Privacy Policy

DBS LLP values your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

As a law firm, we collect, use and disclose information daily in order to render our services in consultation, litigation and transaction. We use all information, especially personal information, in accordance with the highest ethical standards. As lawyers, we have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we obtain within a lawyer-client relationship.

This Privacy Policy applies to DBS LLP (“DBS”) in respect of activities that are subject to federal and Ontario privacy legislation. To the extent inconsistent with our lawyers’ professional obligations established by the Law Society of Ontario, this Privacy Policy is superseded by such obligations.

Personal Information

For this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means any information in any form provided to DBS about an identifiable individual, or about an individual whose identity may be inferred or determined from the information provided. This Privacy Policy does not cover any information, in any form, about more than one individual where the identity of the individuals is not known and cannot be inferred; DBS retains the right to use this information in any way that it reasonably determines is appropriate.

Personal Information We Collect

Generally, DBS collects, uses and discloses Personal Information for the primary purpose of providing our clients with professional legal services and representation. The Personal Information we collect in relation to clients and potential clients includes:

  • Name, address, email address, contact details, nature of the client or potential client’s legal issue, financial, credit, billing and account information, and other incidental information relating to the services we provide;
  • Information material to your legal issue, for example, financial, property ownership, family, employment, disciplinary, benefit or tax information, and any other information you give to us when you ask or instruct us to act for you;
  • Legal issue or area of law of interest;
  • Information about individuals we collect in the course of acting for clients, including personal information about employees of clients, referrals, adverse parties and parties with parallel interests, other counsel, mediators and arbitrators, witnesses and potential witnesses, expert witnesses and consultants; and
  • Information about you contained in communications within DBS and between us and you, whether online or offline.

How We Use Personal Information

We use Personal Information to:

  • Assess whether we can act for you, including to avoid conflicts of interest;
  • Offer and provide legal information and services to you;
  • Communicate with you regarding the services you request and to respond to your requests and inquiries;
  • Administer our client time and billing databases, and issue and collect accounts;
  • Manage and administer our business, including to avoid negligence and protect you and us against error and fraud; and
  • Comply with legal, regulatory and self-regulatory requirements, and to fulfill our legal and professional obligations.

How We Collect Information About You

We typically collect personal information directly from you or through our interaction with you. However, sometimes we may obtain personal information about you from other sources. For example, in relation to clients, in addition to personal information that you provide, we may collect personal information from:

  • A government agency or registry;
  • Third parties, such as your real estate agent, your financial institution, your insurance company, or your employer; and
  • Other law firms or agents who have acted for you in the past, where these parties have information relevant to the matter in which we are acting for you.

How We Disclose and Share Your Information

We disclose the personal information we collect about clients or other individuals we deal with to third parties where:

  • The legal services we are providing to you require us to give your personal information to third parties, such as a lender in a real estate mortgage transaction;
  • We are required or authorized by law to do so, for example, where the rules of court require us to provide personal information to the opposite side and the court in a litigation matter or where a court issues a subpoena or order;
  • We engage an expert or consultant on your behalf in a litigation matter;
  • We retain another law firm or agent to act or assist us in acting on your behalf;
  • It is necessary to collect fees, for instance, to a financial institution or collection agent;
  • Necessary to comply with regulatory (including self-regulatory) requirements or requests from governmental authorities, for example, disclosure of personal information reasonably requested or required by governing bodies of the legal profession in the course of its oversight of our practice;
  • You have instructed us to disclose your personal information to a third party for a designated purpose; and
  • We reasonably believe a third party requesting your information is your agent.

Where obliged or permitted to disclose information without consent, DBS will not disclose more information than is required.

Disclosure to Service Providers

DBS may disclose Personal Information to organizations that perform services for the firm. We require our Service Providers to use your personal information only as necessary to perform the services we have hired them to provide.

Limiting Collection, Use & Disclosure of Personal Information

DBS may collect your Personal Information in many forms (via hard/soft copy, electronically, telephone conversations/recordings, etc.), but will only do so by lawful means and only for necessary purposes that have been disclosed to you.

Retention of Personal Information

Personal Information collected in any form will only be retained by DBS as long as it is required: a) for the purpose for which it was collected; b) to be retained by law; c) to address any issues that may arise at a later date. When your Personal Information is no longer required for these purposes, DBS uses secure procedures to destroy, delete, erase or convert the Personal Information into an anonymous form.

Web Site & Cookies

DBS provides clients and others with general access to its public website, www.dbsllp.com (the “Site”). Our servers and authorized third party service providers track general information about visitors to the Site such as their domain name, Internet Protocol address and time of visit. DBS’s service providers also collect and aggregate information regarding which pages are being accessed. During the normal course of an individual’s use of the Internet, he or she will encounter “cookies.” Cookies are small files or pieces of information that may be stored in a computer’s hard drive when an individual visits a web site. DBS uses cookies. Most Internet browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you do not wish to accept cookies, you can set Internet browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent.

Consent

Your provision of Personal Information to DBS means that you agree and consent that we may collect, use and disclose your Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. Consent may be given expressly, by signing a document, agreeing through electronic means or verbally, impliedly, by providing Personal Information voluntarily. Certain services can only be offered if you provide Personal Information to DBS, and if you choose not provide us with such required Personal Information, DBS may not be able to offer you its services.

You have the right to revoke your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information at any time. However, revocation of your consent may result in our inability to provide services to you. We will discuss with you the reason we need your Personal Information and why the revocation of your consent affects our ability to provide the service or product to you.

Storage

Currently, DBS holds or stores Personal Information principally in Canada.

Security

DBS uses technological, physical and organizational measures to protect its offices and systems to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or modification of Personal Information. DBS further protects Personal Information by restricting access to those individuals that need to know that information in order that DBS may provide its services.

Access and Correction

DBS endeavours to ensure that any Personal Information provided and in its possession is as accurate, current and complete as necessary for the purposes for which it uses that information. In the event that you believe that your Personal Information is inaccurate, or you wish access to your Personal Information, you may make a request to the DBS professionals with whom you have a relationship.

We will always endeavor to provide timely access to your Personal Information. However, there may be circumstances where access will not be granted. For example, where access would lead to the disclosure of Personal Information of another individual and that individual refuses to provide consent to disclose or information subject to privilege or other legal restrictions. You will be notified in all cases of the reason for the denial of access.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is in effect as of March, 2024 and has been updated as of March, 2024. DBS will from time-to-time review and revise its privacy practices and this Privacy Policy. In the event of any amendment, an appropriate notice will be posted on the Site. Policy changes will apply to the Personal Information collected from the date of posting of the revised Privacy Policy to the Site as well as to existing Personal Information held by DBS.