Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation Privacy Policy
Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation 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
As of January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code (“CSAMC”) for the Protection of Personal Information, which it incorporates. These obligations extend to lawyers and law firms, including Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information. Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation is responsible for the personal information we collect and hold. To ensure accountability, we have developed this policy, and trained our lawyers and support staff about our policies and practices.
Why Does Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation Need Personal Information?
Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation provides legal services and products to a wide range of clients. In general, we collect, use and disclose Personal Information about our clients and service providers in order to provide our clients with professional legal services. More specifically, we collect, use and disclose your Personal Information for the following purposes, where applicable: a) to establish and manage client relationships, provide legal advice, perform legal services, fulfill legal duties, and avoid conflicts of interest. This may include the sharing of Personal Information by and between our personnel and affiliated companies and partnerships for such purposes;
b) to share Personal Information to and from third parties for the purpose of providing legal services. Such third parties may include, but are not limited to, opposing parties; parties in interest; opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors; witnesses; decision-makers; and experts;
c) to consider whether Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation should establish a commercial relationship with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including to evaluate credit standing and to match credit bureau or credit reporting agency information;
d) to establish and maintain commercial relationships with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, and to fulfill contractual obligations;
e) to understand and respond to client, supplier and other third party needs and preferences, including to contact and communicate with such parties and to conduct surveys, research and evaluations;
f) to develop, enhance, market, sell or otherwise provide our products and services;
g) to market, sell or otherwise provide products and services of third parties with whom Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation has a commercial relationship;
h) to distribute informational, e-mail communications, and other materials;
i) to develop and manage Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation’s business and operations;
j) to detect and protect Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation and other third parties against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity, and to audit compliance with Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation policies and contractual obligations;
k) to develop and manage our knowledge-management precedent systems and databases;
l) to engage in business transactions, including the purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal, securitization or financing involving Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation;
m) as permitted by, and to comply with, any legal or regulatory requirements or provisions; and
n) for any other purpose to which you consent.
What personal information do we collect?
Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. If we did not collect and use your personal information, we could not provide you with legal services.
How do we collect your personal information?
We collect information only by lawful and fair means, and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Wherever possible we collect your personal information directly from you, both at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation. Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources, including, but not limited to: your insurance company; your real estate agent in a property transaction; from a government agency or registry; your employer, if we are acting for you, at its request; and your accountant.
Consent
Your provision of Personal Information to Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation means that you agree and consent that we may collect, use and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In some cases, we may ask you to specifically consent in writing, to collect, use, or disclose your personal information, however, we may accept your oral consent or your consent may be implied through your conduct with us. If you do not agree with these terms, you are requested not to provide any Personal Information to Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation. Please note, certain services can only be offered to you if you provide Personal Information to Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation. Consequently, if you choose not provide us with any required Personal Information, Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation may not be able to offer you those services. In order to protect your own interest you should not send confidential information to Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation until you have retained our firm to provide you with legal services.
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 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. Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation 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. However, your personal information may be subject to transfer to another organization in the event of a merger or change of ownership of all or part of Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation. This will occur if the parties have entered into an agreement under which the collection, use and disclosure of the information is restricted to those purposes that relate to the business transaction, including a determination whether or not to proceed with the business transaction, and is to be used by the parties to carry out and complete the business transaction.
Disclosure of your Personal Information
Under certain circumstances, Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation 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;
• when the legal services we are providing to you requires us give your information to third parties (for example a lender in a real estate 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 (like computer back-up services or archival file storage);
• if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf;
• if we retain other law firms at your request, and on your behalf;
• if the information is Publicly Available Personal Information, as it is defined under PIPEDA. 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, you must inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.
Is My Personal Information Secure?
Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation takes reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.
Retention
Your Personal Information is stored in secured locations and on servers controlled, either directly or indirectly, by Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation, located either at our offices or off-site storage facilities. Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation keeps Personal Information only as long as it is required for the reasons it was collected. The length of time we retain information varies, depending on the product or service and the nature of the information. This period may extend beyond the end of a your relationship with us but it will be only for so long as it is necessary for us to have sufficient information to respond to any issues which may arise at a later date. When your Personal Information is no longer required for Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation’s purposes, we have procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert it into an anonymous form.
Access to Your Personal Information
You may request access to any personal information we hold about you and same will be provided to you within a reasonable time following receipt of your request. Please note that requests for detailed information which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.
Correcting Errors
If Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation holds information about you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation will take reasonable steps to correct it if, in our opinion, the information in our possession is not as accurate, current or complete as necessary for the purposes of which Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation uses that information.
Can I be denied access to my Personal Information?
Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. We may deny access when, but not limited to, situations where:
• 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. Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation does not use your Social Insurance Number as a way of identifying or organizing the information we hold upon you.
Can I request anonymity?
Whenever it is legal and practicable, we may offer the opportunity to deal with general inquiries without providing your name (for example, by accessing general information on our Website). The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act requires us to confirm the identity of all new clients. It may also require us disclose information to FINTRAC in relation to certain large cash transactions.
Credit Bureaus
To help us make credit decisions about clients, prevent fraud, check the identity of new clients and prevent money-laundering, we may, with your consent, request information about you from the files of consumer reporting agencies.
Communicating with Us
You should be aware that Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation does not warrant, represent, or guarantee: the operation of the Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation Website (the “Website”) and/or e-mail is free of interruptions, errors, defects and/or omissions; that emails, the Website, or its associated server will be free from viruses, malware, worms or other harmful components; the confidentiality or security of any communication via e-mail or its Website; and that communications to or from the Website or via email will be secure and/or not intercepted. Accordingly, your use of emails, the Website and their content are at your own risk and liability and should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information as Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation does not assume any responsibility or risk for your use of the Internet or Website.
Website
Our website may contain links to other websites which are: (a) provided as a convenience only; and (b) not governed by this privacy policy. You are advised that other third party websites may have different privacy policies and practices than Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation, and Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation has no responsibility for such third party websites. On our Website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.
Employment Inquiries
If you apply to Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation 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.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is in effect as of January 1, 2004. Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation may from time to time review and revise its policies, practices and procedures including this Privacy Policy and reserves the right to modify, supplement, change, alter, or otherwise amend this Privacy Policy at any time. Policy changes will apply to the information collected or currently being retained by Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation as at the date the revised Privacy Policy is posted to the Website. It is your responsibility to check for such revisions and, accordingly, you should visit this page periodically to review this Privacy Policy and any revision made hereto.
Requests for Access
If you have any questions, or wish to access your personal information, please write to our Privacy Contact at:
Wolf Hooker Professional Corporation
72 Talbot Street North, Suite 100
Essex, Ontario N8M 1A2
Attn: Rosina Isabella