Privacy Policy

Photo_Brussels

The law firm VANDERVEEREN, THYS & DE NYS values ​​the protection of your personal data, both for the use of its website and when the lawyers of our firm give you legal advice or assist you before the courts and tribunals.

The lawyers of our firm therefore undertake, by means of this Charter for the Protection of Personal Data (hereinafter the ‘Charter’), and by implementing technical and organizational measures, your rights in the field of the protection of personal data, as laid down in the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter the ‘GDPR’) and by the Belgian law on the protection of personal data of 30 July 2018.

The purpose of this Charter is to provide you with precise information on how your personal data collected through this site or directly from the company is processed and stored.

Article 1 – Data controller

In the context of consulting a lawyer who works within the VANDERVEREN, THYS & DE NYS office, you only provide your personal data to the lawyer you have
chosen.

The office is a cost association, and each lawyer is individually responsible for his clients and, a fortiori, for the latter’s personal data.

Each lawyer is therefore responsible for the data processing that is strictly necessary to provide the service requested by his client.

Depending on the service requested (and the matter in which you need legal assistance), the data controller is:

You can contact the person responsible for the processing of your personal data by e-mail at the above addresses or at the following postal address, so the recipient is the lawyer you have chosen.

Postal adress : Rue des Minimes, 41 – 1000 Bruxelles

Article 2 – Type of data collected

The information likely to be collected in order to provide you with helpful advice or
to assist you in legal proceedings could be the following:

  • Courtesy ;
  • Name ;
  • First name ;
  • Address ;
  • E-mail address ;
  • Landline number / mobile number;
  • Date of birth ;
  • Birthplace ;
  • Sex;
  • Age ;
  • National Insurance number ;
  • Reason for the legal appointment ;
  • Frequency of appointments ;
  • Bank details ;
  • Information relating to the insurance company ;
  • Data related to the reciprocal;
  • Professional information (profession, diplomas, ) ;
  • Personal information (life course, family,) ;
  • Information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, your political views, your religious or philosophical beliefs ;
  • Health data ;
  • Data showing your sexual orientation ;
  • Data relating to criminal convictions and offences ;
  • Criminal record ;
  • Other data necessary for the pursuit of the purposes defined in Article 4 of this Charter.

Article 3 – Legal bases for processing

As data controllers, the individual lawyers of the association VANDEVEEREN, THYS & DE NYS (hereinafter the ‘lawyers’) process your ordinary personal data (excluding, for example, health data), on the basis of Article 6.1, b) of the GDPR. The processing is necessary for the performance of an agreement that you conclude with the chosen lawyer (so that they can advise you legally or assist you in court). Lawyers also rely on Article 6.1, a) of the GDPR, i.e. the consent of the data subject provided that the ad hoc consent form has been duly completed and signed by the client.

With regard to sensitive data (data concerning your race or ethnic origin, data concerning your political opinions, your religious or philosophical beliefs, data concerning your trade union membership, health data, data concerning your sex life or sexual orientation and data related to criminal convictions or offences), the lawyers process your data on the basis of Article 9.2, f) of the GDPR (the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of a right in law or when courts intervene in the within their jurisdiction).

Lawyers also rely on Article 9.2, a) of the GDPR, i.e. the consent of the data subject, provided that the ad hoc consent form has been duly completed and signed by the client.

Article 4 – Purposes of processing

The lawyer you have chosen must define the intended use of the data he/she collects so that the client knows how his/her data will be used. This intended use of the collected data targets the purposes of the processing. In the context of your relationship with your lawyer, the purpose of collecting your personal data is to enable your lawyer to provide you with the requested legal advice and/or to assist you in court.

The sub-goals are as follows:

  • Management of agreements with the lawyer;
  • Creating and managing your file;
  • The management of your administrative file for the sake of the organization (diary, accounting, invoicing, etc.).

Article 5 – Recipients of data

The personal data collected are processed by the office and by the lawyer with whom you have an appointment.

The office staff can access your file and your contact details, within the limits of what is strictly necessary to provide you with legal advice or to assist you in court.

The members of the office’s administrative staff must also have access to certain information that is essential to respond to your request. All members of the office undertake to respect the laws and regulations regarding the protection of personal data and are either bound by their professional secrecy or by a duty of confidentiality.

