Privacy policy

Who we are

Middleton Medicolegal Limited (“we”, “us”) provides orthotic expert witness reports and clinical orthotic treatment, trading as Middleton Medicolegal & Associates. We are registered in England and Wales, company number 12039267, with our registered office at 6 Meadow Way, Offley, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG5 3AX.

We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy and are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), registration number ZA544013.

Contact us about anything in this policy by email at middletonmedicolegal@gmail.com, by phone on 07983 535 989, or by post to the address above.

Whose information we hold

• Instructing parties: solicitors, medicolegal agencies and their staff who contact or instruct us.
• Claimants: people who are the subject of an expert report.
• Clinical patients: people we treat, and family members or case managers who contact us for them.
• Website visitors.

What we collect and why

Instructing parties

Names, firm, contact details, correspondence, case references and billing information. We use this to carry out conflict checks, accept and manage instructions, communicate about cases and invoice for our work.

Lawful basis: performance of our contract with you or your organisation, and our legitimate interests in running our business.

Claimants

Identity and contact details, and the information in your medical records, imaging, witness statements and other case papers provided by the instructing party. We also record information gathered at your assessment, which may include your medical history, examination findings and photographs taken with your consent.

We use this only to prepare independent expert evidence for the court and to deal with related questions, joint statements and court attendance.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests, and those of the parties and the court, in the fair resolution of legal claims. Health information is special category data, which we process because it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Clinical patients

Contact details, medical history, assessment findings, treatment records and details of any orthoses provided.

Lawful basis: to provide the care you have asked for, under our contract with you or the organisation funding your treatment. Health information is processed for the purposes of providing health care by, or under the responsibility of, HCPC-registered professionals bound by a duty of confidentiality.

Website visitors

Our website is hosted by Squarespace, which collects technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit, and sets cookies. Some cookies are essential for the site to work. Others, such as analytics cookies, help us understand how the site is used and are only set where you agree or where the law allows. You can manage cookies through the site’s cookie banner or your browser settings.

If you email or call us from the website, we use your details to reply.

Who we share information with

• For expert witness work, the expert’s report and related correspondence are shared with the instructing party, and may be disclosed to other parties in the case and to the court.
• The expert you nominate, who may be a director of the company or an associate orthotist working with us. Each expert is bound by confidentiality.
• Service providers who support our business, including our email, document storage, website hosting and accounting providers. They act on our instructions and may not use the information for their own purposes.
• Our professional advisers and insurers, where needed.
• Regulators, courts or other authorities where we are required to by law.

We never sell personal information or use it for marketing.

Transfers outside the UK

Some of our service providers may store or process information outside the UK. Where they do, we make sure it is protected by UK adequacy regulations or appropriate safeguards, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for, and then for as long as we need to for professional, regulatory, insurance and legal reasons, including the time within which a claim could be brought. After that it is securely deleted or destroyed. On request, we will return or securely destroy case papers provided by instructing parties, although we may keep a copy of our report and file where we need to.

How we keep information secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including password-protected and encrypted systems, restricting access to those who need it, and confidentiality obligations on everyone who handles it.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your information, or to restrict how we use it;
• object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests;
• ask us to transfer information you have given us to another organisation, where this applies;
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

Some rights are limited where information is needed for legal proceedings or we must keep it by law. We will explain if this applies. To use any of these rights, contact us using the details above. We will normally respond within one month.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us first. You can raise a complaint in any way you like, including by email, phone or post. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, and tell you the outcome.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or call 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated.