Privacy policy

Last updated: 5 August 2026

1. Who we are

This website is operated by Rajesh Hiralall Attorneys Inc. (“the firm”, “we”, “us”), a multi-discipline law firm practising in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. This firm is the responsible party for the personal information described in this policy, as that term is defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

Our office is at 1 Kiltford Place, Sunford, Phoenix, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal 4068. Queries about this policy or about your personal information can be directed to info@protectionorders.co.za or 031 507 5699.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers personal information collected through this website, principally through the enquiry form on our Contact page. It does not cover information you give us directly as an existing or prospective client outside of this website, for example in person, by telephone or by separate email, which is governed by our engagement terms and dealt with separately.

3. What we collect

When you use the enquiry form, we ask for and collect:

• Your name and telephone number
• Your email address, if you choose to give it
• The area you are in, if you choose to give it
• The nature of your matter and how urgent it is, from the options you select
• Anything you write in the message field, which may include sensitive details about domestic violence, harassment or other personal circumstances
• Instructions on how and when it is safe to contact you

If you contact us by telephone, WhatsApp or email instead of using the form, we collect whatever information is exchanged in that conversation, including your number, in the same way any business does when you call, message or email it.

4. Cookies and analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand, in aggregate, how visitors use this website, for example which pages are read and roughly how many people visit each month. This helps us keep the site useful and find pages that are not working as they should.

Analytics is switched off by default. It only runs if you actively accept it on the cookie banner shown when you first visit. If you accept, Google Analytics sets small files called cookies in your browser, principally _ga and _ga_*, which typically last up to two years unless cleared sooner. These cookies let Google Analytics recognise repeat visits from the same browser; they do not identify you by name.

When accepted, the information collected includes:

• Pages you visit on this site, and how you arrived at them
• Approximate location, based on your IP address (typically city-level, not exact)
• Device, browser and screen information
• Whether you used the Call, WhatsApp or “Send an enquiry” buttons, and whether you submitted the enquiry form, together with the general category you selected for the matter and its urgency

We never send your name, telephone number, email address or the content of your message to Google Analytics. The enquiry form itself is handled entirely as described in section 5 below, regardless of your analytics choice.

Google processes this information on our behalf and may do so on servers outside South Africa, subject to its own contractual data protection safeguards. Accepting analytics cookies constitutes your consent to this processing and any resulting transfer. You can read Google’s own privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy, and, separately, install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on if you wish to be excluded from Google Analytics measurement across all websites you visit.

You can decline analytics at any time, or change a choice you have already made, using Cookie preferences in the footer of this site. Declining, or not responding to the banner, has no effect on your ability to use this website, call us, WhatsApp us or submit the enquiry form.

Fonts used on this site are hosted by us and are not requested from Google or any other third party while you browse.

Separately, this site uses Vercel Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights, provided by our hosting provider. Analytics counts page views; Speed Insights measures how quickly pages load for visitors, so that performance problems can be found and fixed. Neither sets cookies or uses any local storage on your device, and neither identifies you individually or tracks you across visits or websites. Both record only aggregate figures, such as how many people visited a page, in general terms where from, on what kind of device, and how fast the page loaded, without connecting any of that to you personally. Because neither uses cookies, both run regardless of your Google Analytics choice above, and there is no separate consent control for either.

5. How the enquiry form works

Where a third-party form-processing service is configured for this site, the information you submit is transmitted to and briefly held by that service before it reaches us, subject to that provider’s own privacy and security practices. Where no such service is configured, submitting the form opens a pre-filled email in your own email application, and the information travels only through your ordinary email provider to reach ours, exactly as any email you send us would.

6. Why we collect it, and our legal basis

We collect and process this information to:

• Respond to your enquiry and assess whether and how we can assist you
• Contact you in the manner you have told us is safe
• Open a file and provide legal services, where you go on to instruct us
• Meet our professional, regulatory and legal obligations as attorneys
• Where accepted, understand website usage in aggregate, as described in section 4

We process enquiry information on the basis of your consent in submitting the form, and because processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a possible engagement with us, and subsequently to perform that engagement. We process analytics information solely on the basis of the consent you give, or withhold, on the cookie banner.

7. Special personal information

Enquiries about protection orders often disclose special personal information under POPIA, including information about health, and information concerning criminal behaviour or alleged criminal behaviour by another person. We process this information only because it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim or right on your behalf, and we treat it with particular care.

8. Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information. We disclose it only:

• To attorneys, counsel, courts, the South African Police Service and other parties, strictly where necessary to act on your instructions
• To our IT and communications service providers, strictly to operate this website and our email and telephone systems
• To Vercel, our hosting provider, which also provides the cookieless analytics described in section 4
• To Google, as our analytics provider, strictly where you have accepted analytics cookies as described in section 4
• Where required by law, by a court order, or by a professional regulatory body

9. How long we keep it

Where an enquiry does not proceed to an instruction, we keep the enquiry only for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to it and to meet our own record-keeping obligations, and delete it thereafter. Where you instruct us, information becomes part of your client file and is retained in accordance with our professional record retention obligations as attorneys. Analytics information is retained by Google in line with the cookie durations described in section 4.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we hold against loss, unauthorised access, interference and disclosure. No system is entirely secure, and if you are concerned that a channel of communication is not safe for you, tell us and we will agree another with you.

11. Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Be told what personal information of yours we hold, and to access it
• Request that we correct or delete personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained
• Object to the processing of your personal information, on reasonable grounds
• Withdraw any consent you have given, at any time, without affecting processing already carried out, including analytics consent, via Cookie preferences in the footer
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator, detailed below

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 1.

12. The Information Regulator

If you believe we have not handled your personal information properly, you are entitled to complain to South Africa’s Information Regulator directly:

13. Access to information (PAIA)

Rajesh Hiralall Attorneys Inc. maintains a manual in terms of section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), describing how you may request access to records we hold. A copy is available on request using the contact details in section 1.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example as our practice or the law changes. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised.

This policy is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice on POPIA or any other legislation.