Privacy Policy

Last reviewed: November 2024

Solomonic is committed to protecting individuals’ privacy. It takes its responsibilities regarding the security of individuals’ data, its protection and their privacy very seriously. This privacy policy explains what personal data we collect about individuals, how and why we use it, who we disclose it to, and how we protect your privacy.


1. This policy

This policy (and any documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which we process data about individuals including:

  - individuals featured on our legal analysis platform such as judges (“Judges”), solicitors (“Solicitors”), insolvency practitioners (“Insolvency practitioners”), barristers (“Barristers”) and experts (“Experts”);

  - users and potential users of the Solomonic platform (e.g. litigants and their advisers) (“Users”); and

  - anyone else who visits our website (“Website Visitors”).

Solomonic may need to make amendments to this policy from time to time. Any changes to this policy will be posted on the Solomonic website (https://www.solomonic.co.uk).

2. Who is responsible for your data?

References in this Privacy Policy to “Solomonic”, “we”, “us” or “our” mean Solomonic Limited (a company registered in England and Wales with registration no 10872529 and registered office at 24-28 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2SN). We control the ways your personal data are collected and the purposes for which your personal data are used by Solomonic. Solomonic is the “data controller” for the purposes of the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended or replaced), the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “GDPR”), the GDPR as retained in UK law (the “UK GDPR”) and other applicable data protection legislation (together the “Data Protection Legislation”).



3. Personal data we collect about you

When using the term “personal data” in our Privacy Policy, we mean information that relates to you and allows us to identify you, either directly or in combination with other information that we may hold. Your personal data will include, for example, your name and your contact details. If you are a Judge, Solicitor, Insolvency Practitioner, Barrister or Expert it will include other data about you contained in court judgments or in other public sources and processed by us for the purposes set out below.

As an example, if you are a Judge we will collect information such as your name, role, contact details, the judgments you have handed down and feedback you have given on Experts and their evidence in your judgments.

All our data is drawn from public documents and collected on the basis of our legitimate interests, under Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR, to conduct our business by providing a legal data analysis and research tool that presents litigation data for Users (legal professionals and other interested parties). Given that the data we use comes from publicly-available sources, we are confident that our legitimate interests in using personal data in these ways are not overridden by any prejudicial impact on individuals’ rights and freedoms.

Please contact us at info@solomonic.co.uk for the full details of the categories of information that we may collect and process about you.

4. How we collect data about you

We collect data about Judges, Solicitors, Insolvency Practitioners, Barristers and Experts from case transcripts and other public sources such as the www.gov.uk website, BAILII, Westlaw, ce-file, chambers’ websites, law firms’ websites, court pleadings and other news sources.

We collect data from Users and Website Visitors in three ways: (1) the data that you give to us; (2) the data we collect about you using cookies (see below); and (3) the data that we receive/obtain from other sources (e.g. publicly available sources such as LinkedIn).


5. Special categories of data

Solomonic does not collect any “Special Categories of data” that could reveal information such as racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.


6. Disclosure of your personal data

We may disclose your personal data to the following categories of people:

  • in the case of Judges, Solicitors, Insolvency Practitioners, Barristers and Experts – your personal data, as taken from public sources and processed by us, will be shared on our platform and accessible by our Users;

  • tax, audit or other authorities, when we believe in good faith that the law or other regulation requires us to share this data (for example, because of a request by a tax authority or in connection with any anticipated litigation);

  • a third-party who acquires us or substantially all of our assets;

  • third-party service providers who perform functions on our behalf and who are required by law only to use data according to our instructions (including customer relationship management tools, mailing tools such as Mailchimp, professional advisors such as lawyers, auditors, accountants, technical support functions and IT consultants carrying out testing and development work on our business technology systems);

  • industry-standard cloud-based storage providers such as Amazon Web Services and MongoDB that support the function of the Solomonic product; and

  • other third-party providers to support ongoing service provision such as customer relationship management tools and mailing tools such as MailChimp and Mailjet (and who are also required by law only to use data according to our instructions).


7. Transferring your personal data internationally

Solomonic does not store any data outside the UK. 


8. Retaining/Deleting your data

We use the following principles to determine how long to retain personal data.

