Privacy & Cookie Policy

Pearl Experts ("we", "us", "our") provides expert witness services and court reports to the legal profession. We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. You can contact us about anything in this policy at enquiries@pearlexperts.co.uk or by post at 282 Wigman Road, Nottingham, NG8 4AA.

We collect personal data in three main situations:

• Enquiries. When you use our enquiry forms, email us or otherwise contact us, we collect your name, contact details, your firm or organisation, and the information you give us about your case. Website enquiry submissions are stored in a restricted database, and we retain an irreversible hash of the submitting network address for abuse prevention.
• Instructions. When you instruct an expert through us, we receive the case papers needed for the expert to prepare their report. These may contain personal data about parties to the proceedings, including medical records and other sensitive material.
• Panel applications. When professionals apply to join our panel, we collect their CV, qualifications, registration details, insurance evidence and sample work.

We use personal data to:

• respond to enquiries and provide quotations (legitimate interests);
• deliver instructed work, including matching an expert, arranging assessments and producing reports (performance of a contract, and legitimate interests);
• meet our legal and regulatory obligations, including record-keeping and tax law (legal obligation);
• administer our panel of experts (legitimate interests and contract).

We do not use personal data for marketing without consent, and we do not sell personal data to anyone.

Case papers often include special category data, such as health information, and data about criminal convictions and offences. We process this material only so far as necessary for the expert's report and the related legal proceedings. Our lawful bases are Article 9(2)(f) UK GDPR (establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims) together with the relevant conditions in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018. Case papers are shared only with the instructed expert and handled through an encrypted, secure file-transfer platform.

• the expert instructed on your case, for the purpose of the report;
• the instructing party and, where required, the court or tribunal;
• service providers who support our business, such as secure file transfer, email and accounting providers, under appropriate contracts;
• professional advisers, insurers, regulators or authorities where the law requires it.

We keep personal data in the United Kingdom wherever possible. If any provider processes data outside the UK, we ensure an adequate level of protection through recognised safeguards.

Enquiry data is kept for up to two years from our last contact. Case files are retained for as long as needed for the proceedings and any applicable limitation periods, then securely deleted. Financial records are kept for six years as required by law. Panel application data is kept while an expert remains on the panel and for a reasonable period afterwards.

We use encrypted file transfer for case material, restrict access to those who need it, and keep systems protected and up to date. No internet transmission is completely secure, but we take proportionate technical and organisational measures to protect the data we hold.

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• have inaccurate data corrected;
• have data erased where there is no good reason to keep it;
• object to or restrict processing in certain circumstances;
• data portability where processing is based on consent or contract;
• withdraw consent at any time where consent is our lawful basis.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at enquiries@pearlexperts.co.uk. We respond within one month.

This website sets no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. The only storage we use is strictly necessary for the site to function: your browser's local storage remembers that you have dismissed our cookie notice, and our hosting provider may set essential cookies needed to serve the site securely. Because these are strictly necessary, UK law does not require your consent for them. If we ever introduce analytics or marketing cookies, we will ask for your consent first.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last revised, and significant changes will be highlighted on this page.