PRIVACY POLICY

 

Tutino Joseph Grégoire G.P. and all of its members and TPD Corporate Services Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "TJG" or "we") have always and continue to value your privacy and the protection of your personal information. We remain fully committed to protecting the confidentiality of the personal information collected in the course of our legal and commercial activities.

This Privacy Policy sets out our practices regarding the collection, use, retention, disclosure, and destruction of personal information and the preventive measures put in place to ensure its confidentiality and integrity, in compliance with privacy laws.

We also wish to explain the steps to be taken if you object to some of our practices and to inform you about your data protection rights.

TJG reserves the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make a change to this Privacy Policy, we will post such changes on our website.

 

Consent, scope and application

By providing us with personal information (through our website, secure links, email, in person, by telephone or otherwise), you agree that it will be treated in accordance with the provisions set out in this Privacy Policy, and you authorize TJG, its third parties and service providers to process your personal information for the purposes set out in this Policy.

This Privacy Policy is subject to all applicable laws and regulations including without limitation the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector.

The term "Personal Information" means any information that, either taken by itself or combined with other information, could allow an individual to be identified. 

Personal Information does not generally include information generally considered to be business contact information: your name, title or position, business address, telephone number, fax number or e-mail address.

The types of Personal Information that TJG may collect about you include your name, home address, telephone number, personal e-mail address, billing and account information, information about your legal issue and other information incidental to providing you legal advice and services.

We also collect from third parties, and from publicly available sources, Personal Information about prospective or current employees, contractors and partners that is reasonably required to establish, manage or terminate an employment, contractual or partnership relationship.

We would like to remind you that lawyers are bound by professional secrecy. Also, all members of our team, whether articling students, students, secretaries, receptionists, legal assistants, office clerks or other employees present on our premises are also bound to respect professional secrecy. Our employees have access to information protected by solicitor-client privilege and other laws only to the extent that it is entirely necessary for the performance of their duties.

 

Personal Information that we collect and the purposes for collecting same

TJG collects the personal information necessary for the following purposes:

• to establish and manage our relationship with you and to evaluate the status of such relationship;
• to provide legal advice and perform legal services responding to your needs;
• to fulfill our legal duties and avoid conflicts of interest;
• to communicate with you and third parties within the scope of our mandates. Such third parties may include opposing parties; parties of interest; opposing counsels and advisors; witnesses; decision-makers; and experts;
• to open a client account and respect our legal obligations and code of ethics;
• to verify the identity of our clients, to evaluate the solvency and credit standing of our clients and to obtain information from credit bureau or credit reporting agencies;
• to provide answers regarding your files and billing;
• for the protection of personal information to comply with, any legal or regulatory requirements or provisions, as permitted;
• to offer legal advice and services in accordance with your needs;
• to develop, enhance, market, sell or otherwise provide TJG's services;
• to communicate, by mail, e-mail, text message or any other means of communication, our publications, invitations and other communications relating to your file;
• to develop and manage our databases and administrative systems;
• to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, and to recover amounts due;
• to engage in business transactions, including the purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposition, securitization or financing involving TJG;
• to recruit or evaluate employment candidates;
• to detect and protect against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity;
• upon visiting our Website or using our social media or other means of communication, including when publishing comments or making a remark or complaint;
• upon visiting our offices, in which case our team and our monitoring equipment may collect personal information about you;
• to protect and safeguard individuals and assets under TJG’s control or responsibility;
• for any other reasons or purposes permitted or required by law or as required for our activities.

If you choose not to provide us with certain Personal Information, this may result in our inability to provide you with the desired service, to carry out your instructions or to comply with an ongoing or pending contract with you, including to force us to cease representing you.

It is important to note that if you provide us with personal information about individuals other than yourself, such as your employees, third parties, advisors or suppliers, you must ensure and you confirm that these individuals understand how their personal information will be used and that they have given you permission to disclose it to us and to our suppliers to use it.

In accordance with the law, the consent of parents or legal tutors for the collection and use of personal information of children or aged 14 years and under is mandatary, except if the collection is manifestly in the interest of this child.

 

 Use and disclosure of personal information

TJG only uses and discloses personal information of its clients for the above-mentioned purposes and only upon receipt of their consent, except when the law does not require it or a judgment imposes such disclosure.

TJG may disclose your Personal Information to:

• service providers, including an organization or individual retained by TJG to perform functions on its behalf, such as marketing, data processing, document management and office services;
• an organization or individual retained by TJG to evaluate your creditworthiness or to collect debts outstanding on your account;
• a financial institution, on a confidential basis and solely in connection with the assignment of a right to receive payment, the provision of security or other financing arrangements; or
• a person who, in the reasonable judgment of TJG, is providing or seeking the information as your agent;
• to our insurers and to regulatory agencies such as provincial law societies, insurers or others in connection with regulatory or other activities relating to the obligations of TJG and its practice of the legal profession; and
• to TJG’s personnel, governmental authorities, insurers, benefits providers, consultants or agents as reasonably required to establish, manage or terminate employment, contractual and partnership relationships.

 

Storage and Date retention

Your Personal Information is stored in secured locations in Canada and TJG ensures to keep its servers in a secure environment and its IT infrastructure is managed by specialists safeguarding its data protection. We only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected, in accordance with our legal and professional obligations. Once this period has elapsed, we proceed to the secure deletion of your data.

 

Website use

In order to facilitate your experience on our online platform and for future communications, TJG and its service providers may use technologies such as markers (cookies) to collect information about your Internet connection, as well as your browsing habits and preferences on our website.

This information may include your IP address, location data, browsing logs, the time and date of your visit, your language preferences, the browsers you use, Internet references, other communication data, search terms used and pages visited. We inform you that you can refuse cookies by adjusting the parameters of your Web browser.

Our website may contain links to other websites that are governed by privacy policies separate from those of TJG.

If you provide personal information on any of these third-party sites, that information will be governed by their respective privacy policies.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party sites. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of any third-party site you visit through our online platform before providing any personal information.

 

Accessibility and complaint process

An individual who makes a request has the right to be informed of the existence of Personal Information pertaining to them, of its use and if same was disclosed to third parties. The person concerned who makes the request also has the right to consult the information TJG holds regarding them, under reserve of exceptions provided for by law. This person can contest the accuracy and completeness of their personal information and ask TJG to make the appropriate corrections in a timely manner upon proving that the Personal Information is inaccurate or incomplete.

You can refuse or withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure (subject to the exceptions provided for by law) or retention of your personal information. In such case, this may result in our inability to provide you with the desired service, to carry out your instructions or to continue to represent you.

If you have a complaint regarding the application of this Privacy Policy, you can transmit same in writing to the person responsible for processing Personal Information hereinafter designated by TJG. TJG undertakes to carry out an investigation and respond to the complaint in the prescribed delays. If the complaint is substantiated, we will make the required adjustments.

 

Designated person responsible for processing Personal Information

TJG is responsible for the handling of personal information for which it is responsible and has designated a Chief Privacy Officer responsible for ensuring the firm's compliance with privacy laws. Our firm’s Chief Privacy Officer is:

 

Mtre. Valérie Alerte

Tutino Joseph Grégoire

1080, Côte du Beaver Hall, bureau 600  Montréal (Québec) Canada H2Z 1S8 Tél. : Fax : 514 878-3878 [113] 514 878-9890     valerte@tutinolex.com www.tutinolex.com