B. F. Lippett Professional Corporation
Privacy Policy
F. Lippett Professional Corporation (the “BFL-PC” or “we” or “us”) recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of 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.
Your Privacy Rights
From January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, which it incorporates. These obligations extend to lawyers and law firms, including BFL-PC. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information. We also are committed to maintaining the accuracy, security, and privacy of Personal Information in accordance with the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of Upper Canada. BFL-PC is responsible for the Personal Information that we collect and hold. To ensure this accountability, we have developed this policy, and trained our lawyers and support staff about our policies and practices.
What is Personal Information?
“Personal Information” is information about an identifiable individual, but does not include business contact information, such as your name, title or position, business address, telephone number, facsimile number, or email address of an employee of an organization.
Personal Information We Collect
The categories of Personal Information that we may collect, use, and disclose will vary from case to case and the nature of our relationship with you. As a client, we may collect your name, e-mail address, age, business or home mailing address, residential phone number, billing and account information, and personal information related to corporate relationships and activities, information about your legal issue, and other information incidental to providing you with legal advice and services.
As a user of our Website, we may collect information such as the IP address associated with your computer, HTTP-Referrer information, the date and time of your visit to the Website, pages or other files you requested, how long you spend at our Website, and your browser type. We only use or disclose this information in the event that we experience technical or security issues, or in the aggregate to assist us in understanding how our Website users use the resources we make available through our Website. Depending on your Internet service provider’s system configuration, this information may or may not be associated with you as an identifiable individual.
We collect your email address when you voluntarily send us an email through our Website or when you subscribe to our eBulletins. We use your subscription information only to send you eBulletins or other BFL-PC publications you requested.
How We Collect Your Personal Information
We collect Personal Information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way, including in our retainer agreements, written correspondence, email, faxes, and by telephone discussions. Wherever possible we collect Personal Information directly from you, both at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation, or from third parties acting as agents where we have obtained your consent to do so (for example, from another lawyer or professional service provider acting for you or from your employer or business partner) or as otherwise permitted by law.
How we Use of Your Information
We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, to administer our client (time and billing databases) and to include you (with your express consent) in any direct marketing activities. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive information about our services, or about new developments in the law, we will not send any further material.
BFL-PC does not disclose your 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 other law firms.
Disclosure of Your Personal Information
Under certain circumstances, BFL-PC will 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;
- where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
- if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (like computer back-up services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy;
- if we retain other law firms at your request, and on your behalf, and with your express consent;
- if the information is Publicly Available Personal Information, as it is defined under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
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 your information changes, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.
Protection of Your Personal Information
BFL-PC 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 information are:
- premises security;
- restricted file access to Personal Information;
- deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access; and
- internal password and security policies.
You should be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.
Access to Your Personal Information; Correcting Errors
You may ask for access to any Personal Information we hold about you. Summary information is available on request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees. If BFL-PC holds information about you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, then we will take reasonable steps to correct it.
Can I be denied access to my Personal Information?
Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. We may deny access when:
- it is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing Personal Information about you is protected by solicitor-client privilege);
- to do so would reveal confidential commercial information, and the Personal Information cannot be severed from the record;
- to do so could reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual, and the Personal Information cannot be severed from the record; or
- the information was generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process.
If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct information, we shall explain why.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Since BFL-PC regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time.
Requests for Access
For any inquiries about your Personal Information, please contact Barbara Lippett at Barbara@LippettLegal.com or (613) 592-4410.
Employment Inquiries
If you apply to BFL-PC for a job, we need to consider your Personal Information, as part of our review process. We normally retain information from candidates after a decision has been made, unless you ask us not to retain the information. If we offer you a job, which you accept, the information will be retained in accordance with our privacy procedures for employee records.
Website
Our Website contains links to other sites, which are not governed by this privacy policy.
On our Website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimise our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.