Richardson Hall LLP recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We are committed to protecting the confidentiality and privacy of personal information in accordance with applicable legislation. 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 applicable legislation regarding the Protection of Personal Information. This includes lawyers and law firms. Richardson Hall 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.

What is Personal Information?

The current federal privacy legislation defines Personal Information broadly as information about an identifiable individual or as information that allows an individual to be identified. Generally speaking, Personal Information does not include what is considered business contact information: your name, title or position, business address, telephone number, facsimile number, or e-mail address. The types of Personal Information that Richardson Hall LLP may collect about you includes your personal home address, telephone number, personal email address, financial, banking, and business confidential information, information related to your legal issue(s), and other information necessary for us to provide legal advice and services (including Personal Information about other people )

Why Does Richardson Hall LLP Need Personal Information?

Richardson Hall LLP collects, uses, and discloses Personal Information about our clients and other persons in order to provide our clients with professional legal services and to carry on the practice of law as permitted by law. If we did not collect and use the personal information we could not provide you with legal services.

We collect, use, and disclose Personal Information for the following purposes:

• to establish and manage client relationships
• to provide legal advice and perform legal services
• to evaluate credit standing and credit bureau or credit reporting agency information
• to establish and maintain our commercial relationships with our bankers and landlord
• to establish and maintain commercial relationships with suppliers and other third parties, including issuing invoices, administering accounts, collecting and processing payments, and fulfilling contractual obligations
• to distribute, develop, improve, or market our legal services
• to develop, maintain and improve our firm’s information and precedent systems
• to maintain and improve our business and operations, including office management, client relations, client communication (including our web site, mailing lists, and email lists), human resources, technology, security, and compliance with any legal or regulatory requirements; and
• for any other purpose to which you consent.

This may involve the sharing or disclosure of Personal Information by and between Richardson Hall LLP and third parties for the purpose of providing legal services. Such third parties may include other parties involved in your legal issues or transactions, and their lawyers or representatives and advisors, service providers, your advisors, witnesses, and experts.

How do we collect your personal information?

Wherever possible we collect your personal information directly from you, at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation. We collect information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way.

Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources, for example:

• your accountant or other financial advisors
• your physician or other medical advisor or health professional
• your insurance company
• your real estate agent in a property transaction
• from the government, or a government agency
• your employer

Consent

In most cases, we will ask for your consent in writing, but in some circumstances, we may accept your oral consent. Sometimes, your consent may be implied by your conduct. In giving personal information to or our service providers and agents, you consent to us collecting, using, and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy and as permitted or required by law.

Subject to certain legal and contractual restrictions, you may withdraw your consent to certain of the identified purposes at any time by contacting the Richardson Hall LLP Privacy Officer. If you refuse or withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with legal services or continue to provide you with legal services.

If you give personal information of another individual to Richardson Hall LLP or to our service providers and agents, you represent that you have all necessary authority and/or have obtained all necessary consents from such person(s) to authorize us to collect, use and disclose such personal information for the purposes set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure of your Personal Information

Under certain circumstances, Richardson Hall LLP will disclose your personal information:

• when you have consented to its disclosure
• when we are required or authorized by law to do so
• when the legal services we are providing to you requires us to give your information to third parties, your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise
• where it is necessary to establish or collect fees or other monies owing to us
• if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us, and the third party is bound by our privacy policy
• in discussing your case with your advisors, witnesses, and expert witnesses
• if we retain other law firms in other jurisdictions on your behalf
• if the information is already publicly available

Where do we store your Personal Information?

Your Personal Information is stored in secured locations either at our offices or at the offices of our service providers, your advisors, representatives, and agents, or in government registry offices.

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.

Is My Personal Information Secure?

Richardson Hall LLP 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 information are:

• office access security
• technological security including expert assistance, security software, redundant backups, firewalls, password, and other security policies.

Access to Your Personal Information

You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you. Requests which involve administrative costs may be subject to a professional and administrative fee and disbursement charges.

Correcting Errors

If Richardson Hall LLP holds information about you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up to date, we will take reasonable steps to correct it.

Can I be Denied Access to My Personal Information?

Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. We may deny access when:

• denial of access is required or authorized 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)
• information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you
• when granting you access would have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy
• when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you
• to protect our firm’s rights and property
• if the request is frivolous or vexatious

If we deny your request for access to or refuse a request to correct information, we will explain why.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Since Richardson Hall LLP regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time.

Communicating with Us

If you have any questions or wish to access your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer, Jonathan Richardson. You should be aware that certain means of communication such as email and the use of cell phones are not secure, and you consider this when contacting us to give us personal or confidential information.

Employment Inquiries

If you apply to Richardson Hall 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. 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. 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.

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Last update on December 1st, 2020