Communication Guidelines
This policy only applies to clients who have retained us. For prospective client’s, please go to this section, POLICY FOR COMMUNICATION WITH FUTURE CLIENTS.
Communication Techniques
In order to satisfy our customers' requirements and expectations, we strive to provide the best client service we can while promptly addressing their queries and issues. Direct client communication will be placed via the following channels:
Please be aware that we do not connect with clients through text messages or social media in order to preserve the confidentiality of paralegal-client relationships and to maximise efficiency. We will destroy any text messages you send us or that we receive.
Modifications to the Client Contact Information
You have a responsibility to us as a client to promptly let us know if your contact information changes. Failure to do so might prevent you from receiving important communications and could have a negative effect on your legal case.
The Legal Service Interim Reporting, invoices and statements of account.
You will get frequent updates on the legal services we provide you as a client. You will get these updates through email, along with any bills, usually a week after we provide services in the stages of your matter. Additionally, you may get letters outlining significant developments that have an impact on your matter. A Final Reporting Letter, for instance, will be sent to you after your matter has been resolved. We may also send you a Microsoft Outlook calendar invitation reminding both of us of events requiring your presence or involvement, such as a hearing/court date or meeting.
Calling Us
If we are available when you phone, we will without a doubt respond to your request right away. We would be glad to personally answer every single incoming call, however; in most cases, we make schedules in advance to maintain a focused and effective practice.
If your situation calls for communicating with us right away, it is often more expedient to set up a phone call, a virtual or remote conference, or send us a brief email. If we are available, we will undoubtedly respond as quickly as possible. Please be aware that returning messages and voicemails from planned calls come first.
Email is the most practical form of communication.
We ask that each incoming email sent by our clients include a suitable subject that properly describes the message's contents. This way, we can swiftly search our email system for any critical issues that need our immediate attention.
With the exception of weekends and holidays, we normally review all direct emails three times a day, in the morning, at noon, and at the end of the day. We aim to reply to emails within a 24-hour period. However; if more legal research is necessary before replying to your question, it can take us longer than 24 hours to respond.
During the pandemic, we recommend that follow-up meetings be held over the phone or remotely rather than replying to complicated and lengthy emails. This would be an effective use of our time, and we kindly request that you do so.
Communication that is Urgent
Instead of merely leaving a voicemail message if an issue is serious, you should email and phone us. If you put "Urgent" in the subject line of your email, and during one of our email scans we come across such an email, we will interrupt or change our daily routine and get back to you through email or phone as soon as possible. If your matter is not of an urgent nature, we will send you a request to book an appointment instead.
If we need your immediate attention, we'll phone you first, then send you a follow-up email and normal letter through mail.
POLICY FOR COMMUNICATION WITH FUTURE CLIENTS
We do not provide in-depth legal counsel over the phone or over email.
We will provide quick summaries of legal counsel pertaining to forms and processes, but we will not give specific substantive guidance or advice.
You must schedule an appointment and submit an intake form if you need actual legal assistance.
Whether we provide you general or detailed legal advice, all of our communications with you will be treated in the strictest of confidentiality.
In addition to our brief consultation, you may schedule a one-hour appointment. Please be aware that our minimum hourly rate is $150.00.
Your Rights to Privacy
A Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information was created by the Canadian Standards Association and accepted as a national standard in 1996. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, a piece of federal privacy law, has included the requirements of this Code (PIPEDA). As of January 1, 2004, all companies doing business must abide by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information developed by the Canadian Standards Association. Both paralegals and paralegal companies are subject to these requirements. You have rights under the Act regarding the confidentiality of your personal information.
We are accountable for the personal data we collect and maintain. We have created this policy and will educate incoming personnel about our rules and procedures in order to achieve this responsibility.
Our website's privacy statement
What personal information we gather and why.
Links on our website lead to external websites that are not covered by this privacy statement.
Similar to the majority of other commercial websites, we may keep an eye on site use, traffic patterns, and other relevant site data on our website in order to improve our online service. We sometimes share statistical data with other parties, but this data does not contain any personally identifying information.
In the future, when users write comments on our site, we'll additionally keep track of their user agent string from their browser and their IP address to aid with spam identification.
