Privacy Policy

1. Privacy Policy

Johnson Winter Slattery (ABN 70 843 523 318) (referred to as “we” and “us”) are an Australian law firm investigating a potential claim against the State of Victoria (“FPS Class Action”), and through our service provider Wilkinson Butler, we operate this website (“Website”).

We have a commitment to respecting your privacy and believe that privacy is an important individual right.

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) applies in relation to personal information collected in the course of investigating and conducting the FPS Class Action and through this Website in particular, and explains how we comply with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“the Privacy Act”). For information on our privacy practices in general please contact us using the contact details below.

This Policy relates to the collection, storage and use of personal information that is covered by the Privacy Act, being information or an opinion relating to an individual, which can be used to identify that individual. This Policy is not intended to cover information that is not protected by the Privacy Act. Information about the Australian Privacy Principles and your privacy rights is available at the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy.

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2. Collecting information about you

In the course of investigating and conducting the FPS Class Action, we may collect information about you, such as:

  • your name, country of origin and contact details (telephone number and email address);
  • information about any property you purchased and/or own in the State of Victoria, Australia, including but not limited to details of any foreign purchaser additional duty and/or absentee owner surcharge land tax that you have paid; and
  • other personal information you may disclose to us when you give us instructions or request a service from us, or which is contained in communications between you and us.

We usually collect personal information directly from you, either in person, in documents, by email or via this Website, or else from publicly available resources. We, or third party service providers engaged by us, may also:

  • collect personal information from you in the administration of this Website including in the context of addressing any queries you may have in relation to the FPS Class Action; and/or
  • ask you for other information (such as further information about your property purchase and ownership history and your payment of surcharges to the Victorian State Revenue Office) in the course of investigating the FPS Class Action and, if proceedings are commenced following our investigation, in acting for the applicant(s) in the FPS Class Action.

If you do not provide us with certain information where requested (or do not update that information), this may limit the services we provide. You may, for example, not receive updates on the class action if you do not provide your email address.

We do not collect sensitive personal information (such as information about your health, religion, or membership of a professional / trade association) unless it is reasonably necessary for us to perform our services and you consent to the collection.

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3. Why we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information

We collect, hold, disclose and use your personal information to:

  • provide our services, including to investigate the FPS Class Action and, if proceedings are commenced following our investigation, to conduct the FPS Class Action and to act as solicitors for the applicant(s) and in the interests of group members in the FPS Class Action;
  • generally communicate with you and respond to your enquiries;
  • if proceedings are commenced following our investigation, to meet our obligations to the applicant(s) and to the court in relation to the FPS Class Action;
  • comply with legal obligations, including in relation to the FPS Class Action;
  • perform administrative tasks related to any of the above; and/or
  • other purposes related to any of the above.

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4. Disclosure of personal information to third parties

We will only disclose your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected, or in the following circumstances:

  • internally to partners and staff of our firm, including of our associated partnerships and entities from time to time;
  • subject to our obligations to clients, to any person where necessary or desirable in connection with the provision of our services in and related to the FPS Class Action, where required for the purposes of progressing the FPS Class Action;
  • to other professional services firms assisting with the FPS Class Action;
  • to external service providers so they can provide us services related to our business in relation to the FPS Class Action, for example, mailing services, administrative services, IT services, website hosting services, data storage or archive services;
  • to barristers and other legal representatives involved in the FPS Class Action;
  • to the funder of the FPS Class Action on a confidential basis;
  • where required, authorised or permitted by law; or
  • where you consent to the disclosure.

We do not disclose any personal information we collect to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to directly market their products and services. We do not sell or trade personal information.

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5. Disclosure of personal information outside Australia

We may disclose your personal information to recipients located overseas including but not limited to recipients located in the United Kingdom, if it is required for us to perform our services. This may include but is not limited to experts briefed in the proceedings and any funders of the FPS Class Action.

Unless we have your consent, or an exception under the Australian Privacy Principles applies, we will only disclose your personal information to overseas recipients where we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the recipients do not breach the relevant Australian Privacy Principles in relation to your personal information.

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6. Accessing and correcting personal information we hold about you

You have a right to access personal information we hold about you on request. There is no fee for making a request to access your personal information, but we may charge a fee for giving you access to your personal information in a mutually agreed format, usually by sighting the accessible information held on file.

While we take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date, you also have a right to ask us to correct information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading. If you notice errors or discrepancies in information we hold about you, or if any of your details change, please let us know as soon as possible so we can maintain the accuracy of your personal information. After receiving a request from you, we will take reasonable steps to correct your information. We will take reasonable steps to notify any relevant third parties of a correction to your personal information where required to do so under the Privacy Act.

To request access to or correction of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details set out below. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period of time depending on the circumstances.

We may decline your request to access or correct your personal information in certain circumstances in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. If we do refuse your request, we will provide you with a reason for our decision and, in the case of a request for correction, we will, on your request, take reasonable steps to include a statement with your personal information about the requested correction.

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7. Holding your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is kept secure and is protected from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Your personal information may be stored in hard copy documents and/or as electronic data in our software or systems. We maintain physical security over our premises and also maintain computer and network security.

We require our employees to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us.

Your personal information may be stored by us on data servers operated by trusted third party service providers located inside Australia or overseas.

The Website does not necessarily use encryption or other technologies to ensure the secure transmission of information via the internet. Users of the Website are encouraged to exercise care in sending personal information via the internet.

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8. Our website and use of cookies

A cookie is a small data file that a website may write to your hard drive when you visit that website. A cookie file can contain information (such as a user ID) that a website can use to track the pages you have visited and your preferences. The only personal information a cookie can contain is information you personally supply. A cookie cannot read data from your hard disk or read cookie files created by other websites.

We may use cookies to track user traffic patterns through our website. You may be able to change the settings of your browser so that cookies are not accepted generally or that you are provided with options to accept or reject them as they are sent to your browser. You might not be able to use the full functionality of the Website by refusing the use of cookies.

Sometimes the Website may contain a link to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content or material contained in, or obtained through, any third party website or for the privacy practices of the third party website. We suggest that you review the privacy policy of each website that you visit.

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9. Spam Act

We comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), which regulates the sending of emails and other commercial electronic messages.

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10. Changes to this Policy

This Policy does not form a contract between an individual and us. We many amend this Policy from time to time, with or without notice to you. Whenever you need to refer to this Policy you should refer to our website – www.fpsclassaction.com.au – or contact us for the most up to date version.

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11. Complaints

If you believe that we have breached a term of this Policy or the Australian Privacy Principles, you may submit a written complaint to the Privacy Officer at the contact details set out below. You must include contact details for us to contact you regarding your complaint. We will consider and respond to any complaints so notified to us within a reasonable period of time in the circumstances, and in any case within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with the way in which we handle your complaint, you may take your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The contact details for the OAIC are available here.

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12. Contacting us

If you have any questions or complaints about how we handle your personal information, or wish to make an access or correction request, you can contact our Privacy Officer on +61 2 8274 9553 during business hours, or in writing via email (privacy@jws.com.au), or at the address below.

Johnson Winter Slattery

c/o: Privacy Officer

Level 14, 50 Bridge Street

SYDNEY  NSW  2000

This Privacy Policy was last updated in December 2023.