Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes SM Legal Professional Corporation and its affiliates’ policies for collecting, using, and disclosing your information. Users can access SM Legal services, including but not limited to barrister & solicitor representation in Ontario (the “Service”), through our website www.smlegal.ca (“SM”). This Privacy Policy governs your access of the Service, regardless of how you access it, and by using our Services you consent to the collection, transfer, processing, storage, disclosure and other uses of data, content, and information (“Information”) described in this Privacy Policy.

Herein, “SM” designates SM Legal Professional Corporation as well as its website www.smlegal.ca and the information systems that supports them. Our Privacy Policy explains what Information we collect and why we collect it and how we use that Information. It is our policy to respect the privacy of our customers regarding any Information that we may collect while using our Service.

  • Terms of the Policy

It is SM’s policy to comply with the privacy legislation within our jurisdiction. This Privacy Policy covers only those activities that are subject to the provisions of Canada’s federal and Ontario’s provincial privacy laws, as applicable. The rights and obligations contained in this Privacy Policy may not be available to all individuals or in all jurisdictions. You may contact our Privacy Officer for more information on this Policy.

  • Personal Information

The personal information SM collects includes your first name, last name, email address, any personal information the user provides to SM in a user-submitted question, and any other information in accordance with applicable legislation. To help us monitor and improve quality, we may collect your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, the web page visited before you came to our websites, information you search for on our websites, locale preferences, transactions date and time, operating system information, as well as metadata concerning your Data such as software of origin and typology.

SM will always seek customer consent before or at the time that we collect personal information. SM may collect information about you from a third party if you have consented to that third party to release your information. SM may also utilize the services of third parties and may receive personal information collected by those third parties in the course of the performance of their services. SM requires all third parties to provide confirmation that they are authorized to release your information.

  • Cookies

To ensure that our site is optimized for ease of use, we or our service provider(s) may use Cookies to collect standard information about your language preferences, when you visit the Site, your browser type and version, and other similar information. Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a web site and stored on your computer’s hard drive. These Cookies are intended to optimize your experience of the site. As our Service depends on Cookies, you must instruct your browser to accept Cookies from SM. You can reset your browser to notify you when it has received a Cookie or refuse to accept Cookies. However, if you refuse to accept Cookies, you may limit your viewing and/or not be able to access all features on the site.

  • Authorized Disclosure of Data and Information

SM discloses personally-identifying information only to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that need to know that information to process it on SM’s behalf or to provide the Services, and that have agreed not to disclose it to others.

Your personal information may also be used and disclosed:

  • to comply with valid legal proceedings;
  • to respond to a complaint or dispute;
  • during an emergency situation where health or safety is at risk;
  • to protect the rights of SM;
  • to prevent fraud or abuse of SM or its customers;
  • to protect the safety of any individual from injury or death;
  • where the personal information is publicly available; or
  • with your consent.

Collected Information and Cookies may be used in aggregate form to assess how our customers use our website, so that our partners may also understand how often people use our Services. When you contact SM to obtain support, we may keep a record of your communication to help solve any issues you might be facing and reserve the right to publish it without any way to identify its origin, to help us support other customers.

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your Data and Information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and a notice on our websites of any change in control or use of your Data or Information.

We will also notify you of choices you may have regarding the Data and Information. You may change or withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual obligations and reasonable notice by contacting our Privacy Officer in writing. SM may terminate any services to a customer immediately if that customer withdraws their consent.

  • Retention of Data and Information

We will retain your information for as long as needed to provide you Services. Once your account is closed, your Data will be deleted automatically within 30 days. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services, you may request the account cancellation by contacting us. Accounts may be closed by contacting us. We may retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Consistent with these requirements, we will try to delete your information quickly upon request. Please note, however, that there might be latency in deleting information from our servers and backed-up versions might exist after deletion. In addition, we do not delete Data that you have in common with other customers.

  • Third Party Applications

Our Privacy Policy does not apply to services offered by other companies or individuals, including products or sites that may be linked from our services. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices of other companies and organizations who advertise our services, and who may use cookies, pixel tags and other technologies to serve and offer relevant ads. We may share your information with a third party application with your consent, for example for payment processing. We accept no responsibility or liability in respect of any third party. Please refer to the privacy policies published on any third party sites which you may access through our site before submitting personal information to them.

  • Enforcement

We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of Data and Information that we cannot resolve with our customers directly.

  • Security

The security of your Data and Information is important to us. We follow the generally accepted standards to protect the information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our website, you can contact us.

  • Privacy Officer

The Privacy Officer for SM is Samuel Michaels. Should you have any questions about this policy, including any complaints, you may contact our Privacy Officer at 25 Sheppard Avenue West, Suite 300, North York, Ontario, M2N 6S6 or 330 Bay Street, Suite 1400, Toronto, ON M5H 2S8.

Changes to This Privacy Policy Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit approval. We will post any privacy policy changes on our websites and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Privacy Policy changes). We will also keep archived versions of this Privacy Policy for your review.

  • Governing Law

This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and applicable laws of Canada and these laws apply to the use of the Services by you, notwithstanding your domicile, residency or physical location. The Services are intended for use only in jurisdictions where it may lawfully be offered for use. • Agreement to Terms of Policy By using the Website and/or providing information to us, you accept and agree to the collection and use of your personal information for the purposes described herein.