Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. WITH Legal is committed to maintaining the confidentiality, security and accuracy of your personal information.

This Policy describes the personal information that we collect in the normal course of our business, whether through our website or otherwise, how we use and safeguard that information and to whom we may disclose that personal information.

Personal information is information which allows an individual to be identified. However, name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization where such information is used for a business purpose is not personal information. 

Collection, Use
and Disclosure
of Personal Information.

We may collect, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of:

  • providing legal advice to you and representing you;

  • better understanding your background and relationships, customizing our services to your interests and provide relevant advice and information;

  • avoiding any conflict of interest;

  • communicating with you, and for billing and administrative purposes;

  • providing general legal information and updates of our firm and sending holiday cards;

  • meeting legal, professional and regulatory requirements, including without limitation anti-money laundering requirements.

We may collect, use and disclose personal information of individuals who are not our clients for related purposes, including in the course of serving our clients. If you provide us with personal information regarding another individual, you represent that, prior to providing such information, you have obtained the necessary consent to permit us to collect, use and disclose this personal information.

If you provide us with your personal information through our website, you are consenting to our use of that personal information in order to contact you or for purposes reasonably connected to your provision of personal information. By using our website, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Policy. 

We may collect information about all users of our website, including IP addresses, time, date, referring internet sites, search data and pages visited. Please see the section on cookies (not the edible ones!) set out below. 

You may provide personal information when you open a file or work with us or in the course of other dealings with us. In those situations we will rely on either your express or implied consent as is appropriate in the circumstances, to permit us to use your personal information. 

Use of Personal Information.

If you provide us with your personal information or personal information of other individuals, we will use it for the purpose for which it was collected.  If your personal information was provided through our website we will use it to communicate with you, respond to your request for information, to ensure proper functioning of our website or to review the effectiveness and usefulness of our website. 

If you provide personal information in relation to a file or request for legal services we will use that personal information to communicate with you, provide you legal services and meet any applicable legal requirements such as service requirements. 

If you provide personal information in respect of a legal information session or other marketing initiative, we will use your personal information to communicate with you about a specific or future event or initiative that may be of interest to you or that may provide you with information relevant to your relationship with our firm. 

We may also use your personal information for other purposes permitted by you or by applicable laws. 

Where permitted or required to do so by applicable law, regulation or by applicable professional ethics, we may use or disclose your personal information without your knowledge or consent. This includes disclosure to regulatory authorities and Law Society of British Columbia.

At any time you may advise us that you no longer consent to the use or disclosure of the personal information that you have provided for any or all of the identified purposes. Subject to our right to do so without your knowledge or consent as mentioned above, we will stop using and disclosing your personal information.

Sharing Personal Information with Others.

In providing our services, we may need to disclose personal information we collected to other service providers or agents who perform various functions for us. Where we disclose personal information to a third-party service provider or agent, our agreement with such third party will stipulate that the third party agrees to only use the personal information for the purposes specified in the agreement and that they agree to provide a level of protection of personal information comparable to that used by us.

We do not sell client lists or personal information to others.

In certain circumstances, we may be required to provide personal information to third parties for legal or regulatory purposes.

Personal information of clients is protected by a lawyer’s professional responsibility to protect client confidences. The law of lawyer-client privilege also protects privileged information, which a lawyer must never disclose without client instructions. The applicable privacy legislation and this Policy do not abrogate lawyer-client privilege but rather provide that nothing in the legislation or this Policy affects lawyer-client privilege. Accordingly, we will protect client confidences and information which is covered by lawyer-client privilege.

How We Safeguard Information.

We use physical, administrative and electronic procedures to keep personal information secure. These means of protecting and maintaining the security of the personal information help to prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security and ensure the appropriate use of your personal information once we have received it.

While we take appropriate safeguards with personal information, no website or physical, administrative or electronic protection of personal information can be completely secure. You should not send confidential or sensitive information by the internet or by email unless you take appropriate precautions such as encryption. There are inherent risks involved in the exchange and safeguarding of information using any form of communication – electronic or otherwise – including, but not limited to the cloud. If your information is stored on the cloud, your information may be exported outside of Canada. With data stored on the cloud, it is also possible that your data could be compellable by a foreign government.

We assume no liability for any damages you may suffer as a result of any possible disclosure and/or misuse of personal/confidential information during such exchanges of information. Our preferred method of communication is e-mail and electronic communication, and, unless you otherwise direct us in writing, we may use unencrypted emails when communicating with you.

Keeping Personal Information Accurate.

It is important that personal information you provided to us is accurate and complete. It enables us to give you the best possible service. With some exceptions, you have the right to access, verify and amend the personal information we have. You can help us keep personal information accurate by keeping us informed of any changes, such as a change of address, telephone number or any other circumstances.

If you identify any personal information that is out-of-date, incorrect or incomplete, please let us know and we will make the corrections promptly.

Website Creates
no Lawyer/Client Relationship.

No lawyer/client, advisory or fiduciary of relationship is created by any use of our website or email communication to us or by use of this Policy, including by any use of our website to communicate with us.

Our website may not be used to request legal advice or to transmit any confidential information relating to the provision of legal advice. 

Any information that you transmit to us through our website may not be secure, may not be treated as confidential and is not protected by lawyer-client privilege. 

We will collect your name, address, telephone number, email address and any additional details you choose to provide to us if you complete the form to contact us in our website. We will use this personal information solely for the purposes of responding to you.

Cookies.

When a person visits our website, we may use a browser feature called a "cookie" to collect information such as the type of internet browser and operating system the visitor uses, the domain name of the website from which the visitor came, date and duration of the visit, the number of visits, the average time spent on our website, pages viewed and number of cookies accumulated. A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that identifies the visitor’s browser, but not necessarily the visitor, to our computers each time our website is visited. Unless a visitor specifically informs us (e.g. by registering for an event or sending us correspondence from the website), we will not know who the visitor is.

In addition to the identified purposes described in this Policy, we may use this information and share it with other organizations with whom we have a commercial relationship to measure the use of our website, to improve the functionality and content of our website and to facilitate usage by a visitor.

Visitors can reset their browsers either to notify them when they have received a cookie or refuse to accept cookies. If you are using our website and have not set your browser to reject cookies, you are considered to have consented to their use. If you refuse to accept cookies, you may have difficulty using certain features of our website.

Links.

Our website may include links to other internet sites or resources and business operated by other persons. We have no responsibility or liability for, or control over, other websites, their business, goods, services, or content. We urge you to find out about the privacy policies of these other websites. Your dealings with the owners and operators of the other websites are at your own risk.

Amendments to Privacy Policy.

We reserve the right to make changes to this Policy at our sole discretion at any time without notice to you. Each time you use this website, you should check this Policy as it exists at the time.

Contact Us.

If you have any questions or would like more information about this Policy, please contact us.