Privacy Policy

1. Who processes your data

The controller is Cabinet Individual de Avocatură Sabău Sorin (trading as „Sabău Avocați”), with its professional office at Str. Mihai Viteazu nr. 4/2, Reghin, Mureș County, 545300, Romania, a lawyer admitted to the Mureș Bar Association.

You can write to us at any time at [email protected] or call +40 767 111 847. We are not required by law to appoint a data protection officer; requests on this subject should be addressed directly to the firm, using the details above.

2. What data we collect

We only collect what we need, depending on how you get in touch with us.

• Through the contact form: your name, e-mail address, telephone number (optional), the practice area you are writing about and the content of your message.
• By e-mail or telephone: whatever you choose to send us, including information about the legal matter you are contacting us about.
• When booking a paid consultation: identification and contact details, the information needed to check for any conflict of interest, and the details required to issue the payment document.
• If we become your lawyers: the data required by law to conclude the legal assistance agreement and to handle the matter, including, where the law requires it, a copy of your identity document.
• Automatically, when you visit the website: your IP address, device and browser type, the pages you visit and when, through server logs and the tools described in section 9.

We do not buy contact lists and we do not collect data from sources other than those above.

3. Why we process it and on what basis

• To answer your enquiry and establish whether we can assist you: our legitimate interest in communicating with those who contact us and, where the discussion leads to a working relationship, pre-contractual steps, under art. 6 (1) (b) and (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation.
• To arrange and hold a paid consultation, including sending the connection link and collecting the fee: performance of a contract, art. 6 (1) (b).
• To provide legal assistance and representation, if we enter into an agreement: performance of a contract, art. 6 (1) (b), together with the professional obligations arising from Law no. 51/1995 and the Statute of the legal profession.
• To comply with legal obligations of a tax and accounting nature and, where applicable, those on the prevention of money laundering: art. 6 (1) (c).
• To keep the website secure and to prevent automated messages: our legitimate interest, art. 6 (1) (f).
• To understand how the website is used, through traffic statistics: our legitimate interest in improving the content, art. 6 (1) (f).

Where you send us, on your own initiative, information about health, criminal records or other special categories of data, we process it only to the extent necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, under art. 9 (2) (f) of the Regulation.

4. Paid online legal consultations

We offer paid legal consultations, held by video call or by telephone. Appointments are made by e-mail or telephone, and the consultation takes place at the agreed time through the link or connection method we provide, normally in the confirmation e-mail.

For these consultations we process:

• the identification and contact details needed to book and confirm the appointment;
• the information about your legal situation that you present to us, before and during the consultation;
• the data needed to collect the fee and issue the tax document. We do not store your card details; payment is made by bank transfer or through the payment processor indicated at the time of booking, which processes those details as a controller in its own right.

The consultation is not recorded. We do not record video, audio or screen content; if a recording were useful in a particular case, it would be made only with the prior written agreement of both parties. We ask that you likewise do not record the discussion without our agreement.

Connecting involves the use of a video conferencing platform or the telephone network. The platform provider may process its own technical data, such as IP address, connection duration and quality, under its own privacy policy. The content of the discussion remains, in all cases, covered by lawyer and client privilege.

Any notes we take during the consultation are kept confidential and used solely to answer you and, where applicable, to continue working together.

5. Professional secrecy

Beyond data protection rules, everything you tell us is covered by lawyer and client privilege under Law no. 51/1995 on the organisation and practice of the legal profession in Romania. That obligation is unlimited in time, applies whether or not we go on to sign an agreement, and covers even the fact that you contacted us.

6. Who we share data with

We do not sell or rent personal data. We share it only where necessary:

• with the providers that support our work, acting as processors: website hosting and e-mail, the video conferencing platform, security and content delivery services, and our accounting provider;
• with courts, authorities and other participants in proceedings, where this is necessary to defend your interests or required by law;
• with the payment processor, in order to collect the fee.

Any other collaborators involved are themselves bound by confidentiality.

7. Transfers outside the European Economic Area

Some of the technical providers we use, including Google, are companies in the United States or operate infrastructure outside the European Economic Area. Such transfers take place on the basis of the mechanisms provided by the Regulation, namely the standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission or the EU, US Data Privacy Framework decision.

8. How long we keep data

• Messages received through the form, by e-mail or by telephone that do not lead to a working relationship: no longer than 12 months.
• Case files: for the duration of the engagement and afterwards, for the periods imposed by the applicable professional, legal and tax obligations, as a rule 10 years from the end of the relationship.
• Financial records: for the periods set out in tax and accounting legislation.
• Server logs: short periods, as needed for security and diagnostics.

9. Cookies and analytics

The website uses cookies and similar technologies for operation, security and traffic statistics:

• Strictly necessary: the security and load balancing cookies set by our content delivery provider, together with the technical cookies of the platform the website is built on. Without them the site does not work properly.
• Analytics: Google Analytics, so that we know which pages are read and how visitors reach us. The reports are aggregated and do not tell us who you are.
• Protection against automated messages: Google reCAPTCHA, on pages with forms.
• External content: the Google map on the contact page, which loads from Google servers when you open that page.

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings, and you can opt out of Google Analytics using the browser add-on provided by Google. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may affect how the website works.

10. Your rights

You have the right to request access to your data, its rectification or erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interest. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time, without affecting processing carried out beforehand.

Some of these rights are limited by our professional obligations: we cannot delete documents that the law or the rules of the profession require us to keep, and we cannot disclose privileged information concerning other people.

Requests should be sent to [email protected] and are answered within one month. If our answer does not satisfy you, you may contact the Romanian National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing, B-dul G-ral. Gheorghe Magheru nr. 28-30, Sector 1, Bucharest, www.dataprotection.ro, or the courts.

11. Security

We use an encrypted connection for the website, password protected accounts and limited access to documents, restricted to those who need them. No system is invulnerable, however, so we recommend that you do not send particularly sensitive documents by e-mail before we agree together on a suitable channel.

12. Minors

Our services are addressed to adults. We do not knowingly collect data relating to minors through the website. Where a matter concerns a minor, the data is provided by their legal representative.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the way we work or the legal framework changes. The version on this page is the one that applies, and the date of the last update is shown at the beginning of the document.

For any question about your data, write to us at [email protected].