DOLDEN WALLACE FOLICK LLP PRIVACY STATEMENT
Dolden Wallace Folick LLP (Dolden) is an insurance litigation law firm with offices in Vancouver, Kelowna, Calgary & Toronto. The lawyers and staff at Dolden (sometimes referred to as “we”) are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Statement outlines how we handle your personal information to protect your privacy.
I. PRIVACY STATEMENT
Privacy Legislation
Since January 1, 2004, all organizations collecting, using or disclosing personal information in Canada in the course of commercial activities have been required to comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and any applicable “substantially similar” provincial legislation. These obligations extend to lawyers and law firms, including Dolden.
In addition, as a professional services firm, we have professional and ethical obligations to keep confidential the information we receive in the context of a lawyer-client relationship.
Personal Information
Personal information protected under PIPEDA and related statutes is information about an identifiable individual, but does not include business contact information such as the name, title or business address, business email address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. In other words, it does not include the information that one expects to find on a business card.
Consent To Our Collection, Use And Disclosure Of Personal Information
In most cases, we obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose your personal information. If you or your insurer retains Dolden to provide legal services, we assume that we have your implied consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information for the purposes of establishing you as a client and providing legal services to you, your company or organization. At times we may ask for your express consent for the collection of personal information, either verbally or in writing. By providing your personal information to us, you agree that we may collect, use and disclose your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Statement.
Withdrawal of Consent
You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to legal and/or contractual restrictions and upon reasonable notice. However your withdrawal of consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information may affect our ability to represent and provide legal advice or services to you, your company or organization. To withdraw your consent please contact our Privacy Officer using the link provided below.
You can ask us not to send e-mail marketing communications to you by following the opt-out instructions in such communication or you may let us know by contacting our marketing department at [email protected].
Collection of Personal Information
Generally we collect your personal information directly from you at the start of or during the course of your retainer with Dolden. We may also obtain personal information about you from other sources, such as:
• other individuals within your company or organization, where we are representing the company or organization;
• your insurance company, insurance broker, third party administrator or managing general agent acting on behalf of your insurer;
• your legal counsel in another jurisdiction, if we were retained through the other law firm;
• from a government agency or registry;
• other persons you have authorized to provide information to us.
Use of Personal Information
In general, all information, including personal information, provided to us for the purpose of determining whether we will provide legal advice or services to you, and/or in the course of our provision of legal advice or services to you, will be held by us in strict confidence and in accordance with our professional obligations. To assess whether to accept a retainer, and in the course of providing legal advice and services to you, we will need to collect various types of information from you, which may include personal information. For example, we may collect:
• your name, address, and other contact details;
• information regarding your legal requirements;
• information regarding your business dealings, affiliations, employment, employees, income, and other financial information;
• information regarding services you have provided, things you have done, and events that have happened to you;
• information regarding your medical history, injuries sustained, and other personal health information; or
• various other types of personal information that you may provide to us.
We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, your company or organization, to issue invoices and to maintain our database of clients. We may use your personal information to obtain payment of any outstanding invoices for services we have provided to you. We may also use your personal information so that we may communicate with you about recent developments in the law, inform you of Dolden news and invite you to our firm events.
Disclosure of Personal Information
Generally, we do not disclose your personal information to third parties without your consent unless permitted or required by applicable law. There are some situations in which we may disclose your personal information without your consent. For example:
• when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena;
• where it is necessary to establish or collect fees; or
• if the information is already on the public record and the disclosure is directly related to the purposes for which it was recorded on the public record.
In some cases, your consent will be implied. For example, when the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your information to a third party (such as to an opposing party in litigation) we rely on your implied consent to the disclosure. We rely on your implied consent to provide your information to your insurer, agents of your insurer, and/or your insurance broker if our retainer is related to a claim submitted to your insurer. If we are required to contact our insurers in connection with a claim that you have against us, we will assume that we have your implied consent to the disclosure of your personal information to our insurer.
