Privacy Policy

Introduction

HANMER LAW (“we”, “us”, “our”) recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We are committed to protecting the personal information of clients, other individuals and visitors to our website (“you”, “your”). We safeguard your personal information through compliance with applicable privacy laws. In addition, lawyers have a professional obligation to keep confidential the information we receive within the lawyer-client relationship.

This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information in the conduct of our practice, including through the operation of our website.

“Personal Information”

Personal information is information that allows an individual to be identified – but generally does not include an individual’s business contact information (i.e. an individual’s name, title, business address and business telephone number).

Consent

We will obtain your consent to collect, use and disclose your personal information, unless otherwise permitted or required to do so by law. The type of consent we will seek will depend upon the circumstances, and may include express oral or written consent or implied consent. We assume that if you retain us, you consent to our reasonable collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as needed to provide the services that we have been retained to provide.

You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions and upon reasonable notice.

Collection of Personal Information

We normally collect your personal information directly from you, at the start of our retainer and in the course of our representation.

The types of personal information we may collect include: contact information such as your home address, telephone number, e-mail address; billing, banking and other financial information; personal information pertaining to the matter for which the client is retaining HANMER LAW; and other types of personal information a reasonable person would consider ancillary to the types of information set out above.

The Law Society of Ontario which governs lawyers and law firms practicing in the Province of Ontario requires the identification and verification of clients. As part of this process, we may review and copy photo identification and other forms of identification. We may also collect personal information about other individuals associated with legal matters under our retainer, such as directors, officers, employees, shareholders and investors.

The personal information is used by us to: determine whether we can act for you, including to assess conflicts of interest; provide services to the client; manage the client’s account with us including processing invoices and payments; keep records of the services provided; comply with professional and regulatory requirements; and maintain and operate our document management system.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may share personal information in our possession with lawyers, employees or professional advisors who need to use that information in connection with one or more of the purposes for which that personal information was collected.

From time to time, we may disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:

• Where disclosure is required or permitted by law, for example, if a court issues a subpoena;
• To service providers, including those organizations or individuals, retained by us to perform functions on our behalf, such as accounting, data processing, document management and office services;
• Where the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your information to third parties, for example to a lender or investor;
• To certain third-party professionals, on a confidential basis, from whom we order file related services on behalf of clients;
• To other parties, with your consent.

Protection of Personal Information

We use various safeguards to protect your personal information including: physical security measures; contractual obligations to bind third party service providers; security software; and passwords that restrict access to our electronic files.

Accessing and Correcting Personal Information

You have the right to request access to your personal information and to receive an explanation of how that information has been used and disclosed, subject to certain exceptions prescribed by law.

If you would like to request access to your personal information, challenge the accuracy and completeness of your personal information, or have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer at the address provided below.

Electronic Communications and Storage

Although we make reasonable efforts to protect the information provided to us by e-mail or by using the “Contact Us” form on our website, we cannot guarantee that the transmission of such information over the Internet will be secure. If you wish to provide confidential or sensitive information to someone at HANMER LAW, please contact that individual to discuss the most
appropriate means of providing that information.

We also engage third-party service providers whose servers are located in Canada and the United States. Your personal information may be available to government and/or law enforcement agencies in Canada and the United States, and may be accessed by these entities pursuant to a lawful order.

Website

Our website may contain links to other third-party websites. Please note that third party websites are not controlled by HANMER LAW and this Privacy Policy does not apply to any personal information that you may provide to third party websites.

On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related 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.

Please also refer to the Terms of Use relating to our website.

Change to Our Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may make changes to our Privacy Policy. When we make changes to this Privacy Policy, an updated copy will be posted on our website with a notation at the foot of the Policy.

Contact

You may contact us as follows:

HANMER LAW
22 King Street South, Suite 300
Waterloo, ON N2J 1N8
Telephone: 519-574-6607
Attention: Privacy Officer

Last Updated:
July 26, 2019