Law Office Of Charu Sharma Website (www.sharmalawfirm.ca)
Privacy Policy: Last updated: 01 May 2017
Privacy Policy
Law Office of Charu Sharma 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 in accordance with law. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.
PIPEDA
As of January 1, 2004, all Canadian organizations 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 incorporated by reference into PIPEDA. These obligations extend to lawyers and law firms, including Law Office of Charu Sharma. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.
Why do we need your Personal Information?
Law Office of Charu Sharma provides legal services to a wide range of clients. In doing so, it requires personal information for a variety of purposes including identify who its client is, satisfying Law Society of Upper Canada requirements, verifying conflict of interest, maintaining communications with clients, managing client trust funds and maintaining client records. As well, we also send to individuals information and marketing materials concerning developments in the law and its services.
What Personal Information do we collect?
The term “personal information” refers to any information about an identifiable individual or any information that allows an individual to be identified. In general, personal information does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number in your capacity as an employee of an organization. The type of information we collect depends on what we are doing for a client but it can include client names, date of birth, places of birth, home address, phone numbers, email address, bank account information and other information relating to the provision of legal services by us.
How do we collect your Personal Information?
We collect information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Typically, 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 from other sources, for example: from a government agency or registry; other professionals who serve you, such as your accountant; your banker; your insurance company; your real estate agent in a property transaction and other parties in the context of litigation.
Consent
In most cases, we shall ask you to specifically consent, if we 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 with us or the nature of our retainer. If you are a client of our firm you are deemed to consent to our collecting and maintaining personal information about you as required for us to complete our retainer.
Use of Personal Information
We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you; to comply with our professional obligations, including the rules regarding client identification and verification; to administer our client (time and billing) databases and to include you in our 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.
Disclosure of Personal Information
Law Office of Charu Sharma 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, we are sometimes required to disclose your personal information for the purpose of completing our retainer on your behalf, including to banks, other lawyers, other parties to your transactions and government agencies. If you are a client of our firm you are deemed to consent to our disclosing personal information about you as required for us to complete our retainer.
Other circumstances where we may disclose your personal information include: when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example, if a court issues a warrant or a subpoena; when you have consented to the disclosure in writing; when the legal services we are providing to you requires us to 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, archival file storage) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy; if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf; if we retain another law firm at your request, and on your behalf; If the information is already publicly available/known.
Updating Your Personal 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, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes. We may also periodically inquire of you whether your personal information is accurate and up-to-date.
Is your Personal Information Secure?
Law Office of Charu Sharma 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 personal information are: premises security; deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent unauthorized computer access or hacking and internal password and security policies.
Access to Your Personal Information
You may ask for access to your personal information we hold about you. Summary information is available upon request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees. You can request that corrections be made where you can establish that the information we possess is not accurate, complete and up-to-date and we will take reasonable steps to correct it.
Can you be denied access to your personal Information?
Your rights to access personal information are not absolute.
We may deny access when: 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 saved 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.
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.
Communicating with US
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.
Employment Inquires
If you apply to Law Office of Charu Sharma 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.
Web Site
Our website contains links to other sites, which are not governed by this privacy policy. Therefore we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other 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.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Law Office of Charu Sharma may change its privacy policy or practices from time to time.
Disclaimer
The information provided on this website is intended for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice or opinion on any matter, and should not be relied upon as such. If you require legal advice related to your specific legal issue, please consult a lawyer. If you would like to retain us, please contact our office and we would be pleased to discuss whether we can assist you.
No solicitor-client relationship is established by accessing the information on this website, contacting us or by sending an email to any lawyer or other contact on this website. We advise you do not send any confidential information electronically to us or by leaving voicemail messages on our telephone number until we have been retained by you to represent you in the matter and a lawyer-client relationship has been established. Until such time, the contents of such mail or voicemail messages are not privileged and thus may be disclosed.
Links to Third Party Websites
The links to third-party websites are for information and convenience only. We do not endorse the information contained in these linked websites, or guarantee the content or accuracy of the information contained in these linked websites.
How To Contact Us
Questions regarding Law Office Of Charu Sharma Privacy Statement or information practices should be directed here or by mail:
CANADA: 7045 Edwards Blvd, Suite #305, Mississauga, ON L5S 1X2.