Judges

We will retain Judges’ data only for as long as it is still being processed by us for the purposes of legal analysis and research. We carry out an annual review of Judges’ personal data to assess what is no longer necessary for these purposes and will delete the same.

Solicitors, Insolvency Practitioners, Barristers and Experts

We will retain data on Solicitors, Insolvency Practitioners, Barristers and Experts only for as long as it is still being processed by us for the purposes of legal analysis and research.  We carry out an annual review of such personal data to assess what is no longer necessary for these purposes and will delete the same.

Users

Once access is no longer required - as confirmed by your organisation - all personal data will be deleted within 90 days, and only anonymised user information will be retained.

Website Visitors

Any personal data on Website Visitors will be kept for a maximum of 1 year. Thereafter, we will only retain and use anonymised data about how our website is used.


9. Security

We will use technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data, for example:

  • all passwords are stored securely using password hashing, to minimise the risk that any passwords are able to be obtained through data breaches.

  • all business documents are stored securely on password protected servers.

  • business processes are in place to deal with any identified data breach at the highest level and with appropriate priority.


10. Cookies, Local Storage and other similar technologies

Use of cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your browser or the hard drive of your computer or onto your electronic device when you access our site.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them below.

Consent

In most cases we will need your consent in order to use cookies on this site. The exception is where the cookie is essential for this website to work.

You will have seen a pop up to this effect on your first visit to this website; although it will not usually appear on subsequent visits. You may withdraw your consent at any time by following the instructions below.

Third-Party cookies

We work with third-party suppliers who may also set cookies on our site.

We have outlined below the individual cookies that are used on www.solomonic.co.uk and why we use them:

_gat; _gid: Google Analytics. These expire after each session. These cookies are set and used by Google Analytics to help us track how our website is used. For example, we can see how many visitors a day we get and which page is the most popular. More information about how Google Analytics uses cookies can be found here. Users can opt out across all websites using Google's opt out tool.

_ga: Google Analytics. This expires after 2 years. These cookies are set and used by Google Analytics to help us track how our website is used. For example, we can see how many visitors a day we get, and which page is the most popular. More information on this cookie can be found here.

In addition to cookies, the Solomonic platform stores preferences when using the site using a local database in browser. This information is stored until the User clears the browser’s history and stored information.

11. Marketing

If you are an existing customer or User, we may contact you by email, phone or post in order to tell you about our product via promotional or marketing messages. We will not send any marketing information from, or on behalf of, any other products or services other than those directly provided by Solomonic.

You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in our marketing communications or changing your notification settings within your Solomonic account.

If you are not an existing customer or user, we may contact you about our product via marketing messages where our service would be of relevance, where you have consented to receiving such messages or otherwise in accordance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. You are able to opt out of receiving marketing communications from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in our automated marketing communications or, otherwise, by directly replying to any messages received.

12. Third-Party Properties

Our platform and website may contain links to and from the online properties of third-parties. If you follow a link to any of these online properties, please note that these online properties have their own privacy policies and that we cannot and do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies or for any personal data that may be collected through these online properties. Please check these policies carefully before you click on any links and/or submit any personal data to these online properties.


13. Your rights

You have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

  • Right to request a copy of your personal data. You can request a copy of your personal data which we hold (this is known as a subject access request).

  • Right to rectification. You can require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data which we hold.

  • Right to restrict processing. In certain circumstances, you may request that we refrain from processing your data in certain ways.

  • Right to erasure. You can ask us to erase your personal data (also known as the “right to be forgotten”) in certain circumstances.

  • Right of data portability. You have the right in certain circumstances to obtain your personal data and store it for personal use or transmit it to another data controller.

  • Right to withdraw consent to marketing. You have the right to object to us processing your personal data for marketing purposes.

If you would like to request any of the above, please contact us at info@solomonic.co.uk. We will comply with the Data Protection Legislation in responding to any such requests.


14. Right to lodge a complaint

If you have any complaints about the way in which we collect, store and use your personal data, you can contact the supervisory authority in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner’s Office: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Of course, it may be more helpful if you raised any concerns with us first to give us the opportunity to resolve your complaint directly. Please contact us at info@solomonic.co.uk if you have such a complaint.

