PRIVACY CODE

OUR COMMITMENT

Privacy is a fundamental value of the Alexander Bainov Law Corporation o/a Contrast Law (sometimes referred to in this Privacy Code as “we“, “us“, “our” and “ours“).

We have adopted this Privacy Code to explain our responsibilities with respect to the information you provide to us.

This Privacy Code forms part of the agreement that you, as a client, make with us, when you retain us.  It applies to both individuals and organizations, who we have the honour to serve.

Confidential information: professional duty to our clients

We have a duty, within the limits of the law and ethical requirements, to represent our clients with diligence and vigor.

We are fully committed to honouring The Law Society of Manitoba’s Code of Professional Conduct, Rule 3.3-1, which states:

“A lawyer at all times must hold in strict confidence all information concerning the business and affairs of the client acquired in the course of the professional relationship and must not divulge any such information unless: 

(a)        expressly or impliedly authorized by the client;

(b)       required by law or a court to do so; 

(c)        required to deliver the information to the Law Society; or

(d)       otherwise permitted by this rule.”

We will consider, invoke and rely upon legal rules and principles concerning lawyer-client confidentiality and privilege, including rights protected by the Constitution of Canada, when exercising our duty.

Privacy legislation

This Privacy Code honours all applicable laws that protect your privacy, including the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA“).  This Privacy Code is designed to comply with the privacy principles that are found in Schedule 1 of PIPEDA.

PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

Accountability

We are responsible for all personal information under our control and our Chief Privacy Officer oversees our firm’s compliance with the principles described in this Privacy Code.

Identifying purposes for collecting information from clients

We collect, use, retain and disclose information about our clients for the following purposes:

• to provide you with legal services in a lawful, ethical and effective manner;
• to administer the commercial aspect of our relationship with you, including obtaining payment;
• to evaluate our performance and to improve our overall quality of services, including, by sharing precedents developed within our firm;
• to respond to actual or potential complaints or proceedings against us that relate to the services we have provided you;
• to send you information about legal developments and to promote our own services;
• to invite you to attend social or educational gatherings;
• to manage and organize our business, including maintaining accounting and tax records;
• to meet legal, professional and regulatory requirements, including where required by PIPEDA as part of an obligation to provide notification of a privacy breach; or
• to carry out any other purpose that you have expressly or implicitly

Information collected in the context of client representation is ordinarily available to us when reasonably required for any and all of the purposes listed above.

Consent from clients

We will proceed to collect, use, retain and disclose your information as a client, as reasonably necessary for the purposes identified above and subject to your specific instructions.

If you wish to expand, narrow or withdraw your authorization to our collection, use, or disclosure of your information, we will ordinarily record your request and honour it, provided we have reasonable notice and can do so lawfully.   Your decision to alter or withdraw your authorization may in some cases, however, require us to withdraw from serving as your legal counsel.

In certain circumstances information about a client may or must be collected, used, retained or disclosed without the client’s consent.  For example, under Canada’s money laundering and proceeds of crime laws we may be required to disclose “suspicious transactions” to lawful authorities, and may be prohibited from telling clients that we have done so.

We will be pleased to explain your options and any consequences of refusing or withdrawing your authorization.

Limits to the collection of information from clients

We will ordinarily obtain most of our information about you, as a client, directly from you. We may also obtain information from third parties when you have expressly authorized us to do so or authorized the third party to release the information, or when we can reasonably infer your consent.  For example, if you instruct us to close a housing deal, we ordinarily may obtain information from your real estate agent and financial institution on matters relevant to the closing.

Limits to the use, disclosure and retention of information obtained from clients

We will share information about you, as a client, among members of our firm and our staff only to the extent that is reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes identified above.

We may disclose information about you to third parties when you have expressly authorized us to do so, or when we can reasonably infer your consent. For example, if the legal services you have requested require us to retain an expert witness or retain counsel in another jurisdiction, we will ordinarily provide them with the information necessary to carry out the task effectively.

