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Stillman LLP Privacy Policy
Stillman LLP recognises 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
From January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged
in commercial activities must comply with the Federally enacted
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act,
and the corresponding Provincial enactment, Personal Information
Protection Act, 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
Stillman LLP. These Acts give you rights concerning the privacy
of your personal information.
Stillman LLP 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.
Stillman LLP's Need for Personal Information
Stillman LLP provides legal services
and products to a wide range of clients. In doing so, we produce
direct marketing materials concerning our services and developments
in the law.
Personal Information
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.
Consent and Purpose
In most cases when we collect, use, or disclose
your personal information, we shall inform you as to the purpose
of this and ask you to consent. Normally, we ask for your consent
in writing, but in some circumstances, your acceptance may be
obtained orally. In certain circumstances, your consent may be
implied through your conduct with us.
Collecting 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, 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,
• 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;
• your doctor;
• your banker;
• your accountant.
Use of Your Personal 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.
Stillman LLP 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 anyone, including other law firms.
Disclosure of your Personal Information
Stillman LLP may ask for your consent
to disclose your personal information.
In certain other circumstances, however,
Stillman LLP will disclose your personal information without your
consent:
• when we are required or authorised by law
to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena;
• 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;
• when you are unable to be contacted, and it would be reasonable
to believe you would have given consent;
• 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)
and the third party is bound by our privacy policy;
• if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf;
• if we retain other law firms on your behalf;
• if the information is already publicly known.
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, please inform us so that we can
make any necessary changes.
Security of Personal Information
Stillman LLP takes all reasonable precautions
to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss,
unauthorised 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
and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorised computer access;
• internal password and security policies.
Access to Your Personal Information
You may ask for access to any personal information
we hold about you.
Summary information is available on request.
More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval
costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement
fees.
Correcting Errors
If Stillman LLP holds information about
you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and
up-to-date, Stillman LLP will take reasonable steps to
correct it.
Denial of Access to Personal Information
Your rights to access your personal information
are not absolute.
We may deny access when:
• denial of access is required or authorised by law (for
example, when a record containing personal information about you
is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege by one of
our clients);
• when granting you access would have an unreasonable impact
on other people's privacy;
• to protect our firm's rights and property;
• where the request is frivolous or vexatious.
If we deny your request for access to, or refuse
a request to correct information, we shall explain why.
Stillman LLP does not use your Social Insurance
Number as a way of identifying or organising the information we
hold upon you.
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.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Since Stillman LLP regularly reviews all
of its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy
from time to time.
Requests for Access
If you have any questions, or wish to access your
personal information, please contact Mark Stillman, our Privacy
Contact, at
I. Mark Stillman
c/o Stillman LLP
#300, 10335-172 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
T5S 1K9
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
Employment Inquiries
If you apply to Stillman LLP 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 may contain links to other sites,
which are not governed by this privacy policy. On our website,
like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns,
site usage and related site information in order to optimise our
web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties,
but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal
information.
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