Media
Please refrain from adding any photographs to the website. However; if you post photographs to the website, you should refrain from uploading any that have EXIF GPS stored in them. Any location data from photographs on the website may be downloaded and extracted by website visitors.
Cookies
We could use external ad networks, such as Google AdSense.
You may choose whether or not to have your name, email address, and website saved in cookies whenever you make a comment on our website. These are provided for your convenience so that you won't have to re-enter your information each time you post a remark. The shelf life of these cookies is one year. We strongly advise against giving out personal data in order to preserve your privacy.
If you visit one of our login pages, we will, whether necessary, create a transient cookie to check if your browser permits cookies. This cookie is deleted when your browser is closed and does not contain any personal information.
We will also create a number of cookies when you log in to preserve your login details and screen display preferences. Screen option cookies last a year, whereas login cookies are only valid for two days. For two weeks, your login will be persistent if you choose "Remember Me." The cookies for your login will be deleted after you log out of your account.
In your browser, a new cookie will be stored whenever you update or publish an article. This cookie just contains the post ID of the article you just modified and contains no personal information. It runs out after a day.
Material from other websites that is embedded
This website's articles can include embedded material (e.g., videos, images, articles, etc.). When another website's content is embedded, it operates exactly as if the user had really visited the other website.
These websites may track your interaction with the embedded content, gather information about you, utilise cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your activity. This includes monitoring your activity if you have an account and are signed in to the website.
Who we disclose your information to and how long we keep it
If you post a remark, both the comment and any associated information are kept forever. This allows us to detect and approve any subsequent comments without having to manually moderate them.
In the event that any users register on our website, we additionally retain the personal data they provide in their user profile. Anytime, any user may access, amend, or delete their personal information (except they cannot change their username). Administrators of the website may also access and modify such data.
How you may exercise your data rights
If you have posted comments, you may ask for an exported file of all your personal data that we store, together with any data you have given us. You may also ask us to delete any personal information we may have on you. This does not apply to any information that we must maintain for administrative, legal, or security reasons.
Where your data is sent
An automatic spam detection service may be used to review visitor comments.
How we utilise user data for automated decision-making and/or profiling.
We don't make decisions automatically. We may make use of Google Analytics, a tracking tool, for profiling. Google Analytics is a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand that measures and reports website traffic. Google Analytics is a web analytics tool.
OUR PROFESSION
INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT PEOPLE WHEN WE PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES
Privacy and discretion
Privacy & Confidentiality: According to the Law Society of Ontario's Rules of Conduct, we are expected to keep all client information in the strictest of confidence. Any communication between the client and us will also be treated as confidential and won't be made public unless compelled by law.
We shall make every effort to abide by the guidelines of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act while handling any sensitive information we may have encountered or learned about while serving our client’s.
Guidelines for Fair Information
The PIPEDA outlines Ten fair information practices principles, which we have established in our privacy policy. The list is as follows:
Accountability - Businesses should designate a person to oversee privacy-related matters. Customers should be able to access information about their privacy policies and practices.
Identifying purposes - Before or at the time of acquiring your personal information, the organisation must explain its intentions.
Organizations are required to get your consent before collecting, using, or disclosing your personal information.
Limiting collection - Organizations should only acquire the minimum quantity and kind of information required.
Limiting use, disclosure, and retention - Unless you provide permission, organisations should generally only use or disclose your personal information for the specific reason(s) for which it was acquired. Your personal information should only be retained for as long as is required.
Accuracy - Businesses should maintain your personal information to the highest standards of accuracy, completeness, and correctness.
Security measures must be used by organisations to prevent the loss or theft of your personal information.
Openness - A company's privacy policies and procedures need to be clear and accessible.
Individual access - In general, you have the right to view the personal data that a company has on file about you.
Recourse (Challenging compliance) - Businesses need to have straightforward and accessible complaint processes. You should be made aware of your options for complaints when you contact a company about a privacy issue.
Use of Your Information (Identifiable Purposes)
We use your personal information to operate our client time and billing databases, to offer legal advice and services to you, and to include you in any direct marketing initiatives. We won't send any further information if you let us know that you don't want to hear from us about our legal services, business news, industry updates, or any other updates.
Your personal information won't be given to anybody else so they may promote their goods and services. For instance, we don't provide other paralegal businesses access to our customer email lists.
