David Barristers Professional Corporation Privacy Policy

DAVID BARRISTERS 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.

A. Your Privacy Rights

1. From 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 for the Protection of Personal Information, which it incorporates. These obligations extend to lawyers and law firms, including DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

2. DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation is responsible for the personal information 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.

B. Why do we need personal information?

3. DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation requires personal information to provide you with legal services.

C. What personal information do we collect?

4. Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced.

D. How do we collect your personal information?

5. We collect information by lawful and fair means.

6. We collect your personal information directly from you, at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation. Sometimes we may obtain information about you (or your children) from other sources: for example,

• your insurance company;
• your real estate agent;
• from a government agency or registry;
• your employer;
• your accountant;
• your health care practitioner(s);
• your bank, lending institution or mortgage company;
• your children’s educational institution;
• your children’s health care practitioner(s);
• your children’s day care providers

E. Consent

7. We shall ask you to consent to collect, use, or disclose your personal information. Normally, we ask for your consent in writing, but in some circumstances, we may accept your oral consent. Sometimes, your consent may be implied through your conduct.

F. Use of your information

8. We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you and to administer our client (time and billing) database.

9. DAVID BARRISTERS 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.

G. Disclosure of your personal information

10. Under certain circumstances DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation will disclose your personal information, examples of which include but are not necessarily limited to:

(a) when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a Summons to Witness;
(b) when you have consented to the disclosure;
(c) when the legal services we are providing to you requires us to give your information to third parties, your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise;
(d) where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
(e) if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (like computer back-up services or archival file storage);
(f) if we engage experts on your behalf;
(g) if we retain other law firms on your behalf;
(h) if the information is already publicly known.

H. Updating and Correcting your Information

11. Since we use your personal information to provide legal services to you, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date.

12. If during the course of the retainer, any of your information changes or needs correction, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.

I. Is My Personal Information Secure?

13. DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation 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 to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
• internal password and security policies.

14. 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 by email.

J. Access to Your Personal Information

15. You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you. Simple information will be provided to you on request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees. All requests will be addressed by DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation within a reasonable time.

K. Can Access Be Denied to Your Personal Information?

16. Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute.

17. We may deny access when:

• denial of access is required or authorized by law;
• information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you;
• when granting you access would have an unreasonable impact on other people's privacy;
• when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you;
• to protect our firm's rights and property;
• where the request is frivolous or vexatious.

18. If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct information, we shall explain why.

19. DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation does not use your Social Insurance Number as a way of identifying or organizing the information we hold about you.

L. Can I request anonymity?

20. 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 if we acquire a website).

21. 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 to disclose information to FINTRAC in relation to certain large cash transactions.

M. Changes to this Privacy Policy

22. Since DAVID BARRISTERS Professional Corporation regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time.

N. Employment Inquiries

23. If you apply to DAVID BARRISTERS 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.

O. Requests for Access

24. If you have any questions, or wish to access your personal information, please contact to our Privacy Officer Sally Candelora in writing at 1200 Bay Street, Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 2A5.

25. If you are not satisfied with our response, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada can be reached at 112 Kent Street, Ottawa Ontario, K1A 1H3 1.800.282.1376.