Privacy Policy and Legal Disclaimer

LASH CONDO LAW is a boutique condominium law firm, dedicated to maintaining high standards of confidentiality regarding the information provided to us. We recognize the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. As lawyers, we have a professional obligation to keep all information we receive within a lawyer/client relationship confidential. Our relationship with you is founded on trust and we are committed to maintaining that trust.

For all of these reasons, we have created the following privacy policy outlining how we manage your personal information. It confirms our dedication to protecting your privacy and maintaining the trust that you have placed in our law firm.

Disclaimer

The information provided on this website is intended for general informational purposes only. LASH CONDO LAW assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or timeliness of any information provided herein. Contacting our firm via the website or e-mail does not constitute a solicitor/client relationship of any kind. Any correspondence entered into here will not to be construed as legal advice. We request that you not send any confidential documentation or sensitive information to the firm electronically until a retainer has been confirmed.

What are Your Privacy Rights?

As of January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged in commercial activities (including law firms) must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”, the “Act”) and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the protection of personal information, which it incorporates. The purpose of the Act is to give you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

What Personal Information Do We Collect?

Pursuant to the Act, personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. We collect and use your personal information in order to provide you with legal services. We are committed to collecting personal information in a fair, open and lawful manner. Wherever possible, we collect your personal information directly from you at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation.

Where practicable, LASH CONDO LAW will ask you to specifically consent if we collect, use, or disclose your personal information. There may be some circumstances in which your consent may be implied through your conduct with us.

Please be aware, there may be circumstances that warrant the collection of such information from a third party. In these circumstances, we will always obtain your consent prior to acting.

Why Do we Collect Personal Information?

Our firm collects personal information for the following limited purposes:

  • to identify our clients in accordance with the requirements of The Law Society of Upper Canada
  • to establish and maintain client lists
  • to represent you as our client
  • for internal purposes including the professional development of firm lawyers and law clerks

How Do We Use Your Personal Information?

By retaining LASH CONDO LAW, you have confirmed your trust in us and we take pride in serving you. We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you and to administer our client (time and billing) databases. We are obliged by law to retain our client files after the end of the retainer. We will always use care in the disposal or destruction of your personal information to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to the information.

Our firm stores and maintains personal information in conformity with the requirements of the Act and the model code for the protection of personal information.

Disclosing Your Personal Information

Under certain circumstances, LASH CONDO LAW will disclose your personal information:

  • When we are required or authorized by law to do so
  • When you have consented to the disclosure (expressly or impliedly)
  • When the legal services we are providing you require us to give your information to third parties (for example, a professional retained to conduct a mediation) your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise;
  • When it is necessary to establish or collect fees
  • If we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us and the third party is bound by our privacy policy
  • If we engage expert witnesses on your behalf
  • If the information is already publicly known

Is My Personal Information Secure?

Our firm has developed and implemented security measures to safeguard the personal information kept by us. We take reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss or theft, unauthorized access, use, modification, copying or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your information are:

  • Physical measures and premises security
  • Restricted file access to personal information
  • Network security, including network passwords and security software
  • Training our employees on our privacy measures required to protect personal information

In the event of a breach of the security safeguards mentioned above, our firm engage in the following remedial actions, pursuant to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and its regulations:

  • a) We will directly notify any individuals affected by the breach using a reasonable form of communication, which may include but is not limited to in-person, by telephone, mail, or e-mail, unless providing direct notification to the individual is not appropriate in the circumstances as prescribed by law, in which case we will indirectly inform any affected individuals, such as by use of public communication or a similar measure.
  • b) Any notifications we provide regarding a breach of security safeguards will contain information, where known, regarding the breach in accordance with PIPEDA and its regulations, such as the circumstances of the breach, the date on or period within which the breach occurred, the personal information that is the subject of the breach, steps we have taken to reduce the risk of harm that could result from the breach, steps which any affected individuals can take to reduce the risk of harm that could result from the breach or mitigate the harm, and how to obtain further information about the breach.
  • c) We will submit a written report to the Privacy Commissioner containing information regarding the breach, in accordance with PIPEDA and its regulations.
  • d) We will maintain a record of the breach for 24 months after the day on which we determined the breach occurred.
Openness and Requesting Access to Information

Our firm makes information about its privacy policy and privacy practices available to all interested parties.

We are pleased to answer any questions that you may have regarding the collection and maintenance of your personal information.

Upon written request, LASH CONDO LAW may provide clients with access to their personal information contained in their client files. More detailed requests, which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.

Ensuring Accuracy of Your Information

Our firm is committed to maintaining accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date personal information. If you become aware of changes to the personal information that you have provided us, simply inform us of the changes and we will update our records accordingly.

Communicating With Us Using E-mail

When contacting us regarding personal or confidential information, you should be aware that e-mail is not 100% secure. LASH CONDO LAW does not guarantee the security or confidentiality of any e-mail communication sent to, or by, LASH CONDO LAW unless prior arrangements have been made.

In addition, the sending of electronic mail to any lawyer or other contact identified in the site does not create a lawyer-client relationship, and the contents of any such mail are not privileged, unless the sender is a current client of LASH CONDO LAW.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy is regularly reviewed and we may change our privacy policy from time to time. We will provide a notice on our website of any changes to our Privacy Policy prior to the changes being made.

Website

Our website, www.lashcondolaw.com, contains links to other sites which are not governed by our Privacy Policy. The links you found on our website are merely for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement, recommendation or approval of these other websites. LASH CONDO LAW does not assume any responsibility for the privacy policies of the websites accessed through our website.

As is customary for commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide information collected to third parties, but this information would not any identifiable personal information.

We may also use cookies on our website. “Cookies” are small text files that recognize repeat visitors and track their visits to a website.

Have any Questions or Concerns?

If you have any questions or comments about our Privacy Policy or privacy practices or wish to access or update your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer Denise Lash by email at dlash@lashcondolaw.com, or by mail at:

LASH CONDO LAW
225 Richmond Street West / Suite 200
Toronto, ON / M5V 1W2
ATTN: Chief Privacy Officer

You may also contact LASH CONDO LAW at info@lashcondolaw.com or by calling 416-309-4499