 

Solomonic Legitimate Interest Assessment

Autumn 2024

Part 1: Purpose test

You need to assess whether there is a legitimate interest behind the processing.

  • Why do you want to process the data?

  • What benefit do you expect to get from the processing?

  • Do any third parties benefit from the processing?

  • Are there any wider public benefits to the processing?

  • How important are the benefits that you have identified?

  • What would the impact be if you couldn’t go ahead with the processing?

  • Are you complying with any specific data protection rules that apply to your processing (e.g. profiling requirements, or e-privacy legislation)?

  • Are you complying with other relevant laws?

  • Are you complying with industry guidelines or codes of practice?

  • Are there any other ethical issues with the processing?


Why do you want to process the data?

Solomonic’s business involves the processing of unstructured publicly available litigation documents in order to extract and analyse information, i.e. to take publicly available information about litigation and present it in an analysed and more usable format. As part of this process, we collect data about  the following categories of data subject, namely judges, barristers, solicitors, insolvency practitioners and experts. We do so primarily through the analysis of judgments and other publicly available court documents. These are found through BAILII (https://www.bailii.org/) or HMCTS’s ce-file service (https://efile.cefile-app.com).  All personal data that we process is already in the public domain.

 

What benefit do you expect to get from the processing? 

The benefit we expect to get from the processing is that law firms and other entities with an interest in litigation will utilise our information to help themselves and their clients to make better informed decisions throughout the litigation process. These firms and entities are our customers, and that is the crux of our business.

 

Do any third parties benefit from the processing?

Solomonic believes that its products  provide benefits to law firms, litigants and others involved in the litigation process within the UK – helping them make better informed decisions. That is the premise for Solomonic’s business; if these benefits do not materialise, and are not substantial, then the business will not succeed.

 

In particular, law firms and litigants can benefit from the following:

   - Data and analytics about Judges – understanding how an assigned judge has handled previous cases will assist with structuring arguments in the way which is most helpful or persuasive for that judge, and may also inform the decision whether or not to settle. It also helps reinforce the independence of the judiciary.

  - Data and analytics about barristers – assisting solicitors and litigants to select a suitable barrister for their case by providing information about barristers who have appeared in cases similar to theirs.

  - Data relating to experts – enabling law firms and litigants to select a suitable expert for their case by providing them with information about experts who have the expertise needed for their case and finding out what judges have said about the evidence given by such experts in the past.

Are there any wider public benefits to the processing?

The following wider public benefits are anticipated, and we believe have already begun to materialise:

  I. Enhancing the efficiency of the UK legal system by enabling participants to make better-informed decisions – e.g. as to whether to settle or appeal – more quickly, and cost-effectively.

  II. Helping ensure that the UK retains its status as a world class litigation centre in the post-Brexit era.  This status is under particular threat from the USA where litigation data analytics are highly developed, offering a degree of predictability for US litigants which Solomonic is now making available to UK litigants.

   III.  Making justice in the UK more transparent and thereby strengthening the rule of law in general and public trust in the judiciary in particular.

  IV.  Helping smaller companies and firms to access data about judges, lawyers and experts which would not otherwise be accessible to them in a digestible way.


How important are the benefits that you have identified?

In addition to the vital importance of this processing to Solomonic’s business, strengthening of the rule of law by enhancing public confidence in and the efficiency of the judicial system are in our view very substantial wider benefits. So too is our role in helping maintain the status of UK law post-Brexit which is clearly a vital economic interest for the UK. The importance of these and the other benefits mentioned above is demonstrated by

  I. The £400,000 grant Solomonic received from Innovate UK (Government innovation scheme).

  II. The high praise we received from Innovate UK for the way in which Solomonic –  in partnership with Warwick Business School –  utilised this grant.

  III. The fact that established legal publishers are beginning to dip their toes in the market e.g. The Lawyer magazine, publisher of ‘Litigation Tracker’.

  IV. The fact that Solomonic, a modestly financed start-up with a minuscule marketing spend, has been able to sign up over 70 law firms – including many household names – and a significant number of other entities - as customers.


