SLK Legal is dedicated to complying with the applicable privacy laws in Canada, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the “Act”). As a law firm, we are governed by the Rules of Professional Conduct established by the Law Society of Ontario, which obligates us to maintain the confidentiality of client information. The Act provides you with additional rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

This Privacy Policy outlines and elucidates SLK Legal's ongoing commitment to respecting and safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information in our custody, as well as that of our employees and others as enumerated below. Generally, personal information refers to information about an identifiable individual, although it does not encompass the name, title, or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. We aim to inform you why we require your personal information, the methods of collection, how we utilize and protect this information, and the circumstances under which it is disclosed.

Transparency and Accountability

SLK Legal is accountable for the personal information within our control, and each employee is responsible for the personal information within their purview. Our employees are apprised of the importance of privacy and receive periodic updates on our Privacy Policy. For further information about this Privacy Policy, to address any concerns, to review or verify your personal information under our control, or to find out how we have used or to whom we have disclosed it, please contact us.

We will provide access to the personal information we retain about you within a reasonable timeframe. In certain cases, we may not provide access to personal information in our possession or control. For instance, we may deny access when the denial is required or authorized by law, such as in the case of a claim of legal professional privilege. If we deny your request for access to your personal information, we will inform you in writing of the reason for the refusal and any recourse available under the Act.

We will investigate and respond to your concerns or complaints regarding our handling of your personal information and/or compliance with applicable privacy laws or this Privacy Policy. If the issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, we will provide information on other complaint procedures that may be available to you. If there is any cost associated with processing your request, we will notify you in advance.

Collection and Use of Personal Information

SLK Legal collects personal information about clients, potential clients, and other individuals (including witnesses, family members, beneficiaries, directors and officers of corporations, employees, adverse parties, partners-in-interest, investigators, decision-makers, experts, other professional advisors, our clients' business partners, investors, shareholders, competitors, and customers who are individuals) in the course of its legal practice. The type of information we collect and use depends on the legal services being provided. Personal information is only collected by lawful means. Whenever possible, we collect your personal information from you directly at the commencement of a retainer of our services and during the course of our representation. For the purpose of representing and advising our clients concerning actions or claims, we may at times collect personal information relating to individuals other than our clients who have made claims or commenced actions against our clients or their insurers, or against whom our clients or insurers have made claims or commenced actions. As elaborated below, we only collect personal information with the consent of the person to whom the information pertains or if the collection is otherwise permitted by PIPEDA. Sometimes we may obtain personal information about you from third parties such as:

• Your insurance company;

• Your real estate agent in a property transaction;

• Government agencies or registries, for example, the Land Registry Office or the Ministry of Health;

• Your employer;

• Your accountant;

• Your financial institution;

• Your healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions;

• Your school or university;

• Other law firms or agents that have acted for you in the past;

• Parties with adverse or complementary interests to yours in a legal matter and their legal counsel;

• Witnesses; and

• Experts and other consultants retained with your instructions to assist with your legal matters.

To assist us in making credit decisions about clients, advising clients on the enforcement of claims against debtors they may have, preventing fraud, verifying the identity of new clients, and preventing money laundering, we may occasionally request information about you from the files of consumer reporting agencies. We will never collect credit information about anyone without their consent unless the collection is otherwise permitted by PIPEDA. We collect personal information for use and disclosure for the purposes of:

• Determining whether we are able to represent you;

• Providing legal services to you;

• Establishing and maintaining communications with you;

• Advising you of upcoming firm events;

• Understanding your needs;

• Providing information to you about developments in the law;

• Determining if our services meet your needs;

• Recommending and offering services that meet your needs or may be of interest to you;

• Developing and using our internal precedent and knowledge management system and permitting members of our firm to consult, for precedent purposes, documents that we have created on your behalf and that may contain personal information;

• Billing you for legal services rendered;

• Collecting monies owing to SLK Legal or permitting SLK Legal to pursue available remedies or limit any damages it may sustain;

• Fulfilling our legal and professional obligations; and

• Complying with all applicable laws.

The collection of personal information by SLK Legal is limited to that which is necessary for these purposes or other purposes that are disclosed to you before or at the time the personal information is collected or as required by law.

