Privacy Policy

As lawyers we are committed by Rules of Professional Conduct to keep confidential all information we receive within a lawyer-client relationship.

In addition all Canadian businesses engaged in commercial activities, including lawyers and law firms, must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) or other substantially similar provincial legislation. PIPEDA gives Canadians rights concerning the privacy of personal information. The terms of this policy accord with PIPEDA and other applicable privacy legislation.

Personal information is any information that identifies an individual, or which allows an individual to be identified. It does not include the name, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.

Cavalluzzo offers and provides legal services and information to a wide range of clients, including unions, their members, employees and professionals.

We need to collect, use and disclose personal information to provide legal services and information, to meet our professional obligations as lawyers and to manage our business.

We collect personal information directly from clients, where possible, at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation. In the course of representation we may also obtain information from other sources.

We use personal information to provide legal advice and services to clients; to fulfill our professional responsibilities, including conflict checks; to administer billing; to develop and use our knowledge management and precedent systems; to deliver information about our services or developments in the law and for any other purposes to which clients or others expressly consent.

Upon request to stop receiving information about our services or new developments in the law, we will not send any further material.

Cavalluzzo does not disclose personal information to any third parties to enable them to market their products and services.

Submitting personal information to Cavalluzzo grants us permission to collect, use and disclose such personal information in accordance with this privacy policy, and as permitted or required by law. However, at times we may ask for express consent, either verbally or in writing.

Under certain circumstances, Cavalluzzo will disclose personal information:

• when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a tribunal, arbitrator or court issues a subpoena;
• when we have consent to make the disclosure;
• when the legal services we are providing require us to give a client's information to third parties, consent will be implied, unless a client tell us otherwise;
• where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
• if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (for example, computer back-up services, internet-based storage or archival file storage), in which case we will ensure that the third party respects the privacy rights and obligations set out in this policy;
• if we engage expert witnesses on behalf of a client;
• if we retain other law firms at a client's request, and on their behalf.

It is important that the information in our files be accurate and up-to-date. Clients are encouraged to inform us if their information changes during the course of the retainer so we can update our records.

Upon request in accordance with PIPEDA, we will provide access to personal information, unless the information is subject to solicitor-client privilege or other legal restrictions on disclosure.

If Cavalluzzo holds personal information about clients or others who can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, Cavalluzzo will take reasonable steps to correct it.

Cavalluzzo takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.  Among the steps taken to protect personal information are:

• physically securing our premises;

• deploying technological safeguards such as security software and firewalls to prevent unauthorized access to our electronic records;

• using internal password and security policies;

• entering into contractual arrangements to maintain the security and confidentiality of information provided to third party service providers;

• requiring our email and internet-based service providers to meet or exceed international standards for data privacy, security and information governance practices, including ISO27001 certification;  and

• employing internet-based service providers (for services other than email storage) that store information within Canada.

While no data transmission (including over the Internet or any website) can be guaranteed to be secure from intrusion, we implement commercially reasonable physical, technical and procedural measures to help protect personal data from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction in accordance with data protection law requirements.

E-mail is not a 100% secure medium, which should be kept in mind when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.

Cavalluzzo attempts to strike a reasonable balance between security and convenience in our communications with clients and others, for example, through the use of unencrypted email for some communications, subject to client instructions. Backups of email communications with us may be stored in the UK by our internet-based service provider and be subject to the laws of that jurisdiction.

We need to consider the personal information of job applicants as part of our review process.  We normally retain information from candidates after a decision has been made, unless an applicant asks us not to retain the information.  If an applicant accepts a job with us, the information will be retained in accordance with our privacy procedures for employee records.

Our website does not automatically gather any specific personal information from users, such as name, phone number or e-mail address. We would only obtain this information if a user sends us an e-mail, or registers in a secure portion of the site.

Our website does not collect “cookies” (a “cookie” is a file that may be placed on a user's hard drive without their knowledge by a web site to allow it to monitor use of the site).

Our website, like most other commercial websites, employs software to monitor network traffic. This software receives and records the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer that has contacted our web site, the date and time of the visit and the pages visited. This information is used to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage, and may be compiled into statistical information on traffic patterns and used to assess site efficiency.

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

Cavalluzzo will from time to time review and revise this Privacy Policy and post the changes to our website.

Contact

Questions or requests to access personal information should be directed to our Privacy Officer, Amanda Pask, at:

Cavalluzzo LLP
474 Bathurst Avenue, Suite 300
Toronto ON M5T 2S6