This policy explains what personal information Family Law Valuation Co. ("we", "us", "our") collects through this website and in the course of a valuation engagement, why we collect it, how we hold it, who we disclose it to, and how you can access or correct it or make a complaint.
We handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles in Schedule 1 to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Valuation Group Pty Ltd has an annual turnover below $3 million and may qualify for the small business exemption in section 6D of that Act. We nevertheless apply the Australian Privacy Principles as a matter of policy, and this policy describes how we do so.
Who we are
Family Law Valuation Co. and Oliver Group are sister practices of the same company, Valuation Group Pty Ltd (ABN 48 702 469 252), which trades under both names. We provide independent business valuations for separation and property-settlement matters. We are not a law firm.
Questions about this policy can be put to our Privacy Officer, Valuation Group Pty Ltd, 377 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028, by post, by calling 0433 475 518, or through the contact form.
What we collect
Through the confidential enquiry form. Your name, email address and telephone number; your state or territory; whether you are an individual, a lawyer, an accountant or another adviser; the business name, industry and structure; the approximate annual revenue; the ownership percentage being valued; the purpose of the valuation; whether the matter is currently before the Court; whether a single expert has been jointly agreed or ordered; whether both parties are represented; the required completion date; the name of the other party; the name of the other party's solicitor or firm; a brief description of the matter; any documents you choose to attach; and your consent to this policy.
Through the contact form. Your name, email address, telephone number, a preferred time for us to call, and your message. The form also records, where available, how you arrived at the site: the landing page, the referring site, any campaign tags in the link, the advertising click identifier and the time of your first visit (and of your most recent visit from a search engine, an advertisement or another website). Your browser keeps those details on your device until you send the form, and they are sent only to us, with your request, so we can tell which channels produce genuine enquiries.
Through the valuation calculator. The calculator works out its range in your browser. Unless you ask for the breakdown by email, nothing you enter is sent to us, and analytics (described under "Cookies and analytics" below) record only the industry you chose and the basis of the result, never the figures. If you ask for the breakdown by email, we receive your email address, the figures you entered and the range calculated from them, the page you were on, your approximate country and your browser type (user agent), and, where available, how you arrived at the site (the landing page, the referring site, any campaign tags in the link, the advertising click identifier and the time of your first visit). The request is received by valuationgroup.au, the Valuation Group website operated by the same company, and is recorded in our practice management system like an enquiry; Resend, our transactional email provider, sends the breakdown to you. Resend also emails a notice of each request to our practice inbox, on Microsoft 365, with your email address, the page you were on, the figures you entered and the range calculated from them. To limit abuse, a keyed one-way hash of your IP address and of your email address is kept briefly; it is not stored with your request and is deleted after it expires. The website's own copy of the request is deleted automatically after 90 days. The record in our practice management system is kept while we need it to respond to you and to meet our record-keeping obligations, and is deleted on request.
During an engagement. Financial statements, tax returns, management accounts, ownership and constitutional documents, agreements, correspondence and other records of the business and its owners; letters of instruction; statements of facts; court documents; and the contact details of the advisers involved.
Information about other people. The enquiry form asks for the other party's name and their solicitor or firm, and engagement documents will often identify business owners, employees, customers and suppliers. We collect this information from you rather than from those people because it would be unreasonable or impracticable to collect it from them directly, and we use it only for conflict checking and for the engagement. Please give us only what is needed for those purposes.
Sensitive information. The enquiry form does not ask for sensitive information. Please do not include health information, details of family violence, criminal history or other sensitive personal information in the form, in an attachment or in an email before we have completed the initial conflict check. If that kind of information is later relevant to the valuation, we will tell you how to provide it securely. Court documents that you provide during an engagement may contain sensitive information about you or others; we handle it under this policy and disclose it only as the engagement, the Family Law Rules or a court order requires.
Automatically. This website is hosted and protected by Cloudflare, Inc., which records technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you request, for security and to keep the site running. When you submit a form we also apply our own abuse controls: a rate limit keyed to a one-way hash of your IP address rather than the address itself, a hidden field that automated submissions tend to fill in, and a check on how quickly the form was completed.
Why we collect it
We collect and use personal information to:
- complete an initial conflict and suitability assessment before any engagement
- assess the appropriate scope and provide a quotation
- respond to your enquiry and contact you about it
- email you a calculator breakdown you ask for
- perform a valuation engagement and issue the report
- keep records of the parties, businesses and advisers in each matter so that we can check for conflicts in future matters
- comply with our legal and professional obligations, including obligations to a court
- keep the website secure and improve how it works, and understand which enquiries came from our advertising, unless you have opted out
We do not use personal information for direct marketing, and we do not operate a newsletter.
Consent
By submitting a form on this website you consent to us collecting, using and disclosing the information you provide in the way this policy describes. You can withdraw that consent by contacting us; if you do, we may not be able to assess or proceed with your matter.
