clever legalClaims & Compensation
Legal

Privacy Policy

How we collect, use, hold, disclose and protect your personal information — and how you can access it, correct it or make a complaint.

1. About this policy

This policy explains how Clever Legal collects, uses, holds, discloses and protects your personal information throughout our relationship — from your first visit to this website, through any enquiry you send us, to the legal matter we handle for you if we act. It applies whether you are a website visitor, a prospective client, or a client we are currently acting for.

It covers both of our practices, which are the same legal entity: our claims and compensation practice at cleverlegal.com.au, and Clever Legal Counsel, our commercial and startup practice at counsel.cleverlegal.com.au. Where something applies to only one of them, we say so.

Clever Legal is committed to handling your personal information openly and transparently, in line with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Because we are a Victorian legal practice that handles health information, we also have regard to the Health Privacy Principles (HPPs) under the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).

We have chosen to apply the APPs in full to how we handle your information. We also owe you a separate, and stricter, professional duty of confidentiality as lawyers. Where that duty is more protective than this policy, the duty applies.

2. Who we are

Clever Legal is the trading name of Witty Claims Pty Ltd, ACN 698 100 953, ABN 50 698 100 953, an incorporated legal practice in Victoria, Australia.

Clever Legal Counsel is our commercial and startup practice. It is not a separate company — it is the same legal entity, the same regulated practice, and is covered by this same policy.

We are regulated by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner (VLSB+C).

Liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

How to contact us about privacy

3. What personal information we collect

At enquiry and intake

Through our "Start your free assessment" intake form, you may give us:

  • Contact details — such as your name, email address and phone number.
  • A description of your matter — the information you choose to tell us about your situation so we can assess whether we may be able to help.
  • Any documents you choose to upload — for example correspondence or records you attach to your enquiry.

Through Clever Legal Counsel (commercial and startup work)

On counsel.cleverlegal.com.au you can build an indicative scope by selecting from our published fixed-fee services. If you do, you may give us:

  • Contact and business details — such as your name, role, company name, co-founders, website and stage.
  • Your scope — which services you selected, and any notes you write against them or against a section.
  • What you type to our scoping assistant — if you use it. It is there to explain what our published services cover and to add or remove items from your scope.

Building a scope does not send us anything. Your selections and notes stay in your browser. Nothing reaches us until you choose to send your scope or email us.

Please do not send us confidential information, or anyone else's personal information, before we have confirmed we can act for you and issued engagement terms. Until then we may not be able to treat it as confidential, and it may create a conflict that prevents us acting.

Once you become a client

If we confirm we can act for you and a costs agreement is entered into, we will also collect — directly from you and, with your authority, from third parties such as medical providers, hospitals, government agencies and insurers:

  • Health and medical records — clinical notes, diagnoses, treatment history, imaging, and reports from treating practitioners and independent medical examiners. This may include mental health information where relevant to your claim.
  • Identity documents and government-related information — date of birth, residential address, and, where required to manage your matter, government identifiers such as your Medicare number, Tax File Number, Centrelink or DVA reference number, driver's licence or passport details. We collect government identifiers only to the extent permitted by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and applicable legislation.
  • Employment and financial information — where relevant to your claim, for example evidence of income loss or superannuation entitlements.
  • Legal and claims history — prior claims, compensation previously received, or litigation history relevant to your matter.
  • Information about third parties — information about witnesses, opposing parties or others involved in your claim, to the extent reasonably necessary to advise on and conduct your matter.

You are not obliged to provide information to us, but if you do not provide what we reasonably need we may not be able to act for you or progress your matter.

Sensitive and health information

Some of what you tell us, or we obtain on your authority, will be sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) — including health information, which is also protected under the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). Because we are a medical-negligence practice, the information you share with us will often include health information about you.

We collect sensitive and health information only with your consent and only where it is reasonably necessary. At first contact, you consent to us collecting the health information you choose to include in your enquiry by choosing to provide it. If you become a client, a broader consent and authority to collect and use your records is set out in your costs agreement.

Please share only what is needed at first-contact stage. You do not need to send your full medical history or highly sensitive documents to make an enquiry. If we confirm we can act for you, there will be a more secure and appropriate way to provide further detail.

