Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Norton Law is committed to protecting the personal information that we collect, use and disclose in the course of providing legal services and operating our law firm, in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, including applicable privacy legislation, and consistent with our professional obligations. As practicing lawyers we have professional and ethical obligations to maintain information we have received within our client relationships in confidence.

This Privacy Policy sets out how Norton Law collects, uses, and discloses the personal information of our clients, other individuals and our web site visitors (“you”).

Personal Information

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. In general, personal information does not include business contact information that we use to contact you in your business capacity, including your name, title or position, business, telephone or facsimile number.

Accountability and Privacy Governance Policies and Procedures

Norton Law is responsible under applicable privacy legislation for the personal information in our possession or control. We are committed to protecting personal information and have established policies and procedures that govern our treatment of personal information. These policies and procedures include, among other things, the following:

• We have implemented policies and procedures to protect personal information in our custody and control from unauthorized access, use or disclosure.
• We have implemented processes to respond to data subject requests and complaints in a timely and effective manner.
• We have implemented a privacy framework that defines the roles and responsibilities for our employees with respect to the treatment of personal information.

Means of Collection of Personal Information

Norton Law collects personal information directly from individuals. We also collect personal information through automatic means through our Websites as described below.

What Personal Information Do We Collect and Use?

Provision of Legal Services: Norton Law collects, uses and discloses personal information for the primary purpose of providing our clients with professional legal services and representation, including for the following purposes:

• to establish and manage client relationships, provide legal advice, perform legal services, fulfil legal duties (including Know Your Client obligations), and avoid legal conflicts of interest;
• to share personal information with third parties for the purpose of providing legal services in the context of legal proceedings. Such third parties may include opposing parties, parties in interest, opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors, witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbitrators, other decision-makers and experts;
• to establish and maintain commercial relationships with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, evaluate credit standing, and to fulfil contractual obligations;
• to maintain, develop and manage our information systems, such as file transfer, e-discovery, document management, knowledge-management, and precedent systems and databases;
• to detect and protect against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity, and where necessary to meet our insurance requirements;
• to develop and manage our business and operations; and
• as permitted by, and to comply with, applicable legal or regulatory requirements or provisions.

We keep records of the work performed and services provided by us in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and professional standards. These records may include personal information. Our records are stored with safeguards against inappropriate or unauthorized access (see Safeguards).

We may ask you to update your personal information, contact information or preferences from time to time. Clients are encouraged to contact the lead lawyer on their file to update the personal information we maintain in our client files.

Consent

We will obtain a client’s consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information about the client, and the consent of other individuals where required by applicable privacy legislation. We assume that an individual has consented to our reasonable collection and use of personal information consistent with the purposes for which the information was given, when the individual initiates contact with us or voluntarily provides personal information to us. We also assume that clients who retain us, or individuals involved in proceedings or matters opposite or adverse to our clients, consent to the reasonable collection, use and disclosure of their personal information by our professionals and agents for purposes of our representation or provision of legal advice to our clients and the conduct of the transactions or proceedings involving our clients. If you provide us with personal information about a third party, we rely on you to obtain all necessary consents to permit us to collect, use and disclose the personal information for the purposes for which the information was collected and as set out in this Privacy Policy.

We do not collect, use or disclose personal information without consent unless authorized or required by law to do so, such as in the following circumstances:

• if a client provides personal information about third parties to us for purposes of our legal representation or advice to the client;
• where a court order or subpoena is issued, or under applicable rules of production, a regulatory or other body with jurisdiction to compel production so requires;
• when the information is publicly available within the meaning of applicable privacy legislation, such as in professional or other directories, in public registries, publicly-filed court records or information appearing in published form;
• if we are investigating the breach of an agreement, a legal duty or contravention of a law and obtaining consent would compromise the investigation or the accuracy of the information;
• if we are required to disclose personal information to a lawful authority; or as SMS consent is not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing purposes.

Sharing of Personal Information

Legal services: We may share personal information with third parties for the purpose of providing legal services such as in the context of legal proceeding. Such third parties may include opposing parties, parties in interest, opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors, witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbitrators, other decision-makers and experts.

Service Providers: We rely on affiliated and unaffiliated companies, agents and contractors to assist us with the provision of our services, including: hosting our data; providing billing support; document storage; software support; delivering webinars; sending our communications; conducting background checks; managing job applicants; and facilitating secure file transfers.

We provide our service providers with access to your personal information as necessary for them to provide services to us. We require our service providers to protect the confidentiality and security of personal information and our service providers are not authorized to use personal information for other purposes. SMS consent and phone numbers are not shared with any third parties/affiliates for marketing purposes.

Legal Requirements: We or our third-party service providers may disclose personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, to other organizations in the case of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of law or detecting, suppressing or preventing fraud, or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable Canadian law.

Transfer of Personal Information

Client data is stored and processed in Canada; however, we and our service providers (including affiliates) may otherwise access, store and otherwise process non-client personal information outside of Canada.

SMS Disclosures

If you consent to receive SMS from Norton Law you agree to receive conversational SMS from us. Reply STOP to opt-out; Reply HELP for support; Message & data rates may apply; Messaging frequency may vary. Visit https://norton-law.com/privacy-policy/ to see our privacy policy and https://norton-law.com/terms-of-use/ for our Terms of Service.

Information about our Websites

Visiting our Website: In general, you can visit our Website without telling us who you are or submitting any personal information. However, we collect the IP (Internet protocol) addresses of all visitors to our Website and other related information such as page requests, browser type, operating system and average time spent on our Website. We use this information to help us understand our Website activity and to monitor and improve our Website.

Cookies: Our Website uses a technology called “cookies”. A cookie is a tiny element of data that our Website sends to a user’s browser, which may then be stored on the user’s hard drive so that we can recognize the user’s computer or device when they return. Other similar files such as clear GIFs, web beacons and pixel tags work in the same way and we use the word ‘cookie’ in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to not accept certain cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from our Website, you may not be able to take advantage of all of the Website features.

Analytics: We may use a third party such as Google Analytics to help us gather and analyze information about the areas visited on the Website (such as the pages most read, time spent, search terms and other engagement data) in order to evaluate and improve the user experience and the Website. These third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies.

Third Party Links: Our Website may contain links to other websites that Norton Law does not own or operate. We provide links to third party websites as a convenience to the user. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked websites. The linked websites have separate and independent privacy policies, notices and terms of use. We do not have any control over such websites, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations that operate such linked websites may collect, use or disclose, secure and otherwise treat personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

Safeguards

We have implemented reasonable administrative, technical and physical measures in an effort to safeguard the personal information in our custody and control against theft, loss and unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure.