Data protection

The Board of Trial Counsel
Unioninkatu 16, 00130 Helsinki
+358 (0)29 56 43411 and +358 (0)29 56 43412
oikeudenkayntiavustajaltk@oikeus.fi

Ani Antila
Coordinator of the Board on Trial Counsel
+358 (0)29 56 43411
ani.antila@oikeus.fi

Marianne Pikkarainen
Referee of the Board on Trial Counsel
+358 (0)29 564 4478
marianne.pikkarainen@oikeus.fi

The case management system and list of legal counsels of the Board on Trial Counsel

The gathering and processing of data is necessary for the controller to fulfil their statutory obligation (Licenced Legal Counsel Act 715/2011).

The Board on Trial Counsel requires the personal data of an applicant or a holder of the licence of a legal counsel in order to verify the identity of the person and the conditions for granting a licence as provided for in section 2 of the Licenced Legal Counsel Act. Submitting personal and contact details is a condition for the granting of the licence. Failure to submit this data may lead to the rejection of a licence application. In addition, the contact details of an applicant or a holder of the licence of a legal counsel are required for the purpose of correspondence and invoicing.

The publicity and secrecy of data are determined based on the following statutes:

• Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999)
• The General Data Protection Regulation of the EU (679/2016)
• Data Protection Act (1050/2018)
• Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019)

The data file contains data about applicants and holders of the licence of a legal counsel as well as about complainants in disciplinary matters.

The case management system holds the following data of an application/holder of the licence of a legal counsel

1. name
2. personal identity code, and
3. gender
4. language
5. contact details
6. withdrawal of consent to the disclosure of personal data
7. non-disclosure for personal safety reasons
8. name and contact details of a possible assistant.

The case management system holds records of the following data of a complainant

1. name
2. contact details
3. name and contact details of a possible assistant.

The public list of legal counsels holds the following data of a licenced legal counsel

1. name
2. town/city
3. the date of the granting of the licence.

The data file may contain data related to criminal convictions, financial standing and other data of an applicant or holder of the licence of a legal counsel relevant to the assessment of the conditions for being granted a licence.

The data file does not include special categories of personal data.

Personal data are mainly obtained from the data subjects themselves.

Other sources of data include:

1. Legal Register Centre
2. Digital and Population Data Services Agency
3. Courts of law
4. Enforcement authorities
5. Disciplinary Board

A copy of the decision of the Board on Trial Counsel is sent to all parties concerned. In matters related to the cancellation of a licence, a copy of the decision is also sent to the Chancellor of Justice and in disciplinary matter to the Disciplinary Board and the Chancellor of Justice.

Recipients to whom personal data are fairly regularly disclosed or transmitted:

1. Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR Palkeet (invoicing)
2. Ministry of Justice, Department for Administration and Oversight (invoicing and accounting)
3. Legal Register Centre (case management system updates)
4. Tieto Oyj (case management system updates)
5. General courts, general administrative courts, Labour Court of Finland, Market Court, and offices of the Legal Aid and Public Guardianship Districts (notifications of the cancellation of a licence)
6. Helsinki Court of Appeal and administrative courts (requests for review)
7. Disciplinary Board (an independent disciplinary board operating under the aegis of the Finnish Bar Association).

To other authorities, the Board may disclose the contact details of an applicant or holder of the licence of a legal counsel if the legal counsel in question has given their written consent thereto. The legal counsel has the right to withdraw their consent at any time by notifying the board in writing thereof.

The name and town/city of a legal counsel who has been granted a licence and date of licencing are public data. This data are recorded on the public list maintained by the Board of Trial Counsel, from where updated data may be accessed by the public through a search by name. The list is available on the website of the Board on Trial Counsel.

The data held in the data file are not disclosed or transmitted outside the European Union or the European Economic Area.

Data are retained in the electronic case management system for 20 years.

The retention period for documents for permanent storage has not be limited. Documents to be retained for a specific period are retained for 2–10 years, in accordance with the archives formation plan of the Boar on Trial Counsel, and are destroyed at the end of the retention period.

Data subjects have the right to obtain from the controller transparent information about the processing of personal data concerning them and a confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning them are being processed, and, where that is the case, access to the personal data. If the data are being processed, data subjects have the right to obtain the following information mentioned in Article 15 of the GDPR (679/2016).

Those wishing to receive the information on themselves as referred to in Article 15 of the GDPR must submit a request to the controller concerning the matter so that the identity of the data subject can be verified.

The data subject has the right to request that the controller rectify without undue delay inaccurate and erroneous data concerning them as provided in Article 16 of the GDPR.

In addition, data subjects have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning them without undue delay, provided that one of the grounds of Article 17 of the GDPR (679/2016) applies. Furthermore, data subjects have the right to obtain from the controller restriction of processing, if one of the grounds of Article 18 of the GDPR (679/2016) applies.

Data subjects have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if they consider that the processing of personal data concerning them infringes the GDPR (678/2016).

Contact information of the supervisory authority:

Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman
Street address: Lintulahdenkuja 4, 00530 Helsinki
Postal address: P. O. Box 800, FI-00531 Helsinki, Finland
Telephone (switchboard): +358 (0)29 566 6700
E-mail: tietosuoja@om.fi