Lastly, from time to time we may transfer your personal information to the firm’s service providers, or our service providers may be given access to your personal information that we store. We will use contractual or other means to ensure that third party service providers are bound by obligations regarding privacy that are consistent with our obligations under PIPEDA and equivalent legislation and with our professional obligations. An example of a transfer to a service provider would be if we contract with third parties to provide us with services such as archival file storage. Other examples would include cases where we engage other service providers such as expert witnesses, mediators, document management consultants or law firms in other jurisdictions in connection with the legal services we are providing to you. Examples of service providers who may require access to your personal information stored with us would include IT support services or website support services.
Service providers may be located in various countries, so please be aware that authorized officials of governments in those countries may be lawfully able to access your personal information without your knowledge or consent pursuant to the laws of such countries. To the extent that we are permitted to do so by applicable law, we will notify you if we are advised that this access has occurred.
Accuracy of Your Personal Information
It is important that the personal information that we have on file be accurate and up-to-date. If any of your personal information changes during the course of our dealings, please inform us so that we can record all necessary changes. We may also ask you periodically to confirm whether your personal information is up-to-date.
Safeguards
Dolden uses various physical, administrative and technological safeguards to ensure that your personal information is protected against loss, theft, misuse, or unauthorized access, disclosure, copying or alteration. These include: security of our physical premises; security software and firewalls to prevent unauthorized computer access; and internal passwords that restrict access to our electronic files.
We use appropriate security measures when destroying personal information, including confidential shredding of paper records and permanently deleting electronic records.
Access to Your Personal Information
You have a right to challenge the accuracy and completeness of your personal information and to have it amended, as appropriate. You also have a right to request access to your personal information and receive an accounting of how that information has been used and disclosed, subject to certain exceptions prescribed by law. For example, if the requested information would reveal personal information about another individual, your access may be limited or denied. If your request for access is denied, Dolden will notify you in writing of the reason for the denial.
To request access or to amend your personal information, please contact the lawyer or agent with whom you normally correspond or contact our Privacy Officer using the link provided below. Dolden will respond within 30 days of receipt of your written request.
Challenging Compliance
Dolden will respond to inquiries about its policies and practices relating to its handling of your personal information. Inquiries should be directed to Dolden’s Privacy Officer using the link below. Dolden will investigate all complaints and will respond within 30 days of receipt of a written inquiry. If the complaint is found to be justified, we will take appropriate measures to resolve it, including, if necessary, amending this Policy and its procedures.
II. WEBSITE PRIVACY
Our website www.dolden.com does not track your IP address nor does it hold Cookies which can be used to store information regarding your browsing session.
Newsletter Privacy
When entering an e-mail address into the ‘Newsletter Signup’ area, you consent to the collection, retention and use of your personal information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Statement.
How We Will Use Your Information
The information you provide will be used to send you email newsletters, updates or invites to events (“Communications”).
Contact information submitted through the Newsletter Signup section of www.dolden.com is temporarily stored with Dolden’s website host in British Columbia and uploaded to a 3rd party email distribution service used by Dolden to distribute its Communications. Information held by the 3rd party email distribution service is stored on secured servers located in Canada and the United States.
3rd Parties
We may utilize 3rd parties to send Communications on behalf of Dolden. These Communications may include links to third party websites other than www.dolden.com that are not associated with or controlled by Dolden. This Privacy Statement does not apply to any websites other than www.dolden.com.
Unsubscribing from Communications
You can opt out from further Communications at any point by selecting the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our Communications. You can also contact us directly at [email protected] to request that you be removed from our mailing list.
Privacy Officer
If you have any questions or complaints about this Policy or the handling of your personal information, if you wish to withdraw your consent to our use of your personal information, or to request access to or update any information we have on file, please contact the lawyer or agent with whom you are dealing, or contact our privacy officer by clicking here.
Changes to this Privacy Statement
We may change this Privacy Statement from time to time. Any changes will be posted on our website at www.dolden.com and will be made available upon request through your contact at Dolden or by contacting our Privacy Officer. This Privacy Statement is effective as of May 10, 2017.