Article 6 – Your rights as a customer

You have certain rights in connection with the collection of your personal data:

  • Right of access: you have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you;
  • Right to rectification: you have the right to request that your personal data be amended if it is incomplete or inaccurate;
  • Right to erasure: you have the right to request that we delete the personal data we hold about you, for example when it is no longer needed or when it is being processed unlawfully.

However, this right is limited to comply with legal or regulatory retention obligations to which we are subject;

  • Right to restriction of processing: you can ask us to restrict the use of your personal data;
  • Right to object: you can object to the processing of your personal data for legitimate reasons. In that case, we will no longer process your personal data, unless a legitimate or compelling interest prevents us from exercising this right to object;
  • Right to portability: You can request to receive the personal data you provide to us in a structured format for personal use or ask us to transfer it to another lawyer. You must send us a written request, either by e-mail or by post, to the addresses mentioned in Article Your request must be clear and specify what you wish to obtain. To protect your privacy and your personal data, we may need to verify your identity by asking you for a copy of your identity card or a document proving your identity. We are obliged to respond to your request within one month of receipt. If your request is complex or if we receive many similar requests at the same time, we may write to inform you that our response-delay has been extended to two months. If your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, we reserve the right to require you to pay an administration fee in order to comply. If we reject your request, our decision to refuse will be motivated.

Article 7 – Duration of data retention

The office will only keep your personal data for the reasonable and strictly necessary time to achieve the purposes defined in Article 4 of this Charter.

However, we must comply with legal and regulatory provisions regarding archiving.

For example, we must keep the files of our clients for 5 years, after the last act or treatment that was carried out.

Article 8 – Cookies

We use cookies on our website.

Cookies are files that are stored on your computer when you browse the Internet.
They collect and store data for a later connection and ensure a more efficient operation of the website.

The company uses cookies in various ways to improve your user experience of our website.

Functional cookies: The company uses these cookies to remember your previously selected preferences.
These can be the language you prefer and the location where you are.

Other cookies: the company uses other cookies.
You can configure your browser to accept or reject all or some cookies via the banner that appears when you arrive at the website.

Therefore, in some cases, certain functions of our website may not work.

Because every browser is different, the configuration of cookies may depend on this.

It is therefore advisable to read the help that your browser provides. The company website uses the “Complianz” plugin, an AVG/CCPA cookie consent extension, which supports AVG, ePrivacy, DSGVO, LGPD, POPIA, APA, AVG, CCPA and PIPEDA, with conditional notification cookies and a personalized cookie policy based on the results of their integrated analysis.

Article 9 – Data security

The lawyers take appropriate technical and organizational measures to guarantee a high level of security for the processing of your personal data.

The lawyers make every effort to protect your personal data, taking into account the nature of this data and the risk they pose to your privacy. The attorneys have installed appropriate security tools to protect your data and prevent the loss or alteration of data collected through the firm’s site or directly from you.

If a breach of the personal data collected by the lawyers occurs, they will act immediately to identify the cause of the breach and take all appropriate measures. You will be notified of this data breach, within the limits set out in the GDPR.

Article 10 – Privacy policy of other websites

The company’s website contains links to other websites.

Our Charter only applies to our website. Therefore, if you click on a link to another site, you should read its privacy policy.

The office is in no way responsible for the information on these other websites, nor for the data processing that takes place there.

Article 11 – Modification of the Charter

The office reserves the right to periodically review this Charter to reflect changes, amendments and legislative developments related to the protection of personal data.

We will post updates on our website.

Article 12 – Claim and complaint

If you wish to make a complaint about the way your personal data is processed, you can contact the concerned lawyer at the following email address:

If you are not satisfied with the way your data is processed, you can also submit a complaint to the Belgian Data Protection Authority (AP):

Either by post to the attention of the Data Protection Authority, Persstraat 35, 1000 Brussels

Or via the following link: https://www.autoriteprotectiondonnees.be/citoyen/agir/introduce-une-plainte.

You can also file a complaint with the competent national courts.

Article 13 – Contact

If you have any questions about our policies, the information we hold about you, or if you would like to exercise any of your data protection rights, please feel free to contact us.

Write to us :

You an also call us on : 02 340 71 20 ;

Or write to us : Rue des Minimes, 41 – 1000 Bruxelles.

This version of the Charter dates from 07/02/2022.