What would the impact be if you couldn’t go ahead with the processing?

The processing addressed in this LIA is not optional for Solomonic’s business. Processing and analysing litigation data is the essence of Solomonic’s business. Without it we would not have a business and we would have to make all our employees – currently 22 – redundant, and the wider benefits we seek to deliver would not be achieved. If we had to restrict the data we collect or the way in which we present our findings to our customers to any substantial extent, this would have an incremental effect on the attractiveness of our product in the market. The greater the restriction, the more damaging the effect. It is essential that the data on judges is comprehensive, and that the data on barristers, solicitors, insolvency practitioners and experts is very extensive/ near-comprehensive.


Are you complying with any specific data protection rules that apply to your processing (e.g. profiling requirements, or e-privacy legislation)?

No specific data protection rules beyond the general GDPR provisions apply to our processing. While we undertake a measure of non-intrusive profiling using public domain data, we are not doing any profiling within the scope of Article 22 GDPR. The processing activities described above do not engage PECR 2003, nor do they involve any private information that could otherwise engage common law privacy rights.

 

Are you complying with other relevant laws?

Solomonic always seeks to comply fully with all relevant laws.  No concerns arise in relation to rights over private information; all the data we process is in the public domain so no reasonable expectation of privacy can arise. We recognise that the GDPR applies to publicly available information, but for the reasons set out in this LIA we consider that our processing complies with that legislation.

 

Are you complying with industry guidelines or codes of practice?

Solomonic would always seeks to comply with industry guidelines and codes of practice, but there are no specific industry guidelines or codes of practice that govern our activities.

 

Are there any other ethical issues with the processing? 

We are continually considering the extent to which our processing raises ethical issues. We are mindful of a legal and ethical duty not to use even publicly available personal data in ways that are intrusive and contrary to individuals’ reasonable expectations without adequate justification but are comfortable that our process is not intrusive and is compatible with how judges, barristers, solicitors, insolvency practitioners and experts would expect those involved in litigation to use personal data about them.


Part 2: Necessity test

You need to assess whether the processing is necessary for the purpose you have identified.

  • Will this processing actually help you achieve your purpose?

  • Is the processing proportionate to that purpose?

  • Can you achieve the same purpose without the processing?

  • Can you achieve the same purpose by processing less data, or by processing the data in another more obvious or less intrusive way?


Will this processing actually help you achieve your purpose?

This processing of public data is business-critical. It enables us to provide a litigation analysis and research tool for our users (see above). We would be unable to provide it any other way. Since we are solely dealing with information in the public domain, anyone could, in theory, produce the same analysis, though with great effort. We improve the efficiency of our users by saving them the effort.

 

Is the processing proportionate to that purpose?

Solomonic collects very limited categories of personal information. That information is easily publicly available online, with Solomonic adding value by analysis and presentation. The data we collect about individual judges, barristers, solicitors, insolvency practitioners and experts, comprise their first and last names, instances where they are mentioned in a judgment and the subject matter of the evidence that was provided. We are also confident of proportionality given that collection of this sort of data is already an established practice in the UK (viz. The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker) is common globally (particularly in the USA) and in Solomonic’s case has received substantial government funding via Innovate UK. Also relevant to the question of proportionality is that we make direct contact with everyone on our database, explain what we do, provide our privacy notice and consider any concerns any individual may raise (including requests to opt out or have data erased). 

 

Can you achieve the same purpose without the processing?

We would be unable to extract data and produce any form of litigation analytics without processing data, including the personal data. This is an essential part of the data that we are able to extract and provides value to litigation professionals.

 

Can you achieve the same purpose by processing less data, or by processing the data in another more obvious or less intrusive way?

We only retain barristers’ data for as long as it is still being processed by us for the purposes of legal analysis and research. We carry out an annual review of barristers’/solicitors’/ insolvency practitioners’/experts’ personal data to assess what is no longer necessary for these purposes and any unnecessary data is deleted. We generally use retirement as an indicator that the individual’s data is no longer needed for our business purposes. Our privacy policy – which is provided to all data subjects when we contact them to introduce ourselves and tell them that they are on our databases – provides further detail on our approach to retention.


