You may be sharing very personal information with us, often at a difficult time. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, and the rights you have. It applies to our legal practice and to our website, schleigerlegal.com.au.

In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Melanie Schleiger Legal (ABN: 91 317 174 045), a Victorian law practice.

1. The rules we follow

• Confidentiality. As lawyers, we owe you a duty of confidentiality under the Legal Profession Uniform Law (Vic) and the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules. We keep your information confidential even if we don’t end up acting for you, unless you consent or the law requires or allows us to disclose it.

• Health information. We handle health information in line with the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).

• Privacy Act. We are also mindful of the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as a matter of good practice.

2. What information we collect

Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:

• your contact details, such as your name, email address, phone number and address;

• information about your situation, such as what happened, where you work, who was involved, key dates and any documents you give us;

• sensitive information - where it is relevant to your matter - which can include health information (including mental health, disability, pregnancy and medical certificates), information about sex life, sexual orientation or gender identity, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, union membership, or criminal record;

• information we need to run your matter, such as billing and payment details and records of our communications with you;

• information about other people that you give us, such as an employer, colleague or witness;

• technical information when you use our website, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit (see section 9); and

• a record of your consent, if you subscribe to our updates.

We try to collect only what we need. When you first contact us through the website, please give only a brief description of your issue and don’t send sensitive documents until we have spoken.

3. How we collect it

Mostly directly from you: through our contact form, email, phone calls, meetings and the documents you give us. With your permission, or where it is needed for your matter and the law allows, we may also collect information from others, such as an employer or organisation, a health practitioner, a regulator, a court or tribunal, or other lawyers.

If you give us information about someone else, we will use it only to advise and act for you.

We can’t provide you with legal services or advise on your matter unless we know who you are. This information is necessary for us to check for conflicts of interest and comply with other professional obligations.

4. Why we collect and use it

We use your information to:

• respond to your enquiry and check whether we can act for you, including checking for conflicts of interest;

• give you legal advice and represent you;

• manage our practice, including billing, insurance, record-keeping and audits;

• meet our legal and professional obligations;

• send you updates or articles, but only if you have subscribed; and

• maintain and improve our website.

We use your information only for these purposes (or directly related purposes you would reasonably expect), with your consent, or where the law requires or allows. We don’t sell your information and we don’t give it to marketers.

4.1 Updates from us

If you subscribe, we use your name and email address to send you updates and articles about sexual harassment and discrimination law. We keep a record of when and how you subscribed. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link or instructions in each email, and we will stop within five business days. We then keep your email address on a do-not-contact list so we don’t email you again. We don’t sell or share our mailing list, other than with the service providers we use to send emails.

5. Who we share it with

We share your information only when needed. For your matter, we generally do so only as you instruct or consent. Depending on your matter, this may include:

• courts, tribunals and complaint bodies, such as the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Fair Work Commission;

• the other side in a dispute and their lawyers. Complaints and court documents are usually shared with the other party or parties involved, and some court material is public;

• barristers, experts, mediators, interpreters and others we engage to help with your matter;

• service providers that help us run the practice, such as IT, cloud storage, email, website and payment providers, accountants and auditors, and our insurers; and

• regulators of the legal profession, such as the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, and others where the law requires or allows.

We choose providers whose terms include confidentiality and security obligations.

If we close or can’t continue to practice, your file may be transferred to another lawyer or held by a person appointed under the law (for example, by the Victorian Legal Services Board), and will be handled in line with the law. Wherever possible and practicable, we will first notify you and seek your consent.

6. Cloud services and storage outside Victoria

We use online services to run our practice, including Squarespace (our website and contact form), Google Workspace (email, calendar and file storage) and Google reCAPTCHA, which protects our contact form from spam. Some of these providers store or process information outside Victoria, including overseas, for example in the United States.

We take reasonable steps to make sure our providers protect your information. We send health information outside Victoria only where the Health Records Act allows it, for example with your consent or where the recipient is bound by comparable privacy protections.

7. Keeping your information safe

We protect your information with password-protected and access-restricted systems and secure cloud storage, and we keep paper files in a locked location. No method of sending information over the internet is completely secure. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you as soon as practicable.

Artificial intelligence. We do not enter your personal information into public AI tools. If we use AI tools in our work, we use only tools with appropriate confidentiality and security protections, and a lawyer always checks the output.

Contacting us safely. If you still work for the organisation you are concerned about, please use a personal email address and phone rather than work devices or accounts, because your employer may be able to see them. Please tell us if it isn’t safe or private to contact you by email, phone, text or voicemail, and how we should contact you instead.

8. How long we keep your information

• we act for you: we keep your file for at least seven years after the matter ends (longer if the law requires, or if you were a child at the time), then securely destroy or de-identify it.

• If we don’t act for you: we keep your enquiry for 12 months, then securely delete it. We may keep your name and the names of the other people involved so we can check for conflicts of interest.

• Website data: we keep this for a limited time in line with our analytics settings.

• Contact form: copies held on our website platform are deleted within 12 months.

9. Our website, contact form, cookies and links

Our website is hosted by Squarespace and uses cookies and similar technologies to make the site work and to understand how it is used, including through Squarespace Analytics and Google Analytics. We use this information to understand how the site is used, not to identify you personally. We don’t use cookies to track you across other websites or to show you ads. You can choose to block cookies in your browser settings, although some parts of the site may not work as intended.

Our website contact form is also hosted by Squarespace and uses Google reCAPTCHA to block spam, and submissions are sent to our Google email. These providers may store information outside Australia.

Our website may link to other websites (for example in the Resources and Publications sections). If you follow a link to another website that site’s privacy policy applies, not ours, so please check their policies.

10. Access and correction

You can ask us for access to the personal and health information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it if it is wrong. Please contact us using the details below. We will need to confirm your identity first, and we aim to respond within 30 days. In some cases we may not be able to give you access to everything, for example where it would affect another person’s privacy or safety, or the law doesn’t allow it. If so, we will explain why.

11. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your information, please tell us using the details below. We want to hear from you and will look into your concern and aim to respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can contact:

• the Health Complaints Commissioner (Victoria), about health information: hcc.vic.gov.au;

• the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, where the Privacy Act applies: oaic.gov.au; or

• the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, about our conduct as lawyers: lsbc.vic.gov.au.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always on our website, with the date at the top.

Contact us

Email: contact@schleigerlegal.com.au  

Last updated: 11 November 2026