Our privacy principles
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In the course of its commercial activities and, in particular, providing
services to its clients, Henderson Johnston Fournier collects personal
information about its clients, its employees and others. This information may be
used for contact purposes, for general human resources purposes and, more
broadly, to communicate with our clients and others respecting legal affairs
relevant to them and, more specifically, the services that we provide.
When we are retained to act on behalf of a client, we use, retain and
disclose personal information on behalf of, and as instructed by, that client in
connection with our advice. Our use, retention and disclosure of such
information are governed by our duty of confidentiality to our client and, as
applicable, by solicitor client privilege.
Henderson Johnston Fournier recognizes the importance of privacy and the
sensitivity of personal information. As lawyers 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.
Our privacy principles only apply to personal information about identifiable
individuals. They do not apply to business information. Personal information
does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an
employee of an organization. In the context of this policy, the term “clients’
includes all current, former and prospective clients.
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Henderson Johnston Fournier collects personal information in order that it
may provide legal services and products to its clients. Henderson Johnston
Fournier also produces direct marketing materials concerning its services and
developments in the law.
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Henderson Johnston Fournier collects personal information only by lawful and
fair means and only that which is reasonably necessary for the purposes
identified. Whenever possible, we collect personal information about clients and
other individuals directly from those parties of through referrals by persons
whom such parties have requested to provide us with such information.
Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources including:
- government agencies or registries
- accountants of other professional advisors
- financial institutions
- insurance companies
- credit bureaus
- other third parties that represent they have the right to disclose such
personal information.
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How do we use your personal information?
Henderson Johnston Fournier may use your personal information for the
following purposes:
- to provide legal services
- for billing, record-keeping and other client contact and service matters
- to access new clients’ eligibility for credit
- for audit and record-keeping purposes
- for account collection purposes
- to manage and develop its business and operations
- to learn about the needs of current and potential clients, to develop or
offer services and products tailored to those needs and to communicate with
those clients regarding current and future products and services
- to follow up on client comments and suggestions.
We will retain your information for a reasonable time to permit us to use it
for the purposes that we have communicated to you. When information is no longer
required, we will ensure that all such data is removed from our records. We may
use the services of third party companies to physically destroy your records.
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Disclosure of your personal information
Henderson Johnston Fournier will only disclose your personal information for
purposes related to its providing of services to you, or with your express
consent, or if required by law. For example, we may disclose your information:
- when the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your
information to third parties (for example a tender in a real estate mortgage
transaction)
- where it is necessary to establish or collect fees
- if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf
- if we retain other law firms in other jurisdictions on your behalf
- if a court issues a subpoena.
Although we make reasonable efforts to preserve privacy, we may need to
disclose personal information when required by law in circumstances where we
have a reasonable belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current
judicial proceeding or a court order or legal process served on us.
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Henderson Johnston Fournier uses reasonable efforts to ensure that your
information is stored and maintained in a secure environment, including premises
security. We have procedures to ensure that your information is only made
available to such designated staff as necessary to carry out the stated purposes
that we have communicated to you.
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Our objective is to information you before or at the time of collection as to
the information we are collecting the purposes for which we wish to use such
information. We will seek your clear consent, either in writing or verbally, to
your information being used for the stated purposes and will only collect such
information as is reasonably necessary to achieve those purposes. We will
clearly inform you as to information that is required to proceed with the stated
purpose.
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We take reasonable steps to ensure that the information that we receive from
you is accurate and kept up-to-date. You have the right to access your
information, to verify the information that we have collected in respect of you.
You also have the right to request that your information be modified or deleted.
We will endeavour to deal with all such requests for access and modifications in
a timely manner. In certain circumstances, we may be unable to provide access to
some or all of the personal information that we hold about you. Such
circumstances include those in which the personal information cannot be
separated from the records of others, cannot be disclosed for reasons of
personal security or commercial confidentiality, or is protected by professional
standards relating to confidentiality or solicitor client privilege.
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Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. Henderson
Johnston Fournier 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 by one of our clients)
- information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against
you
- when granting your 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 shall explain why.
Henderson Johnston Fournier does not use your Social Insurance Number as a
way of identifying or organizing the information we hold upon you.
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If Henderson Johnston Fournier holds information about you and you can
establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, Henderson Johnston
Fournier will take reasonable steps to correct it.
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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 and other reporting agencies.
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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.
If you communicate with us by e-mail, it shall be deemed that we have your
consent, approval and authorization to communicate with you by e-mail in
relation to any and all services that we are providing to you. We assume no
responsibility for any invasion of your privacy that may occur during or as a
result of or related to any e-mail communication with, from or to you.
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Secure transactions
 When you pay for services online, your
payments are secure by
paying through the PayPal system. For more information on PayPal's security
encryption for credit card transactions, please visit the
PayPal web site.
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Henderson Johnston Fournier reserves the right to change its
"privacy policy" at any time. If and when we do, we shall revise the "last
updated" date at the bottom of this page. If you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please
contact
us directly.
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Last updated -
Friday, 02 May 2008
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