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Privacy Policy

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This Privacy Policy applies to ADL-LEGAL (“ADL-LEGAL”, “we”, “our”) and explains
how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information when you use our
website or retain our services, and what your rights are in this regard.


Generally speaking, “personal information” is information about an identifiable
individual or that allows an individual to be identified, subject to more particular
definitions or interpretations under applicable law. For example, it could be your
name, email address or date of birth. However, “personal information” does not
include your business details such as your title, business address and telephone
number.


This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information that is not personal
information as defined in or interpreted under applicable law. This policy also does not apply to personal information about any employees, partners or other
temporary or permanent staff, consultants, volunteers or other individuals that
may be assigned to ADL LEGAL.


ADL LEGAL offers and provides legal services and information to a wide range of
clients. We collect, use and disclose personal information as necessary to offer and provide clients and potential clients with these legal services and information and generally to fulfill our professional legal responsibilities and manage our business. As lawyers, we have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we obtain within a lawyer-client relationship.


The information We Collect and How We Use It


The kinds of personal information we collect and use in relation to clients and
potential clients may include:

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  • your contact information, such as your name, pronouns, address, email address and phone number ;

  • additional information that you provide to us as part of our provision of services, including sensitive personal information, such as your racial orethnic origin, health status or sexual orientation;

  • potential client’s legal issue, financial, credit information, billing information, such as your billing address or bank details.

  • information about individuals we collect in the course of acting for clients, including personal information about employees of clients, referrals, 
    adverse parties and parties with parallel interests, other counsel, mediators
    and arbitrators, witnesses and potential witnesses, expert witnesses andconsultants;

  • information about you contained in communications between us and you,
    whether online or offline; and

  • information we may collect with your consent or as permitted or required by
    law.

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We use this information to:

 

  • assess whether we can act for you, including to avoid conflicts of interest;

  • offer and provide legal information and services to you;

  • communicate with you regarding the services you request and to respond to your requests and inquiries;

  • administer our client time and billing databases, and issue and collectaccounts;

  • provide you with material on our services and developments in the law, and to invite you to our seminars and functions;

  • manage and administer our business, including to avoid negligence andprotect you and us against error and fraud;

  • comply with legal, regulatory and self-regulatory requirements, and fulfillour legal and professional obligations; and

  • as permitted or required by law or for purposes for which you otherwiseprovide your consent.

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We collect this information directly from clients and potential clients, or indirectly
with their consent or where permitted by law. If you do not wish to receive further materials about our services and legal developments or if you do not wish to receive further invitations to seminars and functions, you may unsubscribe or ask us not to contact you for these purposes.


Information About Our Agents, Vendors, Suppliers, Expert Witnesses and
Foreign Associates


We may collect information about third-party agents, vendors, suppliers, expert
witnesses and foreign associates ("Service Providers") who provide goods, services and information to us. This information would include name and contact information, banking information and information about experience and
qualifications. We collect this information directly from our Service Providers, or
indirectly with their consent or where permitted by law. We use this information to assess suitability for particular assignments; to contact them, where necessary, in relation to the goods, services and information they are providing to us; and to pay them for their services. We may also use this information to provide them with material regarding our services or developments in the law or to invite them to our seminars and functions. If they do not wish to receive materials about our services and legal developments, or invitations to seminars and events, they may unsubscribe or ask us not to contact them for these purposes.


How We Collect Information About You


We typically collect your personal information directly from you, with your consent, when you interact with us (for example, when you contact us for legal services or fill out a form on our website). We may, however, collect your personal information from third parties with your consent, or as permitted by law. For example, in relation to clients, in addition to personal information that you provide, we may collect personal information from:

  • a government agency or registry;

  • third parties, such as your real estate agent, your financial institution, your insurance company, or your employer; and other law firms or agents who have acted for you in the past, where these

  • parties have information relevant to the matter in which we are acting for you.

 

Your Consent


In connection with our commercial activities outside of the European Economic
Area (“EEA”), we process personal information with consent except where
otherwise permitted or required by law. For example, there are instances where
we may collect, use or disclose your personal information without your consent,
such as when we need to collect a debt you owe to us, or to comply with a
subpoena or court order, or to comply with the rules of court regarding the
production of records. Your consent may be express or implied, depending on the circumstances and the sensitivity of the personal information in question. For example, in most cases, a client’s consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by us may be implied by the fact that the client has engaged us to provide legal services, where the collection, use and disclosure of personal information relates to the performance of those services by us. If you provide personal information about another person to us, we assume you have the consent of that individual to enable us to collect, use or disclose their information as described in this policy. If you choose to provide personal information to us, we assume that you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Policy.


In connection with our commercial activities in the EEA, we rely on one of the
following legal grounds (as appropriate) to process personal information:

 

  • To enter and perform a contract with you or to perform any steps you require from us before entering into a contract.

  • To pursue our legitimate business interests in establishing, managing or concluding our business relationship with you.

  • Where you have specifically consented to us processing your personal information.

  • To comply with our legal obligations and establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.


Where personal information is processed with consent, you may, subject to legal
and contractual requirements and reasonable notice, refuse to consent to our
collection, use and disclosure of your personal information or you may withdraw
your consent to our further collection, use and disclosure of information about
you, by contacting us at adilorenzo@adl-legal.ca. Note that if you refuse to
consent, or if you withdraw your consent to certain uses of your personal
information, we may not be able to provide certain of our services.