Part 3: Balancing test 

You need to consider the impact on individuals’ interests and rights and freedoms and assess whether this overrides your legitimate interests.


Nature of the personal data

  • Is it special category data or criminal offence data?

  • Is it data which people are likely to consider particularly ‘private’?

  • Are you processing children’s data or data relating to other vulnerable people?

  • Is the data about people in their personal or professional capacity?

 

Is it special category data or criminal offence data?

Solomonic only collects information about individuals in their professional capacity and that information is collected from publicly available sources. Currently, no special category data or criminal offence data is collected and there are no plans to collect such data.

 

Is it data which people are likely to consider particularly ‘private’? 

No – we only collect data that is available through publicly published litigation documents. By definition, this is not private data.

 

Are you processing children’s data or data relating to other vulnerable people?

No information about minors or other vulnerable people is processed.

 

Is the data about people in their personal or professional capacity?

Solomonic processes information about individuals solely in their professional capacity.

 

 Reasonable expectations

  • Do you have an existing relationship with the individual?

  • What’s the nature of the relationship and how have you used data in the past?

  • Did you collect the data directly from the individual? What did you tell them at the time?

  • If you obtained the data from a third party, what did they tell the individuals about reuse by third parties for other purposes and does this cover you?

  • How long ago did you collect the data? Are there any changes in technology or context since then that would affect expectations?

  • Is your intended purpose and method widely understood?

  • Are you intending to do anything new or innovative?

  • Do you have any evidence about expectations – e.g. from market research, focus groups or other forms of consultation?

  • Are there any other factors in the particular circumstances that mean they would or would not expect the processing?

 

Do you have an existing relationship with the individual?

We do not have an existing relationship but in our view this is not a key consideration in view of the fact that everything we process is publicly and freely available online. We inform all individuals where possible (i.e. unless we can find no contact details for them), that their data has been processed.  We attach templates of the emails we send to judges, barristers, solicitors, insolvency practitioners and experts. We also attach our privacy notice. In those circumstances, and in view of the non-intrusive nature of our processing, the lack of a pre-existing relationship with the data subjects carries very limited weight.

 

What’s the nature of the relationship and how have you used data in the past?

N/A

 

Did you collect the data directly from the individual? What did you tell them at the time? 

We do not collect any data from individuals. We collect all data from publicly available documents. We attempt to make contact with all individuals whose data we process.

 

If you obtained the data from a third party, what did they tell the individuals about reuse by third parties for other purposes and does this cover you? 

We collect data from public documents published by HMCTS, available directly or through BAILII. We are not aware of whether HMCTS tells the individuals about reuse by third parties. In our view, however, the data subjects involved (judges, barristers, solicitors, insolvency practitioners and experts) will invariably be aware of those public sources, given how well established they are. In other words, we are using no data sources that could reasonably surprise the data subjects. In addition, all the parties involved will be aware of the rules regarding the making available of information to non-parties in part 5 of the Civil Court Procedure Rules.

 

How long ago did you collect the data? Are there any changes in technology or context since then that would affect expectations? 

We began processing this data in August 2017. The earliest documents currently covered are from 2000. We do not believe there have been any changes in technology or context that would affect expectations.

 

Is your intended purpose and method widely understood? 

The purpose of our product is to provide more structured data and context around litigation in the UK. This is a recent (less than 10 years old) service in the UK market, - though not unique to Solomonic (The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker is using similar data though in a more superficial way than Solomonic) and Solomonic is educating the market on its intended purpose. We are confident that we provide enough information to our data subjects to give them a basic understanding of our intended purpose and method.

 

Are you intending to do anything new or innovative?

The approach and product are innovative within the UK litigation market, although, in various forms, very well-established in the US.

 

Do you have any evidence about expectations – e.g. from market research, focus groups or other forms of consultation? 

We have informed over 5,000  individuals - including High Court judges - about the intended purpose of the processing.  We have had a response rate of much less than 1 per cent.

 

Are there any other factors in the particular circumstances that mean they would or would not expect the processing?

