Privacy Policy

Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information.

We have an obligation as lawyers to keep confidential all information we receive within our relationships with our clients. We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold within our relationship with our clients. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information as our clients and safeguard your privacy.

Your Privacy Rights

From January 1, 2004, all businesses in Canada engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, which it incorporates. These obligations appear to extend to lawyers and law firms, including Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers. The Act gives individuals rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers 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.

Why do we need Personal Information?

Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers provides legal services and products to a wide range of clients. We cannot provide legal services and products to our clients without collecting, using, and disclosing personal information. In addition, we occasionally produce marketing materials concerning our services and developments in the law.

What personal information do we collect?

Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced, but not business addresses and telephone numbers for employees of a business. If we did not collect and use your personal information, we could not provide you with legal services.

How do we collect 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 of you.

We may occasionally obtain information about you from other sources such as, but not limited to:

  • co-clients if you are one of several clients whom we jointly represent;
  • 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; and,
  • your accountant.
Consent

In most situations, we shall ask you to specifically consent if we collect, use, or disclose your personal information. Normally, we ask for your consent in writing, but in some circumstances, we may accept your oral consent. Sometimes, your consent may be implied through your conduct or retainer with us.

Use of your information

We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, to administer our firm including invoicing, billing, and collections purposes, and to include you in any direct marketing activities. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive our direct marketing such as information about our services, or about new developments in the law by contacting our privacy officer at 519-673-4994, we will not send any further material.

Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers 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 other law firms. However, if you ask for a referral to another lawyer, with your oral or written consent, we may speak to the other lawyer about you and your personal information.

Disclosure of your personal information

Under certain circumstances, Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers will disclose your personal information:

  • when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena;
  • when you have consented to the disclosure;
  • 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;
  • 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; and,
  • 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, such as your telephone number, email address or mailing address, please inform us as soon as possible so that we can make any necessary changes to our records.

Security of your personal information

Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure, including steps to ensure that:

  • our offices are secure;
  • the files in our office are only accessible by persons who are subject to this privacy policy and have been trained regarding our privacy policy; and,
  • our computers are protected from outside access by passwords, security software, and firewalls.