Terms of Use

Our firm recognizes the importance of your personal privacy and the sensitivity of your personal information. As lawyers we have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a lawyer-client relationship. We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.

What personal information is collected through this website and how is it used?

We collect information about our users in three ways: directly from the user, from our Web server logs and through cookies. We use the information primarily to provide you with a personalized Internet experience that delivers the information, resources and services that are most relevant and helpful to you. We don’t share any of the information you provide with others, unless we say so in this Privacy Policy, or when we believe in good faith that the law requires it.

A) User-supplied information: If you fill out the contact form on this website, we will ask you to provide some personal information (such as e-mail address, name, phone number and state). We only require that you provide an e-mail address on the contact form. Please do not submit any confidential, proprietary or sensitive personally identifiable information (e.g. Social Security Number; date of birth; drivers license number; or credit card, bank account or other financial information) (collectively, “Sensitive Information”). If you submit any Sensitive Information, you do so at your own risk and we will not be liable to you or responsible for consequences of your submission.

Information that you provide to us through the contact form will be used so that we may respond to your inquiry. We may also use information you provide to us to communicate with you in the future. If you do not wish to receive such communications, you may opt out (unsubscribe) as described below.

B) Web server logs: When you visit our website, we may track information about your visit and store that information in web server logs, which are records of the activities on our sites. The servers automatically capture and save the information electronically. Examples of the information we may collect include:

your unique Internet protocol address.
the name of your unique Internet service provider.
the town/city, county/state and country from which you access our website.
the kind of browser or computer you use.
the number of links you click within the site.
the date and time of your visit.
the web page from which you arrived to our site.
the pages you viewed on the site.
certain searches/queries that you conducted via our website(s).

The information we collect in web server logs helps us administer the site, analyze its usage, protect the website and its content from inappropriate use and improve the user’s experience.

C) Cookies: In order to offer and provide a customized and personal service, our websites and applications may use cookies to store and help track information about you. Cookies are simply small pieces of data that are sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. We use cookies to help remind us who you are and to help you navigate our sites during your visits.

The use of cookies is relatively standard. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. However, if you prefer, you can set your browser to either notify you when you receive a cookie, or to refuse to accept cookies. You should understand that some features of many sites may not function properly if you don’t accept cookies.

Use of Your Information

We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services, to fulfill our own professional responsibilities, to administer our client (time and billing databases) to manage our conflict avoidance program and, occasionally, to include you in our marketing activities. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive marketing information about our services, or about new developments in the law, we will not send any further material to you.

Our firm does not disclose personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services. For example, we do not provide our client mailing lists to others.

We will retain personal information as long as may be necessary to complete our retainer, fulfill our own professional responsibilities, conduct our business, satisfy the requirements of the Law Society of Upper Canada and our insurers and as may be required for the maintenance of our marketing activities and our conflicts system.

How is personal information protected?

We take certain appropriate security measures to help protect your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use or disclosure.

Among the steps taken to protect information are:

Premises security.
Restricted file access to electronic personal information.
Deploying technological safeguards like password protection, security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access.
Internal password and security policies.
Procedures for the destruction of personal information when it is no longer required including shredding and the formatting of electronic media.

However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized persons will always be unable to defeat our security measures.

Who has access to the information?

We will not sell, rent, or lease mailing lists or other user data to others, and we will not make your personal information available to any unaffiliated parties, except as follows:

to agents, website vendors and/or contractors who may use it on our behalf or in connection with their relationship with us;
if we are unable to assist with your matter, but know an unaffiliated attorney or firm that may be able to help you, we may refer you and share information you provided us with that party; and
as required by law, in a matter of public safety or policy, as needed in connection with the transfer of our business assets (for example, if we are acquired by another firm or if we are liquidated during bankruptcy proceedings), or if we believe in good faith that sharing the data is necessary to protect our rights or property.

How can I correct, amend or delete my personal information and/or opt out of future communications?

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. Contact us via the phone number, contact form or mailing address on our website at any time to:

see what data we have about you, if any.
change/correct any data we have about you.
ask us to delete any data we have about you.
opt out of future communications from us.

If you have any additional questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please contact us via the phone number, contact form or mailing address listed on this website. If our information practices change in a significant way, we will post the policy changes here.