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Privacy Policy

The law firm of Dueck, Sauer, Jutzi & Noll LLP (“DSJN”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is dedicated to maintaining the accuracy, privacy, and security of information that has been provided to us. This privacy policy is a formal statement of principles and guidelines that we have adopted for the protection of the personal information of our clients and other entities with which we engage in commercial activities. We ask that you review this document carefully because the protection of your information is important to us.

1.     What personal information do we collect?

Personal information is any information that identifies you, or through which your identity could be learned, such as your home telephone number and address, personal email address and information about your legal issue. However, it does not include information such as your name, title, business address, or business telephone number. In other words, it does not include information that one would expect to find on a business card.

2.     Consent

Your submission of any personal information to DSJN or its agents means that you agree and consent that DSJN may collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy and as permitted or required by law. If you wish to withdraw, refuse, or limit your consent in any manner, you may contact our Privacy Officer at the address below. If you choose not to provide DSJN with any required personal information, our law firm may not be able to provide you with legal advice and services.

3.     Why do we collect personal information?

DSJN collects personal information for the following limited purposes:

  • to effectively represent you as our client;
  • to bill you for legal services rendered;
  • to create and maintain client lists; and
  • to provide you with information about updates and developments in the law and advise you of upcoming firm events.

4.     How do we collect your personal information?

DSJN collects personal information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive manner. Wherever possible, we collect personal information directly from you, during our initial discussions and in the course of our representation.

Sometimes we may obtain personal information about you from other sources, including:

  • your insurance company;
  • your real estate agent in a property transaction;
  • a government agency or registry;
  • your employer, if we are acting for you, at its request;
  • other parties, witnesses and or participants in the context of litigation or commercial transactions;
  • your accountant; and
  • your doctor, if you have signed a consent authorizing the release of information.

5.     How do we maintain your personal information?

Your personal information is maintained in secured locations and on servers controlled by DSJN. We have developed and implemented security safeguards appropriate to ensure that your personal information is kept from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. These security safeguards include

  • premises security;
  • restricted electronic file access to personal information;
  • deploying technological safeguards such as security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
  • internal password and security policies; and
  • employee confidentiality agreements.

In the event that DSJN uses the services of any third parties to process personal information, we will enter into a legal agreement which requires them to protect this personal information at a level of security equal to that provided by DSJN under this privacy policy.

6.     When do we disclose your personal information?

Under certain circumstances we will disclose your personal information:

  • when we are required or authorized by law to do so, e.g. if a court issues a subpoena;
  • when you have consented to the disclosure;
  • when the legal services we are providing to you requires us to give your personal information to third parties (e.g. a lender in a real estate mortgage transaction) and your consent will be implied, unless you instruct us otherwise;
  • where it is necessary to establish or collect fees for services rendered;
  • if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (e.g. a computer technician) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy;
  • if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf;
  • if we retain other professionals, agents or contractors such as accountants to assist us in completing our work for you or to act on your behalf directly;
  • if we retain other law firms in other jurisdictions, on your behalf;
  • if the information is already publicly known; and
  • to meet an emergency need.

In these circumstances we will only disclose such personal information as necessary.

7.     Accuracy of your Personal Information

At DSJN we are committed to maintaining accurate, complete and up-to-date personal information. We may periodically request confirmation, written or otherwise, from you to ensure that the personal information collected and maintained by us is up-to-date and accurate. If during the time we are representing you on a matter, any of your personal information changes, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes in your active file(s) and on our databases.

8.     Who do I contact regarding access to and changes to my personal information?

If you wish to access your personal information, please contact the lawyer responsible for your matter. In the event a satisfactory response is not forthcoming, you can contact our Privacy Officer at the address set out below. Please make your request in writing or via e-mail. However, we reserve the right to confirm your identity before complying with any access requests. Detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees, plus applicable taxes.

Although DSJN strives to ensure your personal information is correct, accurate and complete, you can challenge the completeness of your personal information under our care and control. Where you can successfully demonstrate that an error in the accuracy or completeness of your personal information exists, we will take reasonable steps to correct it.

9.     Can my request for access to my personal information be denied?

In most cases, a client of DSJN will have access to the personal information we store about you. However, there may be instances when your rights to access your personal information may be denied. Examples of when we may deny access to personal information are as follows:

  • denial of access is required or authorized by law (e.g. when a record containing personal information 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 another person’s privacy;
  • when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you;
  • to protect our firm’s rights and property; and
  • where the request is frivolous or vexatious.

If DSJN denies your request for access to, or refuses to correct personal information, we shall provide you with reasons explaining the basis for our decision.

10.     Is personal information collected on our website?

A visitor to DSJN’s website (http://www.dsjnlaw.com) is not required to reveal any individually identifiable information, nor is such information collected by electronic means, unless the visitor asks a question which DSJN needs to reply to.

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.

We do not use cookies or any electronic means to collect personal information from you on your computer, however, our website server will automatically collect IP addresses. We may view the IP log from time to time, for example, to maintain the security of our website. We do not link IP addresses to other identifiable personal information.

Our website contains links to other sites, which are not governed by this privacy policy.

11.     Changes to this Privacy Policy

DSJN regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, and we reserve the right to change our privacy policy from time to time. In the event of any change to our privacy policy, the amended version will be posted on our website as soon as practical. Policy changes will apply to the personal information collected from the date of posting and will not be applied to existing personal information maintained by DSJN without the consent of the person concerned.

12.     Who do I contact if I have more questions?

DSJN is pleased to answer any further questions you may have concerning the privacy of your personal information. Please write to our Privacy Officer at the address below should you have any questions or concerns about how your information has, is or will be handled by DSJN, or if you would like to register a complaint.

Attention: Privacy Officer
Dueck, Sauer, Jutzi & Noll LLP
403 Albert Street
Waterloo, ON   N2L 3V2

Please be aware that e-mail is not a fully secure medium for sending us personal information.