Judicial Greffe privacy policy and retention schedule

​The Department is registered as a 'Controller' under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 as we collect and process personal information about you. We process and hold your information in order to provide public services and meet our statutory obligations. This notice explains how we use and share your information. Information may be collected on a paper or online form, by telephone, email, or by a member of our staff, or in some cases, by another States department.

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and feedback from service users, as well as to comply with changes in the law.

What information do we collect about you?

We may collect the following types of information about you:

  • personal contact information (name, address, telephone, email)
  • official records (birth, gender, marriage/partnership status, health, education, social work, other certificates or decision notices)
  • bank account details
  • requirements for special assistance (for instance translation, access to court)
  • submissions to the Court or Tribunal (arguments, expert reports, evidence) which may contain sensitive personal information
  • records of Court or Tribunal decisions
  • sound recordings of hearings (any personal information presented to the Court or Tribunal)

Why do we collect information about you?

We need to collect and hold information about you, in order to:

  • manage your case and schedule hearings
  • confirm your identity and validate your claim
  • manage payments to and from you
  • ensure fair access to your hearing
  • enable the Court or Tribunal to judge your case
  • maintain a record of Court or Tribunal decisions
  • support legal process following the hearing

How will we use the information about you?

We will use the information you provide in a manner that conforms to the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

We will endeavour to keep your information accurate and up to date and not keep it for longer than is necessary. In some instances the law sets the length of time information has to be kept. Please ask to see our retention schedules for more detail about how long we retain your information.

We may not be able to provide you with a service unless we have enough information or your permission to use that information.

We will not pass any personal data on to anyone outside of the States of Jersey, other than those who either process information on our behalf, or because of a legal requirement, and we will only do so, where possible, after we have ensured that sufficient steps have been taken by the recipient to protect your personal data.

We will not disclose any information that you provide 'in confidence', to anyone else without your permission, except in the few situations where disclosure is required by law, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put someone else at risk. You will be told about this unless there are exceptional reasons not to do so.

We do not process your information overseas using web services that are hosted outside the European Economic Area. 

Data sharing

We may need to pass your information to other States of Jersey (SOJ) departments or organisations, including parties to your case, experts and providers of specialist services such as video links or transcriptions, to fulfil your request for a service. These departments and organisations are obliged to keep your details securely, and only use your information for the purposes of processing your service request. 

We may disclose information to other departments where it is necessary, either to comply with a legal obligation, or where permitted under other legislation. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: where the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of the prevention and/or detection of crime; for the purposes of meeting statutory obligations; or to prevent risk of harm to an individual, etc.

At no time will your information be passed to organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior express consent.

Publication of your information

We may need to publish your information in a publicly available Register at our offices, on our website and/or in the Jersey Gazette for the following reasons:

Where we are required by law to publicise certain information, for example the Table of cases set down for hearing, the Public Registry, Register of Managers of licensed premises, Registers of professionals, Planning Appeal documents on the Planning Register website

In the interests of demonstrating a fair and transparent decision making process, for example by publishing judgments on the Jersey Legal Information Board website – www.jerseylaw.je  Note that where the Court decides it is necessary judgments will be anonymised for publication

We will not publish any of your sensitive personal information unless there is a requirement for us to do so in order to carry out our statutory functions. For example display in the vicinity of the Royal Court of the undefended and defended lists of Matrimonial causes.

Emails

If you email us we may keep a record of your email address and a copy of the email for record keeping purposes.

For security reasons we will not send your sensitive personal information via email unless it is securely encrypted. We would also suggest that you keep the amount of confidential information you send to us via email to a minimum or use our secure online services where possible or correspond with us by post.

We will not share your email address or your email contents unless is it necessary for us to do so; either to fulfil your request for a service; to comply with a legal obligation, or where permitted under other legislation.

Please note that the Judicial Greffe, as part of its legal obligations, will share any information it receives relating to a particular case with all parties to that case.

Telephone calls

We do not record or monitor any telephone calls you make to us using recording equipment, although if you leave a message on our voicemail systems your message will be kept until we are able to return your call or make a note of your message.   File notes of when and why you called may be taken for record keeping purposes.  We will not pass on the content of your telephone calls, unless is it necessary for us to do so; either to fulfil your request for a service; to comply with a legal obligation, or where permitted under other legislation.

Please note that the Judicial Greffe, as part of its legal obligations, will share any information it receives relating to a particular case with all parties to that case.

Your rights

You can ask us to stop processing your information

You have the right to request that we stop processing your personal data in relation to any of our services except where the processing is for a law enforcement purpose. However, this may cause delays or prevent us delivering a service to you. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request but we may be required to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement.

You can withdraw your consent to the processing of your information

In the few instances when you have given your consent to process your information, you have the right to withdraw your consent to the further processing of your personal data.  However, this may cause delays or prevent us delivering a service to you. We will always seek to comply with your request but we may be required to hold or process your information in order to comply with a legal requirement.

You can ask us to correct or amend your information

You have the right to challenge the accuracy of the information we hold about you and request that it is corrected where necessary. We will seek to ensure that corrections are made not only to the data that we hold but also any data held by other organisations/parties that process data on our behalf.

You can request that the processing of your personal data is restricted

You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.  You can exercise this right in instances where you believe the information being processed in inaccurate, out of date, or there are no legitimate grounds for the processing. We will always seek to comply with your request but we may be required to continue to process your information in order to comply with a legal requirement.

You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you

You are legally entitled to request a list of, or a copy of any information that we hold about you. You can submit a subject access request (SAR) using our online form

However where our records are not held in a way that easily identifies you, for example a land registry, we may not be able to provide you with a copy of your information, although we will do everything we can to comply with your request.

Complaints

If you have an enquiry or concern regarding the States of Jersey processing your personal data you can:

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner about the way your information is being used: