Privacy Practices 

We respect the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. As lawyers we have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we obtain within a lawyer-client relationship. We are committed to protecting any personal information we possess. Our Privacy Policy outlines our practices with respect to the management of your personal information and the safeguards in place to protect you privacy.

 

Personal Information Collected By Us

For purposes of the Policy, “personal information” is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced.

 

How We Collect Your Information

Wherever possible, we collect your personal information directly from you at the start of a retainer and throughout the course of our representation of you.

Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources, for example:

  • your insurance company;
  • a government agency or registry;
  • your accountant;
  • other consultants obtained by you to assist with your legal concerns.

 

Consent

Providing personal information to our firm means that you agree and consent that we may use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree with these terms, you are requested not to provide any personal information. From time to time we may under certain circumstances disclose personal information to third parties such as process servers, expert witnesses retained on your behalf, accountants, couriers and off-site record storage facilities.

 

Use of Your Information

We collect, use and disclose your personal information in order to provide you with legal services, to bill you for legal services rendered and for mailings such as newsletters and announcements relating to our firm. We will not collect personal information indiscriminately and we will not provide your personal information to any third party to allow them to market their products or services.

 

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

Under certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information:

  • when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example, if a court issues a subpoena;
  • when you have consented to the disclosure;
  • when the legal services we are providing to you requires us to give your information to third parties (such as expert witnesses) your consent will be implied, unless you tells us otherwise;
  • where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
  • if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to use (such as computer back-up services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy;
  • if we retain other law firms on your behalf;
  • if the information is already publicly known.

 

Retention

We will retain your personal information only as long as needed by us to provide our services. In some circumstances, personal information may be stored in an off-site storage facility until we determine it is no longer required. At that time, our firm has procedures in place to destroy and erase personal information.

 

Accuracy

It is important that your personal information be accurate and up-to-date. During the course of our retainer, we ask that your provide us with any changes to your personal information.

 

Security

We take reasonable measures to ensure your personal information is kept safe. It should be noted that there is a balance between security and convenience. For example, sending encrypted e-mails to you would not make sense if you could not read them.

 

Access to Your Personal Information

You may request access to any personal information we have about you. We can help you identify what information we may have about you. In some cases, we may deny access to your personal information. For example, you may be denied access if it would have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy. If we deny your request for access, or refuse a request to correct information, we shall explain why.