Information we collect automatically

To keep the website secure, we use Cloudflare Turnstile, a tool that helps us tell real people apart from automated bots. It may process limited technical signals from your browser.

We do not use advertising or analytics cookies that identify you.

4. How our forms work — and what we do not store

Both our websites are built to store as little as possible. When you submit the claims intake form:

  1. Your submission, including any uploaded files, is sent to the firm by email so we can read and respond to it.
  2. The website itself does not keep a copy. There is no database, and uploaded files are not retained on the website's platform after they have been relayed to us.
  3. The only lasting copy of your submission lives in the firm's own, controlled mailbox.

This means the website is not a place where your information sits and builds up over time. Once you have sent us your enquiry, it is held by the firm, not by the website.

The Clever Legal Counsel scope builder works the same way, with one difference you should know about. Your selections and notes are held only in your browser while you work, and are sent to us only when you choose to submit them or email them — at which point they are relayed to our mailbox and the website keeps no copy.

The difference is our scoping assistant. If you use it, what you type is sent to an AI service to generate a reply. That service processes your message to produce the response and does not retain it as a record for us; we do not keep a copy of the conversation on the website, and it is not stored in any database. See sections 7 and 9 for who that provider is, where the processing happens, and what the assistant is and is not allowed to do.

5. Why we collect and use your information

We collect and use your personal information to:

  • respond to your enquiry and communicate with you about it;
  • assess whether we may be able to assist you, and on what basis;
  • carry out the checks we are required or expected to do before acting (for example, identifying any conflict of interest or verifying your identity);
  • if you become a client: advise on and manage your legal matter, including obtaining records, engaging experts or barristers, negotiating with opposing parties, and, where necessary, conducting litigation;
  • arrange or administer litigation funding or disbursement funding where relevant to your matter;
  • process payments and settlement proceeds in accordance with your costs agreement; and
  • meet our legal and professional obligations.

We will not use your information for an unrelated purpose without your consent, unless the law requires or permits it. We do not use your enquiry to add you to a marketing list.

6. Who we disclose your information to

We treat your information as confidential. We may disclose it to:

  • Our email-delivery provider (Resend) — the service that transmits your intake submission from the website to our mailbox. We use this provider only to deliver your submission to us.
  • Our AI infrastructure provider (Cloudflare) — if you use the scoping assistant on Clever Legal Counsel, what you type is processed by Cloudflare Workers AI to generate the reply. Cloudflare also serves and secures both websites. We use this provider only to run the assistant and deliver the sites.
  • People you would expect to be involved in your matter — for example a barrister, specialist firm, independent medical examiner, or litigation funder we may engage, but only as appropriate and consistent with our duties to you.
  • Courts, tribunals, and government agencies — where necessary to conduct or resolve your claim, including courts (where information may become part of the public record), and agencies such as Medicare, the ATO, Centrelink or state workers' compensation authorities where relevant to third-party repayments.
  • Opposing parties and their representatives — to the extent necessary to progress or resolve your claim, including insurers and their lawyers.
  • Technology and infrastructure providers — we use cloud infrastructure and AI tools in running our practice; see sections 7 and 9 below.
  • Others where the law requires or permits it — for example to comply with a court order or a legal obligation.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it for marketing.

7. Sending information overseas (data residency)

Website phase: We use Resend to deliver your intake submission from the website to our mailbox. Resend processes information outside Australia (in the United States and/or the European Union). The website is served through Cloudflare's global network, which may process limited technical request data outside Australia in the course of delivering and securing the site.

The scoping assistant (Clever Legal Counsel): if you use it, what you type is processed by Cloudflare Workers AI. Cloudflare runs this on its global network and we are not able to guarantee that the processing happens in Australia — it may occur overseas. We tell you this plainly rather than imply a residency we do not control. If that matters to you, do not use the assistant: the scope builder works fully without it, and you can always simply email us instead.

Client matters: Our practice uses cloud infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services (United States) and AI tools provided by Anthropic, Inc. (United States). These providers process information on our behalf under contractual data-processing obligations and do not use your information for their own purposes. Your information is not used to train third-party AI models.

In all cases, we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas providers handle your information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles. However, once information is disclosed overseas, we cannot guarantee that foreign privacy laws provide equivalent protections to Australian law.

