Privacy Policy

Eve Wahn and WahnLaw are committed to protecting the personal information that we collect, use and disclose in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and consistent with our professional obligations.  As a lawyer, we have professional and ethical obligations to maintain in confidence the information we receive in our client relationships.  This Privacy Policy supplements these professional obligations of client confidentiality and sets out in general terms how we collect, use, disclose and protect the personal information of our clients, other individuals and our web site users.

What Personal Information Is Collected?

Privacy legislation in Canada defines “personal information” broadly as any information about an identifiable individual.  In general, personal information does not include business contact information, including your name, title or position, business, telephone or facsimile number.

The types of personal information we may collect include your name and contact information, billing and account information, information relevant to legal matters and other information for the provision of legal advice and services.

Purposes for Collecting, Using or Disclosing Personal Information

We collect, use and disclose personal information primarily for the purpose of providing clients with legal services, including for the following purposes:

  • to establish and manage our business and operations.  This includes to establish and manage client relationships, provide legal advice and services, fulfill legal duties, and to avoid legal conflicts of interest;
  • to establish and maintain commercial relationships with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, evaluate credit standing, and fulfill contractual obligations.  To the extent we enter into arrangements with service providers, agents or contractors to store, handle or process personal information on our behalf, our policy is to require such parties by contractual or other means to provide comparable privacy protection while the information is processed or handled by them;
  • to distribute publications and invitations to events to individuals who subscribe to our mailing list, if any;
  • to maintain, develop and manage our document management, knowledge-management and precedent systems;
  • to detect and protect against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity, and where necessary to meet our insurance requirements; and
  • as permitted by and to comply with applicable legal or regulatory requirements.

Cookies – Cookies are small data files that are sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard-drive when you visit certain web sites in order to “track” your visit to the site.  We may, from time to time, collect non-personal information about you and your use of the site though the use of cookies.  We do not match or correlate this information with any personal information that you submit on the web site.  This information is used for no other purpose.

Online and Email Communications – In order to provide website users with information or requested services, visitors may voluntarily submit personal information.  We use such personal information only for the purpose for which you have provided it.  We may send email communications to individuals in our contact database to advise of legal developments, distribute publications or inform of events.  Each email will include a consent and opt-out feature with instructions on how to unsubscribe if you do not wish to receive future emails for these purposes.

Links – Our web site may include links to other websites.  We are not responsible for how third parties collect, use or disclose your personal information.

Consent

We assume that a person consents to our collection and use of personal information consistent with the purposes stated in this Privacy Statement when providing personal information.  We also assume that clients who retain us and individuals involved in matters opposite or adverse to our clients, consent to the reasonable collection, use and disclosure of their personal information for purposes of our representation or provision of legal advice to our clients and the conduct of the matters involving our clients, and as may be required by the Law Society of Upper Canada (Ontario).

We do not collect, use or disclose personal information without consent, unless authorized or required by law or other legal authority to do so, except where a client provides personal information about third parties for purposes of our legal representation or advice to the client; when the information is publicly available or already published; or if we are investigating the breach of an agreement, a legal duty or contravention of a law and obtaining consent would compromise the investigation or the accuracy of the information.

We are subject to professional and ethical obligations and do not disclose personal information subject to solicitor-client privilege unless the privilege is lawfully waived or we are required to do so by law or court order.

Collection, Use, Disclosure and Retention

We collect personal information by fair and lawful means directly from the individual, if possible.  We also limit the amount of personal information we collect, use or disclose to that necessary and appropriate to provide our legal services, advice and representation and to operate our firm.

We keep records of the work performed and services provided by us in accordance with applicable regulatory and professional requirements and practices.

We protect personal information in our files and document management systems from loss, misuse, unauthorized access and alteration by using physically secure facilities, password protection, and other standard security practices and tools.

Accuracy of Information and Access

You may request to have your personal information updated at any time by providing up-to-date information.  In addition, if you believe that we may have personal information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete or not up-to-date, you may request to have it amended.  We will investigate and take reasonable steps to correct it.

We will provide access to such personal information, subject to exceptions stated in the consent section above or required by privacy legislation.  Examples of such exceptions include information protected by solicitor-client privilege; information generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process; information about another individual where disclosure would reveal confidential commercial information; or information disclosed to the police or other lawful authorities where we are required to withhold disclosure.

If you wish to inform of inaccuracies in the information, please contact: eve@wahnlaw.ca.

Other

We will respond to queries from individuals or questions about our compliance with this policy and with applicable privacy laws.  We will investigate and attempt to resolve all complaints.  To inform us about any concerns with this policy or access to your personal information please contact: eve@wahnlaw.ca.

This Privacy Policy may be amended at any time by posting on our website.  By your use of the website after the time of posting, you agree to any changes that may have been made to this Privacy Policy.

Disclaimer

© Eve Wahn, WahnLaw.  All rights reserved.  The content on this website is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice or opinion.  Users of this website are advised to seek specific legal advice by contacting Eve Wahn (or their own lawyer) regarding specific legal issues.

Accessing or using this website does not create a lawyer-client relationship.  Any lawyer-client relationship shall only be created upon the explicit agreement of both Eve Wahn and the client.

Eve Wahn does not represent, warrant or guarantee the quality, accuracy or completeness of any information on this website.  Information, articles or other documents published on this website, if any, should not be relied upon as accurate, timely or fit for any particular purpose.

In addition, neither Eve Wahn nor WahnLaw guarantee the security or confidentiality of any communications made by e-mail or otherwise through this web site.  This web site may contain links to third party websites.  These links are provided for convenience only and we do not endorse the information contained in linked web sites nor guarantee its accuracy, timeliness or fitness for a particular purpose.