Consent
In most situations, we will ask for your consent before collecting, using, or disclosing any of your personal information. When required, we may take your oral permission in addition to asking for it in writing at times. Your actions toward us or the nature and conditions of our relationship may sometimes imply your permission. Should you withdraw your permission, it can affect how we can continue to work with you and the paralegal-client relationship.
How We Protect Your Data
Safeguards - We are obligated to use suitable security measures to prevent the loss or theft of your personal information.
We take all required safety measures to protect your personal information from loss, theft, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. Among the measures taken to safeguard your personal data are:
-Confidentiality Policies in accordance with our duties as professionals.
-Using technical defences like security software and firewalls to stop "hacking" or unwanted access to computers.
-To provide security and appropriate disaster recovery, we deploy Acronis Secure Cloud storage, encrypted backup hard drives, and encrypted thumb drives.
-We adhere to security guidelines and employ internal passwords.
-All physical copies of your personal information are securely stored by us.
What policies we have in place against data breaches
We reserve the right to release your personal information in certain situations. In some cases, such as the following:
-when you have consented to the disclosure;
-when the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your information to third parties, your consent will be implied unless you tell us otherwise;
-when we are required or authorised by law to do so, such as, for example, if a court issues a warrant or subpoena;
-in order to comply with the requirement of the Law Society of Ontario, the regulatory body that oversees the practice of law in Ontario.
-in the event of a Business Operations merger or our anticipated growth;
-if we contract with a third party to perform administrative services for us (such as computer backup services, archival file storage, or insurance), and the third party is subject to obligations regarding privacy that are consistent with this policy.
-if we retain another legal firm (i.e., law firms in another jurisdiction) on your behalf;
-in the event of a merger in our business operations or our anticipated expansion;
-or if we call expert witnesses on your behalf.
When You Contact Us
Your name, email address, and other personal information you provide in messages are processed when you contact us (for example, by email or the Contact Us form). The reason, and our justification, is for responding to your query and if necessary, perform any follow-up inquiries.
When contacting us to convey sensitive or private information, you should be aware that email is not a completely secure channel unless you have used encryption, therefore you should be aware of this.
The email you send leaves your email provider's server and travels over the internet when you send it. Between the time the message is sent and the time the receiver actually gets it, it will likely go via a number of servers, and you have no clue who has access to them.
You should never share any sensitive information by email, such as your credit card number, Social Security number, or other personal data, due to emails' inherent susceptibility.
You won't be regarded as a client unless we've accepted to represent you in accordance with our standard practices for taking on clients, which includes a signed written retainer agreement.
In your email, avoid including any sensitive information. Our company will quickly remove any private information.
In Person
We prefer to use in-person hand-off or mail when it comes to secure document exchange. In the digital era, it may not be the most efficient approach, but there is no mode of communication that is safer than sending your papers to us by mail or in person.
You should drop off, mail, or courier a password-encrypted USB flash drive to our office if you want to send us any private papers.
What third parties we obtain data from
We don't receive data on you from any third parties unless you request it, with the exception of information related to your court case.
GETTING ACCESS TO PERSONAL DATA
Personalized access - In general, you are entitled to see the personal data that our company has on file for you.
You have the right to request access to the personal data we maintain on you. An administrative charge as well as any out-of-pocket expenditures or disbursement fees may apply to detailed requests that call for archive or other retrieval costs.
Access to your personal information is not always guaranteed by law. We reserve the right to refuse access in a variety of circumstances. We shall provide you a reason or reasons if we decline your request for access to or for the correction of your personal information.
Requests for Personal Information Access (Accountability)
Contact the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at 112 Kent Street in Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 1H3 if you are dissatisfied with our answer.
MODIFICATIONS TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
As a result, we periodically examine all of our policies and processes, including this privacy policy, and as a result, we could sometimes amend or alter it.
Changes to the Accuracy of Your Contact Information
Accuracy - Your personal information must be kept by us in an accurate, full, and current manner at all times.
Since we will utilise your personal information to deliver legal services to you after you become a client, it is crucial that the information you provide us is accurate and current as part of our client-paralegal relationship. Please notify us right away if any of your personal information changes during the retainer, such as a name change, address change, phone number change, or email change, so that we may make the appropriate adjustments to our company records and any relevant court records.
NAVIGATE
CONTACT US
