Privacy Policy

Last updated: 9 October 2026 · Applies to New Zealand and Australia

1. Who we are

Lawmateanz ("we", "us") is operated by LawMate Limited, a company incorporated in New Zealand. We operate an online directory connecting clients with independent lawyers, and connecting lawyers with independent accountants, virtual assistants, and cybersecurity providers, in New Zealand and Australia. We are committed to handling personal information in accordance with New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020 and, where applicable, Australia's Privacy Act 1988.

2. What we collect

From clients: name, email, phone (optional), the practice area you need, and general location (city/region). Submitting a request is free and does not require an account. We do not store the description of your situation that you type into the request form. We use it when you submit, to suggest the right area of law, and if your matched lawyer has connected their practice software, we send it there with your contact details (see section 4).

From lawyers and other providers: name, firm/company name, email, phone, bio, practice areas, city/region, country, practising certificate or membership number, and an optional link to your public register entry (used for identity verification — see our verification process). Lawyers may also optionally provide a billing rate, and whether they offer Legal Aid or fixed-fee pricing — if provided, these are shown publicly as badges/filters on your directory profile, marked as self-reported and not independently verified.

Automatically: an approximate location (derived from the city/region you provide, used only to place an anonymous pin on our public map — no name or identifying detail is ever shown), a currency-preference cookie, and, if you arrive through a referral link, a short-lived cookie that stores only the referral code (see "Referral links and referral partners" below).

From clients, after a match: a follow-up email asks whether your matched lawyer got in touch (yes/no). Your individual answer is never shared with that lawyer — see "How we use it" below for how it's used in aggregate. The same follow-up may also invite you to leave a star rating (1–5) and an optional written review of your experience. This is entirely voluntary — if you submit one, it becomes part of your matched lawyer's public profile, shown alongside a display name derived from your first name and last initial (e.g. "Jane S."), not your full name.

Payment information is collected and processed directly by Stripe. We do not store your card details.

If you report a lawyer, client, or review: your name (optional) and email, plus the reason and any details you provide. This is used only to investigate the report and is not shown publicly or to the person you reported.

If you contact us directly (e.g. via the contact form): your name, email, optional phone number, and your message — used only to respond to your enquiry.

If you ask a question on Lawmateanz Answers: your question and any details you add, the practice area and region you choose, and your email. We review every question before it's published — and may edit it to remove names or anything identifying — then publish it anonymously. Your email is never shown; we use it only to tell you when your question is published or answered.

3. How we use it

4. Who we share it with

When you're matched, we share your name, email, and phone (if provided) with the matched lawyer, and share the lawyer's email with you so you can contact them directly — we don't act as an intermediary for that conversation. We also share data with the service providers who help us run the platform: Vercel (website hosting), Supabase (database hosting), Stripe (payments), and Resend (email). We do not sell personal information to anyone.

If a lawyer has chosen to connect their practice management software (such as LEAP, Actionstep or Clio) or an automation service (such as Zapier or Make), we also send your name, email, phone (if provided), area of law and location to that connected system when you're matched, so it reaches them in the tool they already use. Those services may process data outside New Zealand and Australia. Once it reaches the lawyer's own system, the lawyer is responsible for it under their own privacy and professional obligations.

5. Retention

We keep account and request records for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterward for legal, accounting, and dispute-resolution purposes.

6. Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold, including:

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security — but we take the steps above, and the breach-response steps in section 7, seriously and consistently.

7. If a data breach happens

If we become aware of a breach involving your personal information that's likely to cause serious harm, we will investigate, take reasonable steps to contain it, and notify affected individuals and the relevant regulator (the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in NZ, or the OAIC in Australia) as required under the Privacy Act 2020 and Privacy Act 1988 respectively. This is a legal requirement in both countries, not an optional courtesy.

8. Your rights

Under NZ's Privacy Act 2020 and (where applicable) Australia's Privacy Act 1988, you can ask us to access, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you. Contact our privacy officer using the details in section 13 to make a request.

9. International data transfers

Your information is stored in a database hosted by Supabase in Sydney, Australia — so for New Zealand users, it's held overseas. Our website runs on Vercel, which may process requests on servers in the United States, and Stripe and Resend may also process data outside New Zealand and Australia. We use these providers only to run the platform, and each maintains its own privacy and security safeguards.

10. Children

This service is intended for adults. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

11. Changes to this policy

We'll update the date at the top of this page if this policy changes materially.

12. Referral links and referral partners

Organisations such as law firms, community law and legal centres, legal aid providers, accountants, brokers and recruiters, in New Zealand or Australia, can register free as referral partners. We collect a partner's name, organisation, email address, country, partner type, and the date they accepted the Referral Partner Terms. We use this to run the programme, show the partner counts of referrals linked to their code, and contact them about the programme.

Referral links carry a code only. When someone opens a referral link, we record the visit (the code and the time). If you then submit a client request, we store the code with your request so we can count referrals and make sure you are never matched back to the lawyer or firm that referred you. If a lawyer applies through a partner's lawyer link, we store the partner's code with their application. We never give a referral partner your name, contact details or request details, and partners cannot see who was matched. They see counts only.

These links use a cookie that lasts up to 30 days and stores only the referral code. It is set only when you open a referral link. You can clear it in your browser settings at any time, and your request is then simply not linked to a referral.

We never email a partner's clients, applicants or contacts, and we give and receive no payment, credit or other benefit for referrals. You can ask to see or correct information we hold about you, including a stored referral code, under the Privacy Act 2020 (New Zealand) or the Privacy Act 1988 (Australia), by contacting us as set out below.

13. Privacy officer and contact

Our privacy officer is the director of LawMate Limited. For any privacy question, or to access, correct, or delete your information, email reuben@lawmateanz.com with "Privacy" in the subject line.

If you're not satisfied with how we handle a privacy concern, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in New Zealand (privacy.org.nz) or, in Australia, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).