David R. Habib, Barrister & Solicitor, (the “Firm”) recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. In the practice of Law the Firm has a professional obligation to keep confidential all information it receives within a lawyer-client relationship. The Firm is committed to protecting any personal information it holds even where it does not have such a relationship. This Privacy Policy outlines how the Firm manages your personal information and safeguards your privacy.

Your Privacy Rights

From January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/showtdm/cs/P-8.6 and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, which it incorporates. These obligations extend to lawyers and law firms, including the Firm. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

In addition, our obligations as legal professionals are governed, in part, by the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern all members of the Law Society of Upper Canada. These rules require us, in part, to hold in strict confidence all information concerning the business and affairs of our clients acquired in the course of the professional relationship and the Firm is not permitted to divulge any such information unless we have received express or implied consent from the client or are required by law to do so. These obligations apply not only to lawyers but to all professionals, employees, contractors and agents who provide services related to the delivery of our legal services.

The Firm is responsible for the personal information it collects and holds. To ensure this accountability, I have developed this policy.

Why is Your Personal Information required?

The Firm provides legal services to a wide range of clients. In doing so, it collects information either to determine whether the Firm will enter into a professional relationship with a person or organization or in the course of a professional relationship. The Firm will limit the information it collects to what it needs for specific purposes and will only use it for those purposes. Whenever possible, the Firm will endeavour to collect information from the individual concerned rather than relying on third parties.

If the Firm did not collect and use your personal information, it could not provide you with legal services.

Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. Personal Information includes, for example, names, home addresses, phone numbers, financial information, medical information and employment information.

How does the Firm collect your personal information?

The Firm collects information only by lawful and fair means, and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Wherever possible it collects your personal information directly from you, both at the start of a retainer and in the course of its representation of you.

Sometimes it may obtain information about you from other sources, for example:
• 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;
• your accountant.

Consent

In most cases, the Firm shall ask you to specifically consent, if it collects, uses, or discloses your personal information. Normally, it asks for your consent in writing, (including by email messages) but in some circumstances, it may accept your oral consent. Sometimes, your consent may be implied through your conduct with us.

Use of Your Information

The Firm uses your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, to administer its clients (time and billing databases) and to include you in any direct mailings from our firm.

The Firm may disclose your personal information to organizations that perform services on behalf of the Firm. Personal information will only be provided to such organizations if they agree to use such information solely for the purposes of providing services to the Firm and under the Firm’s instructions.

The Firm does not disclose your personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services. For example, it does not provide our client mailing lists to other law firms.

Under certain circumstances, the Firm will disclose your personal information:
• when it is 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 it is providing to you requires it give your information to third parties (for example a lender in a real estate mortgage transaction) your consent will be implied, unless you tell the firm otherwise;
• where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
• if it engages a third party to provide administrative services to it (like computer back-up services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by the firm’s privacy policy;
• if the Firm engages expert witnesses on your behalf;
• if the Firm retains other law firms at your request, and on your behalf or with your consent;
• if the Firm retains agents or consultants to assist it in performing tasks the Firm determines are advisable. For example, the firm may retain a conveyancer to search title for it, or to close a transaction;
• if the information is Publicly Available Personal Information, as it is defined under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

Updating Your Information

Since the Firm uses 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, please inform the Firm so that it can make any necessary changes.

Is Your Personal Information Secure?

The Firm takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your information are:
• premises security;
• restricted file access to personal information;
• deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
• internal password and security policies.

Our suppliers, agents and service providers, as part of their contracts with the Firm are bound to maintain your confidentiality and may not use the information for any unauthorized purpose.

Retention

The Firm keeps personal information only as long as it is required for the reasons it was collected. The length of time it retains information varies, depending on the product or service and the nature of the information. This period may extend beyond the end of a person's relationship with us but only as long as necessary for the Firm to have sufficient information to respond to any issues that may arise at a later date. At all times, the Firm protects your privacy by making every reasonable effort to keep your personal information in secure locations.

Currently, the Firm holds personal information at its office.

The Firm endeavours to maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to its office so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or modification of personal information. It is sometimes necessary to transport personal information to other locations such as courts, tribunals or meetings. The Firm and its staff are careful to keep your personal information secure if and when it must leave its office.

In terms of communicating personal information to the Firm, you should note there is no method of transmitting or storing data that is completely secure. Mail, telephone calls, faxes and transmissions over the internet are all susceptible to possible loss, mis-routing, interception and misuse of the information being communicated or transmitted.

The Firm attempts to strike a reasonable balance between security and convenience. In communicating with clients and others, the Firm often requests the right to use a method of communication that is less secure than some of its less convenient alternatives. An example of this is email.

You may ask for access to any personal information the Firm holds about you.

Summary information is available on request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.

Correcting Errors

If the Firm holds information about you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, the Firm will take reasonable steps to correct it.

Can you be denied access to my Personal Information?

Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. The Firm may deny access when:
• it is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is protected by solicitor-client privilege);
• to do so would reveal confidential commercial information, and the personal information cannot be severed from the record;
• to do so could reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual, and the personal information cannot be severed from the record; or
• the information was generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process.

If the Firm denies your request for access to, or refuses a request to correct information, it shall explain why. The Firm does not use your Social Insurance Number as a way of identifying or organizing the information we hold upon you.

Can you request anonymity?

Whenever it is legal and practicable, the Firm may offer the opportunity to deal with general inquiries without providing your name.

The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/showtdm/cs/P-24.501) requires the Firm to confirm the identity of all new clients. It may also require us disclose information to FINTRAC in relation to certain large cash transactions.

You should be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Since the Firm regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, it may change its Privacy Policy from time to time.

Requests for Access

If you have any questions, or wish to access your personal information, please write to David R. Habib at:

David R. Habib
Barrister & Solicitor
18 Honeywood Court
Ottawa, Ontario
K1V 1Y4

613-822-4100
613-691-0656 (fax)

david@habiblaw.ca

If you are not satisfied with our response, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada can be reached at:

112 Kent Street
Ottawa Ontario
K1A 1H3
1.800.282.1376

Websites of the Firm and Related Websites

The only personal information the Firm plans to collect collects on its website or sites is the information voluntarily supplied by you if you contact us through such websites. This information typically is restricted to your name and email address. The Firm does not plan to employ any electronic means to automatically collect personally identifiable information from any visitor or user of future Website’s of the Firm’s or from their computers.

The Firm may use your personal information collected through its website to respond to your inquiries, contact you or provide you with emails or brochures that the Firm believe will interest you or as otherwise permitted or required by law.