We may disclose information, without your express or implied consent, where it is reasonably necessary to do so, in order to comply with the purposes identified above.

Examples include where:

• we are required by law to disclose information to The Law Society of Manitoba;
• we must disclose information to a collection agency or court to obtain payment;
• we have to respond in court to a legal action; or
• we need to disclose information to our own service providers, such as accountants or couriers.

We will not disclose more information about you than what is required to achieve the legitimate purpose for disclosure.

Whenever possible, we will obtain confidentiality agreements or credible assurances from any third parties with whom we share your information.

We do not sell, trade, barter or exchange any information obtained from you in the course of providing legal representation to you.

Maintaining privacy through personnel changes and reorganizations of the firm

If there is a fundamental reorganization of our firm, such as a merger, responsibility for your information will ordinarily remain with our legal successor. If there is none, your file will ordinarily be transferred to the lawyer who was principally responsible for your matter, prior to the reorganization.

If you wish to retain counsel outside our firm, and we transfer your file and information in accordance with your instructions, we may retain some information, where necessary, for a purpose identified above, such as settling your account. 

If a lawyer who has worked on your file leaves the firm, our firm ordinarily continues to represent you.  We may, however, contact you to determine whether you wish us to transfer the responsibility and information to the lawyer who has left.

Accuracy of client information

It is important to us that we maintain the accuracy of any information in our possession on active matters.

If any of your information changes, or if you discover any errors, please inform us immediately so we can take the appropriate actions.

Safety and security

We endeavour to take reasonable measures to ensure that your information is secure from unauthorized access.

Retention

We will retain your information only for so as long as is reasonably required for one of the purposes identified above. We may in some cases retain information about clients who we no longer represent.  Our policy is to review files for destruction after they have not been active for ten years or more.

Access to your information

Upon your written request, we will ordinarily disclose to you, as a client, what information we have about you. We will let you know if any charges apply.

We may not be able to provide information about you from our records, if those records contain references to other individuals, are subject to legal privilege, contain information proprietary to our firm, are too costly to retrieve, or cannot be disclosed for other legal reasons. If we do not disclose your information, we will explain why.

We will use every reasonable effort to respond to your request within thirty days.

Third party access considerations

In the context of client representation, we may collect, use, retain or disclose information about a third party without that third party’s consent, where doing so is reasonable for an investigation or proceeding or another lawful purpose.

Considerations of client confidentiality and privilege will often preclude us from revealing information to interested third parties.  Effective client representation often requires us to compile differing or contested evidence or versions of events, and we cannot generally undertake to change our files to reflect an account that a third party considers to be more accurate.

Subject to the lawful constraints connected with our duties and obligations to our own clients:

• we will observe the privacy principles of PIPEDA in respect of information we have in our control about third party individuals;

• specific commitments protecting privacy, set out in this Privacy Code, will generally be applied, with the necessary changes, to information about third party individuals; and

• our interpretation and application of this Privacy Code will take into account that the special privilege and heightened standard of confidentiality attached to lawyer-client relationships does not necessarily extend to information about a third party.

Ancillary business purposes

In the context of conducting business, apart from client representation, we will identify the purposes for which we gather information, whenever such purposes are not already clear from the context.

Some examples of other business purposes include: contracting with suppliers of goods and services, promoting the image and goodwill of the firm and conducting investigations and proceedings in the context of our own legal rights and remedies.

Updating this Privacy Code

We reserve the right to make reasonable changes to this Privacy Code from time to time.  Substantial changes will only come into effect after they have been posted for a reasonable period on our website. The revisions will be deemed to be an integral part of our agreement with you, as a client.

Handling inquires and challenges

If you have any concerns about confidentiality and privacy, we want to know about them. Clients should address questions, concerns, or complaints involving privacy matters to our Chief Privacy Officer:

Alex Bainov
Phone: 204-808-4778
[email protected]

Effective:                    May 17, 2018
Last Revised:              June 6, 2018