Disclaimer & privacy policy
We recognize the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.
DISCLAIMER Our website (www.reeselaw.ca) provides general information about the Law Office of Barry Reese. The content, information and material on this website are for general informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice or our legal opinion on any subject or issue whatsoever. This website does not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and Barry Reese. The transmission of e-mail to our Law Office does not create, and receipt will not constitute, a solicitor-client relationship. Until a solicitor-client relationship is established, any information you provide to our Law Office will not be protected by lawyer-client privilege. If you wish to provide us with confidential information, please contact Barry Reese by telephone or in person to arrange for delivery/transmission of such information by secure means. We do not warrant the quality, accuracy or completeness of any information on our website. Such information is provided on an “as is” basis without warranty or representation of any kind. The information may contain errors and inaccuracies, or may simply not apply to your situation. We will, however, use reasonable efforts to maintain the accuracy of, and to continually update, the information on this site. Our website (www.reeselaw.ca) contains links to other sites which are not governed by this privacy policy. We are not responsible or liable for any access, viewing, or use by you of any other website notwithstanding it is accessed by a link from this website. While we do not retain any specific personal information with respect to any visitor to our website, like most other commercial websites, we do monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information to optimize our web service. In the continuing development of our website we may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not contain any identifiable personal information. E-mail is not a 100% secure medium and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information. If you e-mail us and/or indicate that you prefer the convenience of e-mail communications, we will communicate by e-mail until advised otherwise. We do not, however, guarantee the confidentiality of e-mail communications and accept no responsibility or liability for the risks inherent in e-mail usage. You may reproduce the contents of this website for your own personal use, provided that all copyright notices and this disclaimer remain on, or are attached to, any copies so produced. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS From January 1, 2004, all Ontario organizations engaged in commercial activities must comply with the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, also known as PIPEDA. We are responsible for the personal information we collect, use and disclose. To ensure this accountability, we have developed this policy and educated our lawyer(s) and staff about our policies and practices. “Personal Information” is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. WHY DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM YOU? We collect personal information from our clients in order to: • provide legal services to you, in accordance with your instructions; • bill you for legal services rendered; • provide information to you about developments in the law; • advise you of upcoming firm events, or market our legal services to you, help us make credit decisions about clients, prevent fraud, check the identity of new clients and prevent money-laundering. HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? We collect information only by lawful and fair means and not indiscriminately. We may collect personal information directly from you at the start of a retainer, in the course of our representation, or by your request via our website. Consent for the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information may be obtained orally or in writing and may be expressly given or implied. We may also from time to time, when we are providing services to you, ask you to give your written consent to the use and disclosure of specific personal information. In determining how we obtain your consent, we will take into account the sensitivity of your personal information that we are collecting, using and/or disclosing. If you are receiving e-mail or other communications from us, you can always unsubscribe via the links provided in the e-mail, or you may contact our office to process your request. IF YOU DON’T CONSENT The choice to provide The Law Office of Barry Reese with personal information is always up to you. Upon request, we will explain your options of refusing or withdrawing consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information and will record and respect your written choices. However, your decision to withhold particular details may limit our ability to provide our services to you. This measure is necessary to protect the integrity of the services offered by The Law Office of Barry Reese. Furthermore, any refusing or withdrawing of consent is always subject to any overriding legal requirements or commitments. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION Under certain circumstances The Law Office of Barry Reese may disclose your personal information: • when we are required or authorized by law to do so; • when the legal services we are providing require us to give your information to third parties (for example, to a lender or the other party in a real estate or mortgage transaction) your consent will be implied unless you tell us otherwise; • where it is necessary to establish or collect fees; • if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (such as computer back-up services or archival file storage or e-mailing services) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy; • if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf; • if we retain other law firms in this or other jurisdictions on your behalf; • if we are involved in negotiations for the merger or transfer of our practice; • if the information is already publicly known. UPDATING YOUR INFORMATION Since we use your personal information to provide legal services to you, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date. If, during the course of the retainer, any of the information changes, or if you should become aware that the personal information which we have is incorrect, please inform us so that we can make the necessary changes. IS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE? We take 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 information are: • premises security; • restricted access to personal information; • deploying technological safeguards such as security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access; • internal password and security policies; • obligation of each lawyer to maintain client confidentiality under the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of Upper Canada; • where necessary or appropriate, by requiring third parties to sign a confidentiality agreement. As The Law Office of Barry Reese is responsible for any personal information under its control, including personal information that we may transfer to a third party for processing, we will use contractual or other means to provide a comparable level of privacy protection when personal information is being processed by a third party on our behalf. ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION You may request access to any personal information we hold about you. Summary information is available on written request. More detailed requests that require archive retrieval or copying costs may be subject to reasonable reimbursement for our actual costs. CAN I BE DENIED ACCESS TO MY PERSONAL INFORMATION? Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. We may deny access when: • denial of access is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege by one of our clients); • information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you; • granting you access would have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy; • to do so would prejudice negotiations with you; • to protect our firm’s rights and property; • the request is frivolous or vexatious. If we deny your request for access, or refuse a request to correct information, we will explain why. We do not use your Social Insurance Number as a way of identifying or organizing the information we hold about you, but we may need it for income tax reporting purposes if we hold or invest funds for you in our trust accounts. HOW LONG DO YOU KEEP MY PERSONAL INFORMATION? We retain your personal information for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to complete our dealings with you, or as may be required by law or for purpose of compliance with our professional obligations. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY We regularly review our policies and procedures, and we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. Please refer to our website for updates. Any Questions or Concerns? If you have any questions or comments about our Privacy Policy or privacy practices or wish to access or update your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer, Barry Reese, by email at barry@reeselaw.ca or by mail at: The Law Office of Barry Reese 2335 Argentia Rd, Mississauga, ON L5N 8K4 ATTN: Chief Privacy Officer You may also contact The Law Office of Barry Reese by calling (905) 501-9777. |