How We Disclose and Share Your Personal Information


We may disclose the personal information we collect about clients or other
individuals we deal with to third parties, including:

  •  where the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your
    personal information to third parties, such as a lender in a real estate
    mortgage transaction;

  • where we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example, where
    the rules of court require us to provide personal information to the
    opposite side and the court in a litigation matter or where a court issues a subpoena or order;

  • to regulatory (including self-regulatory) or governmental authorities, for example, disclosure of personal information reasonably requested or required by governing bodies of the legal profession in the course of its oversight of our practice;

  • where we engage an expert or consultant on your behalf in a litigation matter;

  • where we retain another law firm or agent to act or assist us in acting onyour behalf;

  • where it is necessary to collect fees, for instance, to a financial institutionor collection agent;

  • where you have instructed us to disclose your personal information to a third party for a designated purpose; and

  • where we reasonably believe a third party requesting your information isyour agent.

  • Notwithstanding the foregoing, we do not disclose any information that isprotected by solicitor-client privilege unless you have waived such privilege, that

  • we have your consent or are required to do so under applicable laws.


Service Providers


We may also transfer your personal information to Service Providers, hired to
administer or provide products, services or information on our behalf. We require our Service Providers to use your personal information only as necessary to perform the services we have hired them to provide.  Most of our Service Providers process personal information in Canada or in the EEA. On occasion, we may use service providers that process personal information in the United States or other countries that do not offer the same legal protections for personal information as Canada or the EEA. In such cases, we will ensure that appropriate contractual protections are in place, as required by applicable laws.  If you have any questions about our use of Service Providers, including outside of Québec, Canada or the EEA, please contact Assunta Di Lorenzo, our Privacy Officer, using the contact information mentioned below.


Business Transactions


We may also use and disclose certain personal information to parties connected
with the proposed or actual financing, insuring, sale or other disposal of all or part of our business or assets, for purposes connected to evaluating and performing the transaction. These purposes may include determining whether to proceed with the transaction or business relationship or fulfilling any records or other reporting requirements to those parties. Where applicable, we will take steps to require that such parties treat your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and use and disclose it only for the purposes for which it was collected, including to provide the services or information that we would otherwise provide to you and generally to carry on our legal business.


Information Collected When You Browse Our Website


The only personal information that we collect about you when you use our website is what you tell us about yourself or any information you provide to us through the “Contact Us” section on our website or when you send us an email.


As most websites do, however, we do track usage patterns on our website on an
anonymous basis. Your identity cannot reasonably be ascertained from this
information. Each time you visit our website, our server records your Internet
service provider, the date and time of your visit, the pages you visit and the
documents downloaded, the searches you performed, and the referring URL’s you came from. We use this non-personal information to optimize our website service.


We collect certain information through cookies and other tracking technologies
(collectively, “cookies”) when you browse our website. You may or may not consent to the activation of some of these functional cookies when you connect to our site. However, if you refuse such cookies, your browsing experience may be affected. By clicking on "Allow all"on your first visit to the site, you agree to the storage of cookies on your device.


For your convenience, we may offer links from our website to other websites.
However, we are not responsible for, nor do we accept any liability for, the
personal information collection, use and disclosure practices of other entities to
which our website may link. You should consult the privacy policies of these other entities before providing any personal information on their websites.


Retention of Your Personal Information


We will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy, or as required to comply with our legal,
ethical, and regulatory obligations. Our record retention periods are established

taking into account requirements of privacy laws, the purposes for which the
information was collected, legal and regulatory requirements to retain the
information for minimum periods, limitation periods for taking legal action, and
our business purposes. After this time, your personal information will be destroyed or anonymized.


Security of Your Personal Information


The personal information that we collect is kept confidential in accordance with
applicable laws. We have implemented reasonable physical, organizational and
technological security measures to safeguard the personal information in our
custody or control. These include safeguards to protect personal information
against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or
modification. You can generally visit our website without providing any personal
information. However, given that electronically submitted data is not 100 percent secure, we make no warranties as to the security of any such personal information that you submit, which you do at your own risk.


Your Rights, Access, Corrections, Inquiries and Complaints


You have the right to protect the confidentiality of your personal information and
thus access or correct your personal information in our custody or control. You
also have the right, to the extent applicable, to withdraw your consent to the
disclosure or use of your personal information. To exercise any of these rights,
please make your request in writing to Me Assunta Di Lorenzo, the Privacy Officer, at:

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Assunta Di Lorenzo, Attorney
ADL-LEGAL
53 Delavigne
Westmount, Quebec, Canada H3Y 2C3
Email: adilorenzo@adl-legal.com
Telephone: 514-927-9900


Please note that we may need to verify your identity before searching for or
providing you with personal information. In some circumstances, we may not
provide access to your personal information, for example, if it contains the
personal information of other persons, if it constitutes confidential commercial

information, if it is protected by solicitor-client privilege, or if it is otherwise not
properly the subject of an access request.


Since we predominantly use personal information to provide legal services, it is
important that the information be accurate and up to date. Please inform us as
soon as possible of any changes to your personal information.


If you have any questions, inquiries or complaints about our personal information practices, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information mentioned above.


Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy


This Privacy Policy is effective as of the Effective Date below. We may update this
Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect legislative changes or operational
changes within ADL LEGAL. Although update notices may be used, the display of
our revised Privacy Policy will be considered sufficient notice. Your continued use
of our website or services is an acceptance on your part of this Privacy Policy and
any update thereof.

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Effective Date: December 1, 2023.

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