Sanderson Entertainment Law Privacy Policy
Sanderson Entertainment Law recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a lawyer-client relationship. We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.
Your Privacy Rights
Sanderson Entertainment Law is responsible for the personal information we collect, use, maintain, disclose and hold.
We, like all businesses engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (herein "the Act") and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, which it incorporates. These obligations imposed by these statutes extend to lawyers and law firms, including Sanderson Entertainment Law. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.
To ensure accountability, we have developed this policy and trained support staff about our policies and practices.
What is "Personal Information?"
Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. However, it does not include the name, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.
Why Does Sanderson Entertainment Law Need Personal Information?
Sanderson Entertainment Law provides legal services and products to a wide range of clients.
We collect personal information from our clients to:
provide legal services to you, in accordance with your instructions;
bill you for legal services rendered;
provide information to you about developments in the law; and
advise you of upcoming firm events.
If we could not and did not collect and use your personal information, we could not provide legal services to you.
What personal information do we collect?
Personal information we collect could include, for example, your name, address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address, social insurance and credit card number.
How do we collect your personal information?
We collect information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Wherever possible we collect your personal information directly from you, at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation.
Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources: for example,
your publishing company;
your record company;
your manager;
your booking agent;
your agent;
your other business members;
from a government agency or registry;
your employer, if we are acting for you, at its request;
your accountant; and
other advisors or consultants retained by you to assist with your legal concerns.
Consent
In most cases, we ask you to specifically consent, if we collect, use, or disclose your personal information. Normally, we ask for your consent in writing, but in some circumstances, we may accept your oral consent. Sometimes, your consent may be implied through your conduct with us.
Use of Your Information
We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, to administer our client files (time and billing databases) and to include you in direct marketing activities, a newsletter, for example. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive information about our services, or about new developments in the law, we will not send any further material.
Sanderson Entertainment Law does not disclose your personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services. For example, we do not provide our client mailing lists to other law firms, or direct marketing firms.
Disclosure of your Personal Information
Under certain circumstances, Sanderson Entertainment Law may disclose your personal information:
when we are 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 we are providing to you requires us to give your information to third parties (for example, a Social Insurance Number on cross border advance payments or for purposes of obtaining US Tax ID numbers) your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise;
where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (like computer back-up services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy;
if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf;
if we retain other law firms in other jurisdictions, on your behalf;
if the information is already publicly known.
Updating Your Information
Since we use 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 our retainer any of your information changes, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.
Is My Personal Information Secure?
Sanderson Entertainment Law 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:
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;
obligation of each lawyer to maintain client confidentiality under the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of Ontario;
all employees and third parties that have access to personal information collected by Sanderson Entertainment Law will be required to maintain a confidentiality that is in keeping with this Policy and the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of Ontario.
Access to Your Personal Information
You may ask for access to any personal information we hold 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 Sanderson Entertainment Law holds information about you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, we will take reasonable steps to correct it.
Can I be Denied Access to My Personal Information?
Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute.
We may deny access when:
denial of access is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege);
information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you;
when granting you access would have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy;
when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you;
to protect our firm’s rights and property;
where the request is frivolous or vexatious.
If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct information, we will explain why.
Generally, Sanderson Entertainment Law, except as set out above herein, does not use your Social Insurance Number as a way of identifying or organizing the information we hold upon you.
Can I request anonymity?
Whenever it is legal and practicable, we may offer the opportunity to deal with general inquiries without providing your name (for example, by accessing general information on our website). The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act require us to confirm the identity of all new clients. It may also require us to disclose information to FINTRAC in relation to certain large cash transactions.
Credit Bureaus
To help us make credit decisions about clients, prevent fraud, check the identity of new clients and prevent money-laundering, we may on occasion request information about you from the files of consumer reporting agencies.
Communicating with Us
You should be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium and your privacy could be compromised by sending us your personal or confidential information by e-mail. We accept personal information by e-mail, phone and fax.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Since Sanderson Entertainment Law regularly reviews its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time.
Requests for Access
If you have any questions or concerns, or wish to access your personal information, please write to our Privacy Contact at:
577 Kingston Road, Suite 303
Toronto Ontario, M4E 1R3
Attention: Paul Sanderson, Barrister & Solicitor
Employment Inquiries
If you apply to Sanderson Entertainment Law for a job, we need to consider your personal information as part of our review process. We normally retain information from candidates after a decision has been made unless you ask us not to retain the information. If we offer you a job which you accept, the information will be retained in accordance with our privacy procedures for employee records.
Website
Our website may contain links to other sites which are not governed by our privacy policy.
We may also collect personal information on or from our website.
We only collect the information you provide to us voluntarily by sending us an e-mail, completing forms or using the links contained on the website. Sanderson Entertainment Law may collect and use your name, address, telephone number, email address and any other information you submit on or through the website for the purposes for which you provided the personal information, to respond to your inquiries, your application for a position and to provide you with updates and information that we think may be of interest to you. In providing Sanderson Entertainment Law with any personal information on or through this website, you consent to the collection and use of that information for these stated purposes. We currently do not use cookies on this website. ("Cookies" are small text files that recognize repeat visitors and track their visits to a website.)
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.