsibly, proportionately, and transparently, in line with our professional duties under the Legal Profession Uniform Law (WA)and the Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015, including our obligations to maintain client confidentiality, exercise competence and provide proper supervision.
As AI tools are integrated into our standard workflows, we provide this notice to keep you informed. If you have any questions about our use of AI, or how it relates to your matter, we encourage you to contact us via admin@couldwelllegal.com.au.
Amendments
We may, at any time and at our discretion, vary this Privacy Policy by publishing the amended Privacy Policy on our Website. We recommend you check our Website regularly to ensure you are aware of our current Privacy Policy. The laws of Western Australia apply to this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your information, please contact us via admin@couldwelllegal.com.au.
We take privacy seriously and aim to respond to all queries promptly.
Book your Obligation free 15 minute consultation
At Couldwell Legal we understand that an initial discussion about your situation can often be the best way to start the process, and we’re pleased to offer all new and existing clients an obligation free 15 minute phone consultation for every new matter.
This provides you with an opportunity to provide us with an outline of your situation and clarify the assistance you’re looking for.