Data Retention and Secure Upload Notice

This notice explains what happens to the information you send through the enquiry form on this website, what happens to a document if you attach one, who can see it, and how long it is kept. Read it before you send anything.

Before you send anything

• Sending an enquiry, or attaching a document, does not create a lawyer–client relationship. A relationship begins only after conflict, scope, fee and engagement checks are completed and confirmed.
• This website is not an emergency service. If anyone is in immediate danger, contact the competent UAE emergency service or authority.
• Send a short description, not your whole file. In a first enquiry, a few lines about what is happening is more useful than a large set of documents.
• Do not send originals. Send a copy, and keep the original safe.
• Please leave out identity numbers, bank details and other sensitive identifiers unless they are genuinely necessary at this stage.

What the form collects

The enquiry form asks for your name, an email address, a mobile number with country code, and a short description of the matter. You may optionally attach one document. You must tick a consent box confirming you have read this notice and the Privacy Policy and agree that the office may contact you about your enquiry.

The form also records the page you sent the enquiry from, and a one-way technical value derived from your network address which is used only to limit automated abuse. That value cannot be turned back into your address.

What we do with it

Your enquiry is used to consider your request, carry out the necessary conflict and scope checks, and reply to you. It is not used for marketing, it is not sold, and it is not shared with third-party advertising or analytics systems. Enquiry text and document details are deliberately kept out of website analytics, page caches and any third-party marketing tool.

Documents you attach

The upload is deliberately narrow, because a legal practice should not accept arbitrary files from the public internet.

• Accepted formats: PDF, DOC, DOCX, JPG and PNG only.
• Checked three ways. The file extension, the file type reported by the server, and the file’s own internal signature must all agree. A file that claims to be one thing and is actually another is rejected and is not stored.
• One document, up to 10 MB. If you have more, wait until the office tells you how to send it securely.
• Renamed on arrival. The stored file is given a random name. Your original filename is kept only inside the private enquiry record.
• Stored outside the website. Uploaded documents are held in a protected area outside the public part of the server. They have no web address and cannot be reached by guessing a link. Directory listing and script execution are disabled there as a further precaution.
• Never emailed. A notification tells the office that an enquiry has arrived; the document itself is never attached to it. A reviewer must sign in to the website to open it.
• Access is recorded. Each time a document is opened, the website records who opened it and when, against that enquiry.

Who can see your enquiry

Enquiries are stored as private records inside the website. They are not visible to the public and are not published anywhere. Access is limited to authorised administrators of the website acting for the office. Documents can only be opened by an authorised, signed-in administrator through the logged route described above.

How long it is kept

Attached documents are deleted automatically once the retention period expires. The period is currently set to 180 days from the date the enquiry is received, and each automatic deletion is recorded in that enquiry’s log.

If an enquiry becomes a matter the office is engaged on, the documents for that matter are handled under the engagement terms and the professional record-keeping obligations that apply to it, not under this website notice.

Deleting an enquiry record from the website also deletes any document attached to it. Deletion is permanent.

Asking for your information to be removed

You can ask for your enquiry and any attached document to be deleted before the retention period ends. Contact the office by WhatsApp or telephone on +971 50 627 5196, or use the enquiry form, quoting the reference shown when you submitted. We may need to confirm who you are before acting, and we may need to keep a minimal record that a request was made and actioned.

Email and how we reply

A notification of your enquiry is sent to the office’s own address, with a copy to a second office-controlled address. The notification carries your name, contact details, the page you wrote from and your message — never your document. Ordinary email is not a fully secure channel; if you need to send something sensitive, wait for the office to tell you how.

Please treat WhatsApp the same way: use it to make contact, not to send complete case files, identity documents or intimate material.

Keeping this notice honest

This notice describes how the website actually works today. If the upload rules, the retention period, the storage location or the access controls change, this page is updated to match. Where a control is planned but not yet in place, this page says so rather than implying it exists.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or you want to know exactly what is held about you, ask before you send more. Use the enquiry form on any page, or contact the office on +971 50 627 5196.

Who can reach your information, and how that is limited

Access is deliberately narrow, and it is designed so that a mistake is difficult rather than merely discouraged.

• Enquiries are stored as private records inside the website. They are not published, not listed publicly, and not returned by the site’s search or by any public feed.
• Only authorised administrators acting for the office can open them. Ordinary website visitors and lower-privileged accounts cannot.
• An attached document is not stored anywhere a web address could reach. Opening one requires a signed-in administrator, a single-use link generated for that person, and the site records the account and the time.
• The notification email carries your name, contact details, the page you wrote from and your message — never the document. Even a mis-addressed or forwarded notification cannot leak the file.
• Your enquiry text and any document details are kept out of website analytics, page caches and third-party marketing tools by design, not by policy alone.

If something goes wrong

No system is beyond failure, so it is worth saying what happens if one occurs.

1. Contain. The affected route is closed first — the upload feature can be disabled independently of the rest of the site, so enquiries can continue without attachments while a problem is investigated.
2. Establish the facts. The per-enquiry access log shows which records and documents were opened, by which account and when, which is what makes an honest assessment possible rather than guesswork.
3. Notify. Where personal data has or may have been affected, the office follows its obligations under the UAE personal data protection framework and its professional confidentiality duties, and tells the people affected where that is required. We will not stay silent to avoid embarrassment.
4. Remediate and record. The cause is fixed, the fix is recorded, and this notice is updated if the controls it describes have changed.

If you believe your information has been mishandled, tell the office directly on +971 50 627 5196. You can also raise it through the complaints procedure.

Malware scanning: the honest position

Uploaded files are checked structurally — the extension, the type reported by the server and the file’s own internal signature must all agree, script execution is disabled in the storage area, and the file is renamed and placed outside the public part of the server. Those checks stop a file pretending to be something it is not, and stop a stored file being executed.

They are not the same thing as scanning a document’s contents for malware. Whether content scanning is available depends on facilities at the hosting level, and it is not being represented here as active. Reviewers therefore open documents with the same care they would apply to any file received from outside the office. This paragraph will be updated if that position changes.

If your enquiry becomes a matter

This notice governs the website. If the office is engaged on your matter, your documents move into the professional file for that engagement and are handled under the engagement terms and the record-keeping and confidentiality obligations that apply to legal practice — which may require them to be retained for longer than the website’s retention period, and for different reasons.

That is a deliberate distinction. A 180-day website retention period is a sensible default for an enquiry that goes no further; it would be the wrong rule for a live case file.

What we ask of you

• Send a description, not a file set. One document at most in a first enquiry, and only if it genuinely helps.
• Send copies. Never an original, and never your only copy.
• Leave out what is not needed yet. Identity numbers, bank details, medical records and intimate material are rarely necessary to decide whether the office can help.
• Think about the device you are using. If someone else has access to your phone, email or computer, consider whether contacting the office from it is safe, and say so if it is not.
• Do not send anything you are not entitled to have — recordings, messages or documents obtained unlawfully can create problems of their own.

Your rights over your information

Personal data is handled in line with Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 concerning the Protection of Personal Data, which has been in force since 2 January 2022. In practical terms, for information you send through this website, you can ask what is held about you, ask for it to be corrected, and ask for it to be deleted before the retention period ends.

We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request, and we may keep a minimal record that a request was made and actioned. Where the office is engaged on a matter, professional obligations may require some material to be retained; if so, we will say which material and why rather than simply refusing.

Official references

Frequently asked questions

About this notice