Privacy Policy

Last updated: 30 October 2026

1. Who we are

This website is operated by Japheth Chetty Attorneys, trading as JC Attorneys and JC Chetty Law ("we", "us", "our"). We are a law firm and the responsible party for your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

We respect your privacy and the confidentiality that attaches to legal matters. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with and the rights you have.

2. Information Officer

• Information Officer: Japheth Chetty

• Email: japheth@jchettylaw.co.za

• Telephone: 081 528 6661

• WhatsApp: 082 538 3181

• Address: Spaces Building, 2 Ncondo Place, Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal

3. Scope

This policy applies to personal information we collect through:

• this website, including our contact forms and online assessments;

• our advertisements and lead forms on Facebook and Instagram;

• WhatsApp, email, telephone and video calls; and

• our work for clients.

Information you give us as a client is also protected by attorney–client privilege and our professional duty of confidentiality, which apply in addition to this policy.

4. Information we collect

Information you give us, for example when you complete a form or assessment, message us or become a client:

• your name, telephone and WhatsApp number, email address and business name;

• details about your business, such as turnover and number of employees, and your answers to our online assessments;

• information about your legal matter, including documents, invoices, contracts and correspondence;

• identity and address documents we must collect under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FICA); and

• billing and debit order details if you become a client.

Information collected automatically when you use our website or see our adverts, such as your IP address, browser and device type, pages visited and how you arrived at our site. See section 7 on cookies and tracking.

Information from others, such as the other party to your matter, courts, sheriffs, public registers (for example CIPC and the Deeds Office) and credit bureaus where the law allows.

We only collect information about another person (for example someone who owes you money) where it is needed for your matter.

5. Why we use your information

We process your personal information to:

• respond to your enquiry and assess whether we can help you;

• give legal advice and represent you, including recovering debts and conducting litigation;

• check for conflicts of interest before we accept a mandate;

• comply with our legal duties, including under FICA, the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 and the rules of the Legal Practice Council;

• bill for our services and collect payment;

• send you information about our services, where you have agreed to it or are an existing client (you can opt out at any time); and

• measure and improve our website and advertising.

We rely on the lawful grounds in section 11 of POPIA: your consent, the need to perform or conclude our agreement with you, compliance with the law, and our or your legitimate interests.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only where needed, with:

• courts, sheriffs, advocates, correspondent attorneys, experts and the other parties to your matter, as your matter requires;

• service providers who support our practice, such as website hosting, email, cloud storage, accounting and practice management software, and communication platforms like WhatsApp;

• Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram), when you submit one of our lead forms or interact with our adverts;

• our bank and debit order provider, for billing; and

• regulators and authorities where the law requires it, including the Legal Practice Council and the Financial Intelligence Centre.

Our service providers must keep your information confidential and secure, and may only use it to provide their services to us.

Cross-border transfers. Some of our service providers, including Meta, Google and our email and cloud providers, store information on servers outside South Africa. We only use providers that are subject to laws, binding rules or agreements giving adequate protection, as section 72 of POPIA requires.

7. Cookies, tracking and advertising

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies, including the Meta Pixel. These record actions such as visiting a page, starting or completing our assessment, or tapping our WhatsApp button. We use this to:

• understand how visitors use our website;

• measure whether our adverts work; and

• show our adverts to people likely to be interested, including people who have visited our website before.

This information is linked to your Facebook or Instagram account by Meta, under Meta's own privacy policy. You can control the ads you see in your Facebook and Instagram ad settings, and you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Some parts of the website may not work properly if you do.

8. How long we keep it

• Enquiries that don't become matters: up to 12 months after our last contact, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.

• Client files and FICA records: for at least five years after the matter ends, or longer where the law, the Legal Practice Council's rules or a possible claim requires it.

After that, we securely destroy or de-identify the information.

9. How we protect it

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. These include password-protected and encrypted systems, restricted access to client files, and confidentiality obligations on everyone who works with us.

If we have reasonable grounds to believe your information has been accessed by an unauthorised person, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

10. Your rights

Under POPIA you may:

• ask whether we hold personal information about you and request a copy of it;

• ask us to correct, update or delete it;

• object to us processing it, including for direct marketing;

• withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting processing that happened before; and

• lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.

To exercise these rights, contact our Information Officer using the details in section 2. We may ask you to verify your identity first. Some information, such as client records we must keep by law, may not be deleted on request.

To stop marketing messages, reply "STOP" to any WhatsApp or email from us.

Information Regulator (South Africa): www.inforegulator.org.za

11. Children

Our website and adverts are aimed at adults and businesses. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through our website.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated.

13. Contact us

For any questions about this policy or your personal information, email japheth@jchettylaw.co.za or call 081 528 6661.