Privacy policy

Dufour Mottet Lawyers, s.e.n.c.r.l. («DMA») recognizes the importance that should be given to the protection of personal information and the right to privacy of an individual. This policy sets out the framework for DMA’s policies and procedures with respect to the collection, use, retention and disclosure of personal information about its customers and other individuals, and supplements, where applicable, our professional obligations of confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the personal information of candidates or our employees, associates or contracted personnel, which are treated separately.

Our privacy policies and procedures apply only 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. For the purposes of this policy, the term « customers » includes all current, former and prospective customers.

Personal information that DMA may request:

• Names and contact information;
• Date of birth, social insurance number and other similar information;
• Financial information;
• Information on legal issues related to a client;
• Information about others collected in the course of representing a client, i.e. employees of a client, other parties involved in a transaction or lawsuit, or witnesses;
• Information about visitors to our offices;
• Information that you have authorized us to collect from you or that we are otherwise permitted to collect by law.

Method of Collecting Personal Information:

We only collect your Personal Information by fair and lawful means and only with your consent or where required or permitted by law. Wherever possible and appropriate, we collect your Personal Information directly from you or from persons you have chosen to provide your Personal Information to us. At times, we may collect information about you from other sources such as financial institutions, insurance companies, real estate agents in a real estate transaction, witnesses in litigation, other parties involved in your transaction or case, government agencies or registries, employers (if we are acting on your behalf at the request of your employer), accountants or other professional advisors and credit offices.

Purposes for which we use your information::

• to provide legal and related services;
• to conduct dispute investigations to determine whether we can represent you;
• to administer client accounts;
• To comply with our legal and professional obligations, including client identification and verification rules and other requirements of the Quebec Bar;
• manage our business, including the performance of our contractual obligations and the auditing of our activities;
• detect and prevent negligence, fraud and theft;
• to assess customer satisfaction;
• to provide you with information about our services and legal developments, to invite you to our events and to communicate with you generally;
• to provide security and emergency preparedness (for visitors to our offices).

Disclosure of your personal information

Subject to our professional obligations of confidentiality, DMA only discloses your personal information for purposes related to our provision of services to you or with your express consent or as required or permitted by law. For example, we may disclose your information :

• when disclosure to third parties assists us in providing you with the legal services you have requested, including hiring expert witnesses, engaging the services of other law firms or other professionals at your request, and providing information to lenders in connection with real estate mortgage transactions;
• when necessary to collect delinquent accounts or assess credit eligibility;
• when necessary to comply with court orders, regulatory requirements (including the rules of the Quebec Bar) or to meet our insurance needs;
• when we reasonably believe that the third party requesting your personal information is your agent.

In addition, we may disclose your personal information to third parties if we undergo a merger or restructuring. We may disclose your personal information before and after a transaction. However, if the transaction has occurred, we will require the third party to provide a comparable level of protection for your personal information. If the transaction has not occurred, we will require the third party to securely destroy or return to us all records containing your personal information.

Consent

We may obtain your consent to collect, use and disclose your personal information either expressly, for the purposes identified, or impliedly, where the purposes are identified by the relevant circumstances or flow logically from the other purposes identified. By providing us with personal information, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of information in connection with the provision of our services, the management of our relationship with you, the administration of our business, and to the extent permitted or required by law, in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

As required by law, we seek your consent before using your personal information for purposes other than those for which you originally consented. You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. Please note, however, that withdrawing consent may affect our ability to serve you and maintain our relationship.

Updating Information

Since we may use your information to provide legal services to you, it is important that your information be accurate and up-to-date. Please let us know if any of your information changes so that we can make the necessary changes.

Security of Your Personal Information

We have policies and procedures in place to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. In addition, our premises are secure and we have adopted technological safeguards, such as security software, passwords and firewalls to prevent unauthorized access to computers.

Please note that no method of transmitting or storing information is completely secure. Although we take steps to protect your personal information, it can still be lost, intercepted or misused. We may exchange electronic versions of documents and e-mails with you using business software that is vulnerable to attacks by viruses and other destructive electronic programs. We cannot guarantee that all communications and documents sent by e-mail will be received or that such communications and documents will always be virus-free. We make no warranty as to the integrity or security of electronic communications between us and you consent to our exchange of electronic communications, including unencrypted confidential documents.

Storage of Your Personal Information

DMA retains personal information collected for as long as it is necessary for the conduct of its business and for the fulfillment of its identified purposes, for as long as it is reasonable to do so for customer service, legal or business purposes. The length of time we retain information depends on the service and the nature of the information.

At the end of the retention period, the information will be destroyed, erased or made anonymous.

We do not, however, make any commitment to retain information collected for a specific period of time except where required by applicable law or regulation.

Depending on the nature of the personal information, it may be stored at DMA’s offices, in various computer systems of DMA or its service providers, or in the storage facilities of DMA or its service providers.

In some cases, we may deal with outside service providers who may store personal information outside of Quebec. DMA takes reasonable steps to ensure that such external service providers are committed to handling personal information held by DMA in accordance with this Policy and applicable law.

1. DMA has entered into agreements with its service providers to ensure that:

2. information is held in strict confidence;

3. information is not disclosed to any third party without your prior authorization; and

4. security safeguards are in place to protect the information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying or use or modification.

Information disclosed to service providers

When we disclose your personal information to a third party to provide administrative and other services, we take appropriate steps to ensure that the third party uses your personal information only for the services we have identified. The nature of our business sometimes requires us to use the services of administrative service providers who may be located in other provinces, the United States or elsewhere in the world. As a result, your personal information may be transferred outside of Quebec and, if so, will be subject to the legal requirements applicable in those provinces and foreign countries, including local requirements to disclose information to courts, police and national security authorities.

If you would like more information about our policies and procedures relating to the disclosure and handling of information outside of Canada, please contact our Privacy Officer in one of the ways listed below under « Questions or Concerns ».

Access to Your Personal Information

You may request access to any information about you. You may also ask how we collected it, how we use it and to whom we have disclosed it. Your request for access must be made in writing and sent to your DMA lawyer or our Privacy Officer. We will acknowledge your request in writing. We may ask you to provide information to allow us to confirm your identity before providing you with the information you have requested. Generally, access is provided free of charge, but if you request a copy or transmission of your information, we may charge a reasonable fee. We will inform you of the amount in advance and give you the opportunity to withdraw your request. We will provide you with access to your information within 30 days of receiving your request or provide you with written notice that additional time is required to respond.

In some cases, we may be unable to provide you with access to all or part of your information. If we are unable to do so, or if the law does not permit us to do so, we will provide you with an explanation and indicate what other steps are available to you.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We regularly review our privacy policies and procedures. As a result, we may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most recent version of our Privacy Policy will be posted on our website. Notwithstanding any changes to our Privacy Policy, we will only use your personal information in accordance with the version of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time you provided your information or as otherwise required or permitted by law, unless you have expressly consented to our doing otherwise.

Applicable Laws

The processing of personal information is governed by applicable laws in various jurisdictions. This Privacy Policy and all related transactions are governed by and shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Quebec and the laws of Canada applicable therein.

Questions or Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns or would like more information about our policies and procedures relating to personal information, or if you wish to access your personal information or change any consent regarding the use or disclosure of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at the address below or your DMA lawyer. We take all privacy concerns seriously. We will investigate each concern raised and seek to resolve it within a reasonable time.

Privacy Officer: Mélanie Dion, Controller

Telephone : 450-688-3931

Fax : 450-686-6964

E-mail : mdion@dmalegal.com