Privacy Policy

CounselBilling.com ("CounselBilling", "we", "us") is operated by Duplum (Pty) Ltd t/a Duplum Technologies, a company registered in South Africa, with its principal place of business at 2 Long Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa.

CounselBilling is billing software for South African advocates and independent legal professionals. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we process it, who we share it with, and what rights you have under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

This policy applies to the CounselBilling web application, our website at counselbilling.com, and any email we send you.

This is the most important thing to understand about how we handle information, and it differs depending on whose information it is.

We are the Responsible Party for your account. When you register a practice, we decide how and why your registration details, billing information and usage data are processed. You deal with us directly about that information.

We are an Operator for the data you capture in the app. The instructing attorneys, firms, matters, fee narratives, invoices and payment records you enter belong to your practice. You determine what goes in and why. We process it only on your instruction, in order to provide the service. We do not decide what you capture, we do not use it for our own purposes, and we do not sell, license or disclose it.

Where we act as Operator, you remain the Responsible Party towards your own clients and instructing attorneys, and you carry the corresponding POPIA obligations to them.

3.1 Account and practice information

Provided by you when you register or configure your practice:

• Name, email address and telephone number
• Practice or chambers name and address
• Banking details displayed on your invoices
• VAT number and tax settings, where applicable
• Currency, locale and invoice numbering preferences
• Role within the practice (owner or secretary)

3.2 Matter and billing data

Entered by you or your secretary in the ordinary course of running your practice:

• Instructing attorney firms, their contact people and addresses
• Matter descriptions, case numbers and references
• Time entries, fee narratives and disbursements
• Invoices, statements, payment records and receipts

We treat this category as confidential in all circumstances. See section 6.

3.3 Payment information

Subscription payments are processed by PayFast. Card details are entered directly with PayFast and are not stored on our systems. We retain a payment token, the transaction result, and a record of amounts and dates for accounting purposes.

3.4 Technical information

Collected automatically when you use the application:

• IP address, browser type and device information
• Authentication events, including sign-in times and password changes
• Application logs and error reports

3.5 Marketing contacts

If you receive email from us about CounselBilling but are not a registered user, we hold:

• Your name and email address
• Your professional capacity — for example, that you practise as counsel
• Chambers, group or firm, where known
• A record of what we sent you and whether you opted out

Most information comes directly from you.

Where we send information about CounselBilling to legal professionals who are not registered users, contact details are obtained from referrals, previous contact with us, and publicly available sources. We do not purchase marketing lists.

Information you capture about matters, instructing attorneys and clients may be subject to legal professional privilege and to your own duties of confidentiality.

We apply row-level security across our database so that data belonging to one practice is not accessible to another. Access by our personnel is restricted to authorised administrators, and only where necessary to operate the service or to respond to a support request.

We do not read, mine, analyse or use matter data to train models, generate insights, or for any purpose other than operating the service for you.

If you are a registered user, we may send you service messages about your account, billing and material changes to the product. These are not marketing and you cannot opt out of them while you hold an account.

If you receive promotional email from us about CounselBilling:

• Every message identifies us as the sender and gives our contact details
• Every message contains a working unsubscribe link
• You may object to direct marketing at any time, at no cost, by using that link or by emailing hello@counselbilling.com
• If you object or unsubscribe, we stop sending promotional email and retain only the minimum record needed to ensure you are not contacted again

Objections and unsubscribe requests are actioned promptly and permanently.

We do not sell personal information. We share it only with the service providers below, each of which processes it on our instruction under a written agreement:

We may also disclose information where we are legally obliged to, where necessary to establish or defend a legal claim, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.

If our business is sold or restructured, information may transfer to the acquiring entity. We will notify you before that happens and your rights under this policy will continue to apply.

Some of our service providers process information outside South Africa, as set out in the table above. Where that happens, we rely on section 72 of POPIA and satisfy ourselves that the recipient is subject to laws or binding agreements providing an adequate level of protection, including onward-transfer restrictions.

• All data is transmitted over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS)
• Data is encrypted at rest by our database provider
• Row-level security is enforced on every table, isolating each practice's data
• Access is role-based, distinguishing practice owners from secretaries
• Authentication events are logged
• Card details are never stored on our systems

No system is completely secure. If a security compromise affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by section 22 of POPIA.

Under POPIA you may:

• Ask what personal information we hold about you and request a copy
• Ask us to correct or delete information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained
• Object to processing on reasonable grounds
• Object to direct marketing at any time
• Withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent
• Complain to the Information Regulator

To exercise any of these, contact our Information Officer at hello@counselbilling.com. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity first.

If your request relates to information held inside a practice's account by an advocate using CounselBilling, we will refer you to that practice, as they are the Responsible Party for it.

We use cookies to keep you signed in, to keep the application secure, and to understand how our website and application are used. You can manage cookies through your browser settings, but disabling essential cookies will prevent you from signing in.

CounselBilling is a professional tool and is not directed at anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available at counselbilling.com/privacy and the date at the top reflects the last revision. Where a change materially affects how we process your information, we will notify registered users by email before it takes effect.

The Information Officer
Email: hello@counselbilling.com
Postal address: 2 Long Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
Contact form

Responsible Party: Duplum (Pty) Ltd t/a Duplum Technologies

You may lodge a complaint with:

The Information Regulator (South Africa)
General enquiries: enquiries.IR@justice.gov.za
Complaints: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za
inforegulator.org.za