Submission of a form does not create an engagement, and it does not create an expert engagement. After you submit the enquiry form we review the information, complete an initial conflict and scope assessment, and contact you.
How documents are handled
When you submit the enquiry form, the information and any attachments are transmitted to us by email through Resend, our transactional email provider. They are then held in our email system, Microsoft 365, and in our document systems, for the enquiry or engagement. Documents you send are never published, are never placed in analytics or advertising tools, and are not used for any purpose other than the enquiry, the engagement and conflict checking.
The details you type into the form are also written to a short-term record store operated by Cloudflare, so that an enquiry is not lost if email delivery fails, and so that it appears in the case system Oliver Group uses to manage matters. That record holds the form fields, together with the name and number of any files you attached. It does not hold the files themselves: attachments exist only in the email. Records in that store are deleted automatically 90 days after they are created, and an enquiry that becomes an engagement is kept in our email and document systems under the retention periods below.
Email is not a fully secure channel. If you would prefer to provide documents another way, tell us and we will arrange it.
Storage and security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Information is held in our email system, Microsoft 365, in our document systems and in the Cloudflare services described above. Our measures include encryption in transit and at rest, multifactor authentication, individual user accounts rather than shared logins, access restricted to the people who need it for the matter, prompt revocation of access when it is no longer needed, and regular software and security updates. We require our service providers to protect the information they process for us.
If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual, and we are unable to prevent that risk with remedial action, we will notify the affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the Privacy Act requires.
How long we keep information
We keep personal information for as long as it is needed for the purposes described above and for any period required by law. In particular:
- enquiries that do not proceed to an engagement are kept for 12 months after our last communication with you
- engagement files, including the report and the documents relied on, are kept for seven years after the engagement is completed, or longer where the law, a court order, our insurance requirements or an ongoing dispute requires it
- the names of the parties, businesses and advisers in each enquiry and engagement are kept in our conflict-check records for seven years after our last contact or after the engagement is completed
When information is no longer needed and we are not required to keep it, we take reasonable steps to destroy it or to de-identify it.
Who we disclose information to
We may disclose personal information to:
- Oliver Group, the sister practice operated by the same company, where a matter is handled by that practice or for the purpose of conflict checking across the company's practices
- your own solicitor, accountant, mediator or other adviser, where you authorise us to communicate with them
- the other party and their advisers, where you and the other party have jointly instructed us and the instructions require it
- a court, where disclosure is required by law, by the Family Law Rules or by a court order, including where the appointed expert must file or produce a report
- service providers that host our website, deliver our email, store our documents or support our IT, each bound by confidentiality and permitted to use the information only to provide the service
- our professional advisers and insurers, where necessary
- any person to whom the law requires or authorises disclosure
We do not sell personal information and we do not disclose it for marketing.
Overseas disclosure
Some of our service providers, including Cloudflare, Resend, Microsoft and Google, may store or process information outside Australia. The countries involved are Australia and the United States, and any other country in which those providers operate infrastructure or provide support. Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient we take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient handles it in a way that is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles. By submitting information through this website you acknowledge that it may be processed in that way.
Cookies and analytics
This website uses only the cookies that are necessary for it to work and to protect it from abuse. In addition, Google Analytics and Google Ads conversion measurement load when you arrive, and Google sets its own cookies on your device. We use them to see how the site is used and which enquiries came from our advertising. Until you opt out, Google may also use that data for ad measurement and personalisation under its own policies.
You can opt out at any time through the notice at the foot of the page. Your choice is stored in your own browser rather than sent to us, and you can change it whenever you like.
Analytics never receive the contents of a form, an attachment or an email. What is recorded is that an enquiry was submitted, which of the two services it asked about, the page it came from, and the advertising campaign, if any, that first brought you to the site. If you use the calculator, analytics also record the industry you chose, the basis of the result and whether you asked for the breakdown by email, and a breakdown request is recorded like an enquiry, never with the figures you enter or your email address. Your name, your contact details, what you wrote about your matter and any document you attached are never sent to an analytics or advertising provider.
Access and correction
You may ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you, and you may ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. Contact our Privacy Officer, Valuation Group Pty Ltd, 377 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028, by post, by calling 0433 475 518, or through the contact form. We may need to verify your identity before responding. We will respond within a reasonable time, and if we refuse access or correction in a case where the law allows us to, we will tell you why in writing.
Where a report has been issued, correction of the personal information we hold does not change the report, which records the information relied on as at the date it was issued.
Complaints
If you believe we have handled your personal information in a way that breaches the Australian Privacy Principles, please first contact our Privacy Officer, Valuation Group Pty Ltd, 377 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028, by post, by calling 0433 475 518, or through the contact form. We will acknowledge your complaint, investigate it and respond to you in writing within 30 calendar days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last updated. The version on this website at the time you deal with us applies.
Contact
Privacy Officer, Valuation Group Pty Ltd, 377 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028. Call 0433 475 518 or use the contact form.
Our terms of engagement and disclaimer also apply to your use of this website.