8. How we protect your information

Protecting your information is central to how the website is built. Our measures include:

  • Encryption in transit — your connection to the website is encrypted (TLS).
  • No on-platform storage — the website does not retain submissions or uploads, so there is no store of data on the platform to be exposed.
  • Input and file checks — submissions are validated, and uploaded files are checked against an allow-list of permitted types (including a check of the file's actual content, not just its name) and limited in size and number.
  • Bot protection — Cloudflare Turnstile helps prevent automated abuse.
  • Strict security controls at the website edge, and tightly controlled access to the firm's mailbox.

No method of transmitting or holding information is completely secure. We take reasonable steps to protect your information, but we cannot guarantee absolute security.

If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will act in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which may include notifying you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

9. Artificial intelligence and automated processing

Assessing a potential claim (claims practice)

We use AI tools to assist with the initial assessment of potential claims, including when you complete the intake form. These tools help us analyse information you provide and generate a preliminary assessment of whether and how we may be able to assist you.

When AI tools are used:

  • A qualified lawyer reviews all AI-generated outputs before we give you any response, assessment or advice. AI tools do not make final decisions about your claim or eligibility.
  • Your information is not used to train external AI models.
  • You can ask at any time what AI tools have been used in your matter — contact us at support@cleverlegal.com.au.
  • You can request human review of any AI-assisted assessment that has affected your eligibility or the handling of your matter. Contact us at support@cleverlegal.com.au and we will arrange it.

The scoping assistant (Clever Legal Counsel)

On counsel.cleverlegal.com.au you can use an AI scoping assistant to help build an indicative scope. It is a different kind of tool from the one above, and it is important to be clear about the difference.

  • It replies to you immediately, without a lawyer reading it first. That is why it is strictly limited to explaining what our published, fixed-fee services cover and to adding, removing or annotating items on your list.
  • It does not give legal advice and does not assess your situation. It will not tell you what your rights are, what is likely to happen, or what you should do. If you ask it to, it will say so and offer you a scoping call with one of our lawyers instead. Nothing it says is legal advice, and using it does not make you a client.
  • It cannot quote you a price. Every figure on that site is an indicative "from" estimate. Only your engagement terms carry the fee for your matter.
  • Anything it writes into your notes is marked as written by the assistant, so you can see what it put there in your name and change it before you send anything.
  • Your conversation is not used to train AI models, and it is not retained by us as a record. See sections 4 and 7.
  • You never have to use it. The scope builder works entirely without it, and you can email us instead at any time.

If the assistant ever gives you something that looks like advice about your own situation, please do not rely on it — tell us at support@cleverlegal.com.au and speak to one of our lawyers.

10. How long we keep your information

The website does not retain your submission. Once it has been relayed to us, your information is held in the firm's records.

As a law firm, we are generally required to retain client files for 7 years after the matter closes. Health information is retained for at least that period, or longer if required by applicable health records legislation. For enquiries that do not proceed to engagement, we retain your information for as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, after which we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

11. Children and minors

Our services are not directed at children under 18. Where a claim involves a minor — for example, a birth injury or a claim made on behalf of a child — we deal with a parent, guardian or litigation guardian on the child's behalf and handle the child's personal information accordingly. We take particular care with health information relating to minors.

12. Accessing and correcting your information

You can ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you, and you can ask us to correct it if you think it is wrong, out of date, incomplete or misleading.

To make a request, contact us using the details in section 2. We will respond within a reasonable time. There is generally no charge to ask, although a reasonable cost may apply in some cases for giving access.

In limited situations the law allows us to decline a request — for example where giving access would affect another person's privacy, or where the information is subject to legal professional privilege. If we decline, we will tell you why and how you can respond.

13. Making a complaint

If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first using the details in section 2, so we can try to put it right. We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to respond within a reasonable time (generally about 30 days).

If you are not satisfied with our response, or we do not respond within a reasonable time, you can complain to:

  • Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) — for matters under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). See oaic.gov.au, or call 1300 363 992.
  • Health Complaints Commissioner (Victoria) — for matters about health information under the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). See hcc.vic.gov.au.

A complaint about the legal service we provide (rather than privacy) is handled differently — see our complaints page and the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner (VLSB+C).

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on this website.

Last updated: 3 August 2026. This version extends the policy to Clever Legal Counsel, our commercial and startup practice, and describes the scoping assistant on that site.