Essentia Law Corporation (“us”, “we”, “our”) owns and operates the www.essentia.law website (the “Website”).
 

We value your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy outlines what information we collect from visitors who access or use the Website. It also describes how we retain, use, disclose, and protect your personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to information collected from you through our Website, as well as other places where, or means by which, we may collect personal information including, but not limited to, our interactions and communications with you by phone or electronically through any other digital medium owned or operated by us.
 

1. Definition of Personal Information
 

Personal information is defined as information that can identify an individual and information about an identifiable individual, which means a person can be identified by the information either directly or in combination with other information.

2. Collection of Personal Information
 

We may collect your personal information from any data you input into our Website, or any information you send us, whether by phone, email, mail, or directly through our Website.

Personal information that we may collect may include:
 

• identifying information such as your name, address, telephone number, and email address,

• demographic data such as your gender and age,

• financial and billing information (such as credit card numbers),

• any other information you provide us in the course of our representation of you, and

• additional information we are required or authorized by applicable laws to collect and process in order to authenticate or identify you or to verify the information we have collected.

 

Some of the personal information set out above may be collected by third-party service providers. By using the Website, you understand that your personal information will be transferred to such third parties and will be subject to the privacy policy and practices of such third parties.

​

3. Use of Personal Information
 

We only use the personal information we collect to:
 

• comply with the client identification and conflicts check requirements of the Law Society of British Columbia,

• provide you with legal services,

• communicate with you about your file, and

• comply with any other applicable legal or regulatory requirements.

4. Disclosure of Personal Information

We will not use or disclose your personal information to anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.

There are, however, certain circumstances in which we may disclosure your personal information with certain third parties without further notice to you. This disclosure may be required for us to provide you access to our services, to comply with our legal obligations, to enforce our engagement agreement with you, or to prevent, detect, mitigate, and investigate fraudulent or illegal activities related to our services. These circumstances include, but are not limited to:
 

• when permitted or required by law,

• when the personal information is available from a public source,

• when we require legal advice from a lawyer,

• for the purposes of collecting a debt or protection from fraud,

• in the context of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of our assets, or

• other legally established reasons.

​

We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, including, without limitation, hosting and maintenance, database storage and management, and administrative support. We will share your personal information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to binding contractual obligations requiring such third parties to maintain the privacy and security of your data.

We will not disclose your personal information to third parties for their marketing and advertising purposes.
 

5. Consent
 

We will obtain your express or implied consent to collect, use, or disclose your personal information. You can provide us express consent verbally, in writing, or electronically. You provide us with implied consent where our purpose for collecting, using, or disclosing your personal information would be considered obvious or reasonable in the circumstances. Your consent may also be implied where you have received notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of having your personal information used, and you have not provided us with notice of your opting-out.

​

You can choose not to provide any personal information to us or to withdraw your consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information for purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. If you choose to do so, we may not be able to provide you with further services.
 

6. Security and Retention of Personal Information

We retain your personal information as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations. In addition, we may retain your personal information, including information from closed files, to comply with applicable laws, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, with any investigation, enforce our engagement agreement with you, or take other actions permitted or required by applicable laws. After it is no longer necessary for us to retain your personal information, as determined by us in our sole discretion in accordance with applicable laws, we will dispose of it in a secure manner according to our data retention and deletion policies.

In recognition of our legal obligations to protect your personal information, we have made arrangements to protect against unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, or destruction of personal information through various security measures such as the use of strong passwords, encryption, firewalls, restricted access permissions, or other methods that we consider appropriate, in our discretion. We use appropriate security measures when destroying your personal information such as shredding documents or deleting electronically stored information, in our discretion.

We strive to use commercially acceptable security measures to protect your personal information; however, you acknowledge and agree that no method of transmission over the Internet, or electronic means of data storage is 100% secure. We make no guarantee as to the absolute security of your personal information.

7. Location of Servers
 

We may create, maintain, and archive information on servers that are not located on our immediate premises and are located outside of Canada. Although we have agreements in place with our affiliates and contractors that include standard contractual clauses to protect your rights with respect to your data, please be advised that a foreign government may be able to access your personal information for lawful access purposes. If you send us information through our website or otherwise correspond with us, whether by phone, email, or mail, you consent and continue to consent to us creating, maintaining, and archiving information on servers located on a third party’s premises outside of Canada. 

8. Cookies

We may use cookies and other technologies to passively collect demographic information and monitor Website activities. Cookies are small files downloaded to your computer to track movements within websites. Most browsers are automatically set to accept cookies whenever you visit a website. You can disable cookies or set your browser to alert you when cookies are being sent. However, some areas of our Website may not function properly if you do so.

9. Links to Third Party Sites
 

Our Website may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. We are not responsible for the privacy practices and policies of such third-party websites and, therefore, you should review the privacy practices and policies of such third-party websites prior to providing your personal information.
 

10. Requests to Access, Correct, or Delete
 

We take steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate and up to date, and that you have the ability to access and make corrections to it. If you would like to view or change your personal information, please contact us at the email address provided below.

11. Improper Collection and Misuse of Personal Information
 

Please report any improper collection or misuse of personal information provided on the Website to us at the email address provided below.
 

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
 

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
 

If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either through the email address you have provided us, or by placing a prominent notice on our Site.
 

13. Contact
 

If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy, or how we have handled your personal information, please contact us at: info@essentia.law