German American Real Estate & Immigration Law Center, LLC
Effective date: September 7, 2026

This policy explains how German American Real Estate & Immigration Law Center, LLC (“German American Legal,” “we,” “us”) collects, uses, and shares information when you use www.germanamericanlegal.com and its language versions, contact us by form, email, or phone, or otherwise deal with us as a website visitor.

Using this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. Do not send confidential information through the contact form until we have completed a conflict check and agreed in writing to represent you.

1. Who is responsible

Controller / operator:

German American Real Estate & Immigration Law Center, LLC
Email: info@germanamericanlegal.com
USA: 954-951-1003
Germany: 0151-57393310
Japan: 090-6211-1478

10220 Port of Spain St. Hollywood FL 33026

Alexander Thorlton is licensed in Florida and the District of Columbia. German-law work is performed by German-qualified lawyers / Of Counsel, not by a Florida lawyer practicing German law.

If you are in the EEA or United Kingdom and need a privacy contact, use the same email and write “Privacy request” in the subject line.

2. Information we collect

You give us

Name
Email address
Phone number, if you provide one
Language or country, if you tell us
Message content, including facts about a possible legal matter
Any files or documents you attach or later send
Newsletter or event sign-up details, if we offer them

We collect automatically

IP address
Browser type, device type, and operating system
Date, time, and pages viewed
Referring URL
Approximate location derived from IP address
Cookie and similar identifiers, as described below

We may receive from others

Public reviews (for example Google Reviews displayed on the site)
Information from referring professionals
Information needed for a conflict check if you ask us to evaluate a matter

Do not put Social Security numbers, passport scans, tax IDs, or other highly sensitive documents in the first website form.

3. Why we use it

We use this information to:

Respond to inquiries and schedule consultations
Run conflict checks and decide whether we can take a matter
Provide legal services if you become a client (under a separate engagement)
Operate, secure, and improve the website
Measure which pages are used
Comply with law, bar rules, and recordkeeping duties
Defend our rights, including in a dispute about the site or a matter

Legal bases (GDPR / UK GDPR), where they apply

Contract or steps before a contract — answering your request and, if retained, providing services
Legitimate interests — running a law firm website, security, limited analytics
Consent — non-essential cookies or marketing emails, where required
Legal obligation — tax, anti-money-laundering, professional, or court duties

4. Cookies and similar tools

The site may use:

Essential cookies — page language, security, form submission, load balancing
Analytics cookies — to see which pages are read [name the tool, e.g. Google Analytics, or delete this bullet if you do not use it]
Third-party tools that may set their own cookies — for example [Google Fonts / Google Reviews / reCAPTCHA / hCaptcha / Rank Math / our hosting provider / Cloudflare], if enabled

You can block cookies in your browser. The site may not work fully without essential cookies.

If you use a cookie banner or consent plugin, describe it here in one sentence and link to the cookie settings.

5. Forms, email, and phone

If you submit the contact form or email info@germanamericanlegal.com, we use that information only to evaluate and respond to your request, unless we later send you an engagement letter.

Calls and messages to the US, German, or Japanese numbers may be handled by different team members depending on time zone. Tell us if you do not want a matter discussed on a particular channel.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information.

We may share it with:

Lawyers, Of Counsel, paralegals, and staff working on your inquiry
Our German-qualified counsel when a German-law question is involved
Service providers who host the site, email, backups, or spam filtering [hostpapa, Inc.]
Payment processors, if you pay us [paypal, lawpay, etc.]
Translators or other professionals bound to confidentiality, when needed
Courts, authorities, or opposing parties, when required by law or by your instructions after we are retained
A buyer or successor if the firm is combined or transferred

Vendors are allowed to use the information only to provide their service to us.

7. International transfers

The firm works from the United States, Germany, and Japan. If you write to us from the EU or UK, your information will usually be stored or accessed in the United States.

8. How long we keep it

Website logs and analytics: typically 12 months
Unretained inquiries: long enough to answer you and keep a conflict-check record, usually up to 2–3 years unless law requires longer
Client files: for the period required by Florida Bar rules and any applicable German professional rules, then securely destroyed or archived

9. Security

We use ordinary technical and organizational measures (HTTPS, restricted staff access, password controls). No website or email system is completely secure. Do not send highly sensitive documents through the public form.

10. Your choices and rights

You may ask us to:

Access the personal information we hold about you
Correct it
Delete it, subject to our legal and professional retention duties
Restrict or object to certain processing
Receive a copy in a portable format
Withdraw consent, where we relied on consent

EEA and UK visitors may also lodge a complaint with their local data protection authority. In Germany that is the authority for the Land where you live, or the authority competent for our German practice address.

California and other US state rights apply only if the statute covers us. If a statute applies, we will honor a verifiable request to know, delete, or correct personal information. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

11. Third-party sites

Links to Google, other lawyers’ sites, government sites, or social media are outside this policy. Their rules apply.

12. Professional limits

Sending information through this website does not make us your lawyer. We may have a conflict and may be unable to take your matter. Until we send an engagement letter and you accept it, we do not represent you.

Client-file confidentiality is governed by the engagement and by the professional rules that apply to the lawyers on the matter, not by this web policy alone.

13. Changes

We may update this page. The effective date at the top will change. Continued use of the site after an update means you have read the revised policy.

14. Contact

Questions about this policy:
info@germanamericanlegal.com
Subject line: Privacy Policy

German American Real Estate & Immigration Law Center, LLC

10220 Port of Spain St., Hollywood FL 33026

USA 954-951-1003 · DE 0151-57393310 · JP 090-6211-1478

Email privacy requests to info@germanamericanlegal.com. We may need to verify who you are. We may decline a deletion request when we must keep a record for conflicts, ethics, tax, or an existing matter.