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Incorporating, signing a lease, hiring staff? Legal advice can help you avoid costly errors.Privacy Policy
All staff of my law firm know that confidentiality and privacy are of the utmost importance to you. As a matter of professional responsibility and as part of our commitment to providing excellent service, we are dedicated to protecting any personal information we hold and maintaining the trust you have placed in my firm.
This privacy policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.
"Personal information" has the same meaning as in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and includes any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be determined. Personal information does not include business contact information (your name, title, position, business address, telephone and fax number or business e-mail address) and does not include "publicly available information" as specified in the Act's Regulations.
A. Governing Principles - Your Privacy Rights
My firm collects, uses and discloses personal information in compliance with the requirements of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the "Act") and the provisions of the Canadian Standards Association's Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information (the "Code") incorporated into the Act.
www.privcom.gc.ca/legislation/02_06_01_e.asp
B. What this Privacy Policy Covers
This Policy covers all personal information that is collected, used or disclosed by the law office of A. Beth Moore.
C. What Personal Information do we collect?
Generally speaking, the types of personal information that we may collect includes your name, home address, telephone number, personal email address, billing and account information, information about your legal matter and personal information about other individuals involved in your legal matter. The type and quantity of personal information that we collect in order to deliver legal services to you will vary depending on the nature of the services we are retained to provide.
We limit the collection of personal information to the amount and type of information that is required to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected. Collection of personal information is always made by fair and lawful means. We do not collect personal information indiscriminately, but limit such collection to the purposes identified in this Policy.
D. Identifying Purposes - How Personal Information is Used
We collect, use and disclose personal information for the following limited purposes:
(i) to provide legal advice and services to you;
(ii) to assess applications submitted to us for employment opportunities with our firm;
(iii) to administer our client (time and billing) databases;
(iv) to establish and maintain client lists;
(v) to help us avoid conflicts of interest; and
(vi) to establish and maintain mailing lists, which are used to communicate with you during the course of our retainer and to include you in any direct marketing activities conducted by our firm (such as the delivery of Legal Newsletters). If you tell us that you do not wish to receive information about our services, we will not send you any further material.
To comply with the Law Society of Upper Canada requirements on client identification and verification, we may request that you produce identification when you first retain us to act for you. Additional identification may be required if you are obtaining a mortgage or entering into other types of financial transactions. Acceptable identification documents may include one or more of an Ontario driver’s licence, a passport, a birth certificate, your social insurance card, a permanent resident’s or citizenship card or other government issued identification. We do not use Social Insurance Numbers as a way of identifying or organizing the information we hold and Ontario health cards are generally not considered acceptable for identification purposes.
E. Disclosure of Personal Information
We may disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:
· when we are required or authorized by law to do so;
· when you have consented to the disclosure;
· when the disclosure is requested by a third party who, in our reasonable judgment, is seeking the information as your agent or is otherwise entitled to disclosure of the information;
· when we need to disclose the information in the course of delivering the legal services to you or on your behalf.
In some instances, your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise. If we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (like computer back-up or archival file storage) we will ensure that the third party receiving your personal information is bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy.
My firm shares office space and facilities with the firm of RL & JH Webster and the staff of that firm provide some services to my firm. All firm files are kept separate and disclosure of information between our firms is only made to the extent necessary to enable that firm’s staff to provide services to my clients or to permit my legal assistant to provide services to clients of that firm.
F. Consent
We are committed to ensuring that you are aware of how your personal information is used. If you retain my firm to provide legal services and provide personal information to us relating to those services, your consent to our use of that information in the course of providing our services will be implied. You should not consider a solicitor client relationship to have been established until I confirm that I have agreed to provide legal services for you.
G. Accountability
Our firm is responsible for the personal information we collect and which is under our control. To fulfill this responsibility, we have implemented appropriate security and training measures within our firm.
H. Openness
We make information about our personal information collection and management procedures available to all interested parties. If you have any questions about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information or this Policy, please contact Beth Moore in writing as described below.
I. Access to your Personal Information
You are entitled to access your personal information. To make an access request, please contact Beth Moore in writing, as described in paragraph L of this Policy.
Summary information will be made available to you upon your request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.
Please note that your right to access is not absolute and we may deny access:
(i) when denial of access is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing your personal information is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege by one of our clients);
(ii) when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you;
(iii) to protect our firm's rights and property;
(iv) when the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you;
(v) when granting access would have an unreasonable impact on other people's privacy; or
(vi) where the request is frivolous or vexatious.
If we refuse your request for access or refuse your request to correct information, we will explain why.
J. Safeguards to Protect your Personal Information
Our firm takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your personal information are:
(i) Premises security;
(ii) Restricted file access to personal information;
(iii) Technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to
prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access; and
(iv) Internal password and security policies.
Employees who have access to personal information receive appropriate training to ensure compliance with our Privacy Policy. Personal information that is no longer required is returned to you, destroyed or rendered anonymous.
You should be aware that email is not a completely secure medium and no data transmitted over the internet can be guaranteed 100% secure. As a result, we cannot assure the security of any information transmitted to us over the internet and you do so at your own risk. Please do not disclose personal information or other information that you expect to be subject to solicitor client information by email until you have retained Beth Moore to act for you.
Our website
You do not have to submit any information in order to visit our website. On our website, like most commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregate information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information. Please note that our website may contain links to other websites, which are not governed by this Privacy Policy.
K. Accuracy
Our firm is committed to maintaining accurate, complete and up-to-date personal information. If you are aware of any changes to the personal information you have provided to us, simply inform us of those changes and we will update our records.
You may review and correct your personal information by contacting Beth Moore as set out in paragraph L of this Policy.
L. Information Requests
As a sole practitioner, I, Beth Moore, am responsible for managing my firm’s compliance with this Privacy Policy. I will respond to your information requests regarding our privacy policies or about your personal information under our care and control.
I can be reached in writing at:
A. Beth Moore
Barrister & Solicitor
2600 Danforth Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M4C 1L3
I investigate all complaints received by my firm and will respond in writing in a timely manner. If a complaint is found to be justified, I will take appropriate measures to resolve the matter to the satisfaction of the complainant.
In the event that you are not satisfied with the response you receive from me, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at the following address: