As we are engaged in the practice of law, Clarke Smith Estabrooks & Miller Law Office values and protects the privacy of your personal information. This privacy policy is intended to inform you of how we collect, use and disclose personal information provided to us by our clients, service providers and other individuals.
While there are applicable laws that govern the protection of personal information, such as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Law Society of Saskatchewan Code of Professional Conduct often requires a level of confidentiality higher than the duties imposed by law.
Personal information may broadly be defined in the relevant legislation and regulations to include information that relates to a person’s personal characteristics, their health or their activities.
The personal information that we collect is typically gathered from you directly in the course of your retainer with us. We may also gather additional information from third parties, such as your healthcare providers, accountant, family members, or individuals appointed under a Power of Attorney or otherwise authorized to act on behalf of your estate.
In most cases, we seek your written authorization and consent to the additional use or collection of personal information from third parties. In some circumstances, an oral, or even an implied consent can be sufficient for our purposes. Some of the circumstances where your direct consent an authorization may not be provided in an informed manner may include the following:
(a) collection, use or disclosure where it is clearly in the best interest of the client and their consent cannot be obtained in a timely way (for example, in the case of a medical emergency);
(b) disclosure for the purpose of establishing or collecting fees or a debt owed to us;
(c) collection and use in investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of law;
(d) disclosure to expert witnesses if we engage the same on your behalf;
(e) disclosure to other law firms in other jurisdictions, if we retain the same on your behalf;
(f) disclosure to comply with a subpoena or warrant; and
(g) collection, use or disclosure where we are required or permitted by law or court order to do so.
We will not share, sell, transfer, or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party for the purpose of marketing or the selling or advertising of any service.
Personal information gathered by Clarke Smith Estabrooks & Miller Law Office will be used for the purpose for which it is gathered and will be accessed by Clarke Smith Estabrooks & Miller Law Office lawyers and staff on a ‘need to know’ basis.
Subject to applicable legal or contractual restrictions, you also have the right to withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information on reasonable notice. In certain situations, withdrawing your consent could mean that we would not be able to provide you with the legal services you have requested. In some cases, you can choose to opt out of receiving certain communications upon request. Otherwise, upon the conclusion of the work for which your personal information was collected and payment of the account your file will be closed. Consistent with time limitation requirements under the law, and recommendations from our professional organizations and associations pertaining to the retention of files, your file will be retained in a secure setting until destroyed.
We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.
You may request to be given access to the personal information we have collected about you. If that is not satisfactory you may contact the firm privacy officer. In most cases, you will be given access to your personal information. However, in certain circumstances it may not be possible. In any case where we are unable to or cannot grant you access to personal information we will provide you with reasons on request, which may include the following.
- Information that is prohibitively costly to provide;
- Information that has been destroyed;
- Information that contains personal information about a third party or is protected by solicitor client privilege, or would reveal confidential commercial information, and which cannot be severed from disclosure;
- For other legal and security reasons which relate to the enforcement of any law of Saskatchewan or Canada.
We destroy paper files containing personal information by secure shredding. Electronic information is destroyed by deleting it and when hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is over-written. Alternatively, some or all of the client file may be forwarded directly to the client.
Clarke Smith Estabrooks & Miller Law Office does not collect information through our website that personally identifies individuals except if you were to provide such specific information voluntarily. In such cases, we may collect, store and use such information in the same manner as we do other correspondence sent to us.
Our website uses cookies to monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information. When you use the Internet, your web browser or client software may transmit certain information to the servers that host the web sites you visit (“Technical Information”). This Technical Information may include the unique number assigned to your server or Internet connection, the capabilities and features of your computer, your geographic location, and your movement within and interaction with the website, including what pages you look at and what information you download. When you visit our website, our servers collect such information. We use this information to generate aggregate statistics about visitors to our web site and to optimize our web service.
Our website may contains links to external sites which are not governed by this privacy policy. We are not responsible for the content of or the privacy practices, policies, security measures, or actions of those third-party web sites. You are encouraged to view the privacy policies of those web sites and to make an informed decision whether or not to use the web sites or to provide your personal information to the web site operators.
We may change or update our privacy policy from time to time as part of our periodic review of our policies and procedures.
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints regarding Clarke Smith Estabrooks & Miller Law Office’s privacy policies, please contact Eric D. M. Miller, our Privacy Compliance Officer, at:
Clarke Smith Estabrooks & Miller Law Office
1143 Lakewood Court N.
Regina SK S4X 3S3
Tel: 306.949.5212
Fax: 306.775.2234
Email: emiller@csemlaw.ca
If you wish to have a response from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regarding any matter outlined herein, their office can be reached at:
112 Kent ST
Ottawa ON K1A 1H3
Tel: 613.995.8210
Toll Free: 800.282.1376
Fax: 613.947.6850
TTY: 613.992.9190
www.priv.gc.ca