All individuals (judges, barristers, solicitors, insolvency practitioners and experts) are aware that their data is made public through judgments and other court documents and should not be surprised that their data is processed and analysed, particularly given that we use very well-known sources of data about litigation. They will be aware that, in addition to Solomonic and The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker, litigants and their advisers carry out similar research in individual cases of the data points which they consider relevant.

 

Likely impact

  • What are the possible impacts of the processing on people?

  • Will individuals lose any control over the use of their personal data?

  • What is the likelihood and severity of any potential impact?

  • Are some people likely to object to the processing or find it intrusive?

  • Would you be happy to explain the processing to individuals?

  • Can you adopt any safeguards to minimise the impact?

 

What are the possible impacts of the processing on people?

Judges – Their judgments are subjected to a greater degree of scrutiny and users may use Solomonic’s offering to infer certain biases or preferences. None of the judges have suggested that this processing is prejudicial to them or indeed have responded at all to our informing them that their personal data is being used.

Barristers  – Their experience is subject to a greater degree of scrutiny as a result of Solomonic’s business. Everything we produce is from publicly available documents and as explained above helps users identify barristers with relevant court experience.

Experts - They may receive new work as a result of our users noting their expertise, or conversely their ‘competitors’ may receive more business. Judicial responses to their testimony may result in some experts being instructed or not being instructed. But this is all in judgments which are in the public domain and we are simply increasing the productivity of our users by serving up this data in a more accessible and structured format. None of the experts have responded to our informing them that their personal data is being used.  

Solicitors and insolvency practitioners - They may receive new work as a result of our users noting their expertise, or conversely their ‘competitors’ may receive more business. They may also receive more targeted approaches by other legal professionals, such as litigation funders and insurers, regarding claims that they have been instructed in.

 

Will individuals lose any control over the use of their personal data?

All data that we are using is already in the public domain and therefore the individuals have no control over its use. Hence, the question of loss of control does not arise.

 

What is the likelihood and severity of any potential impact?

The likelihood of impact is low and if there were to be any impact it would be minimal as the information is all in the public domain.

 

Are some people likely to object to the processing or find it intrusive?

A very small number of barristers expressed concerns about the ways in which they were presented in the data. We have listened to that feedback and modified our product in a way which we believe addresses those concerns. However, fundamentally, participants in high court litigation are aware of the rules regarding right of public access to court information and this being a right only removed by order of the judge.

 

Would you be happy to explain the processing to individuals? 

We are transparent and up-front about everything we do via our privacy notice and direct communications to data subjects.  We are always happy to explain the processing and methodology behind Solomonic’s use of data.

 

Can you adopt any safeguards to minimise the impact? 

We educate all of our users on how to interpret the information we provide. In addition, as sophisticated professionals, trained to evaluate information, their understanding of the data is generally very high. On top of that they will be regulated by their own professional bodies to maintain that understanding. Finally, we undertake the highest standards of quality control to ensure that the data we publish is as accurate as possible.

 

Can you offer individuals an opt-out?

 For barristers and experts, we consider each objection or erasure request and act accordingly, and so far have generally upheld the small number of such requests which have been received; for judges, comprehensive coverage is particularly important – and the public interest in transparency and visibility is particularly strong –  but we would of course consider the circumstances of any particular opt-out requests.


Making the decision

This is where you use your answers to Parts 1, 2 and 3 to decide whether or not you can apply the legitimate interests basis.

 

Can you rely on legitimate interests for this processing? 

Yes

 

Do you have any comments to justify your answer? (optional)

We rely exclusively on public data. We present the data in a fair and transparent fashion. Our product appeals to a growing number of UK law firms and others with an interest in UK litigation. We can help boost the status of the UK as a global leader in litigation which Innovation UK has recognized by making us a significant grant.


LIA completed by

David Cohen   Director of Solomonic Limited

Date: 1 November 2024.

 

Contacting us

Solomonic’s Data Privacy Officer is Tom Jewkes (Chief Operating Officer).

If you have comments or questions about this privacy policy or our processing of your personal data, please contact:

C/O Chief Operating Officer

Solomonic Ltd

Runway East Bloomsbury

24-28 Bloomsbury Way

London WC1A 2SN

or Email: info@solomonic.co.uk