If you inform us that you no longer wish to receive information about our services or new developments in the law, we will cease sending such materials. Should you wish to discontinue the delivery of this information to you, please contact us at info@slklegal.ca or call at the number provided.

Consent

We collect, use, and disclose your personal information with your consent or as permitted by PIPEDA. Your consent can be express or implied depending on the circumstances. Express consent can be verbal or written. Implied consent arises when we can reasonably conclude that you have given consent by your action or inaction. Before deciding what form of consent is appropriate, SLK Legal will consider the sensitivity of the personal information we need, the reason for its use or disclosure, and the type of client contact involved.

The provision of personal information to SLK Legal signifies your agreement and consent that we may collect, use, and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, we request that you do not provide any personal information to us.

The choice to provide SLK Legal with personal information is always yours unless required by law. If you do not consent to a particular use or disclosure of information, or if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with certain services. If so, we will explain the consequences of refusing or withdrawing consent, and your options.

Disclosure and Retention of Personal Information

SLK Legal uses and discloses various types of personal information as necessary and appropriate for the purposes outlined above. The disclosure of personal information may occur as part of SLK Legal fulfilling its obligations and/or conducting its business in the ordinary course. This includes, without limitation, disclosure of personal information:

• When the nature of the legal services requires us to provide your information to third parties and your consent is implied (for example, in a real estate transaction);

• To experts, consultants, or other law firms we retain on your behalf;

• To third parties that provide products or services to SLK Legal, including, without limitation, data processors, process servers, consultants, suppliers, lawyers, accountants, bankers, and insurers (including Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company), but only to the extent necessary to allow them to provide services to SLK Legal and under the instruction of SLK Legal;

• With affiliated companies of SLK Legal;

• To government agencies or regulatory bodies having jurisdiction to the extent they can oblige us to do so;

• To all other persons authorized or required by law to the extent they can oblige us to do so;

• When it is necessary to establish or collect monies owing to SLK Legal;

• Where it is necessary to permit SLK Legal to pursue available remedies or limit any damages that SLK Legal may sustain;

• To a person who, in the reasonable judgment of SLK Legal, is seeking information as your agent or attorney; or

• When you consent to such disclosure or it is otherwise permitted or required by law.

Personal information may be subject to transfer to another organization or person in the event of a merger or change of ownership of all or part of SLK Legal, but this will only occur if the parties have entered into an agreement under which the collection, use, and disclosure of the information are restricted to the purposes that relate to the business transaction, including a determination of whether to proceed with the business transaction.

Under no circumstances do we disclose your personal information to third parties to enable them to market their products or services to you without obtaining express consent from you. Your personal information shall only be retained by SLK Legal for as long as necessary for the fulfillment of the identified purposes. Some personal information may be kept indefinitely.

Accuracy of Information

SLK Legal endeavors to maintain personal information that is as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as necessary for the purposes for which it is used and disclosed. We rely on individuals to disclose all material information and to inform us of any relevant changes. If you have any reason to believe your personal information in our control is inaccurate, please contact us in writing. We will investigate and, where appropriate, update our records accordingly.

Security and Safeguards

Your personal information is secure with SLK Legal, and we employ safeguards and security measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information to protect against unauthorized access, use, alteration, duplication, destruction, or disclosure of your personal information.

SLK Legal maintains personal information in both paper and electronic formats. Recent paper records are kept at our offices, while older records containing personal information may be stored at offsite storage facilities. Our computer systems are designed to ensure that only authorized individuals can access secure systems and databases. If you send us an email containing personal information, please remember that email is not necessarily secure against interception.

Website and Privacy

A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that identifies the visitor’s browser, but not necessarily the visitor, each time a website is visited. Our server does not currently attach cookies when you visit our website.

To provide our website visitors with a service or information, visitors may voluntarily submit personal information for purposes such as asking a question, obtaining information, reviewing or downloading a publication, participating in a seminar or other event, and participating in surveys. We may combine and store personal information about your use of our website and the online information you have provided with certain other online and offline information we may have collected.

Occasionally, we may send marketing or promotional email communications with information that may be useful, including information about the services of SLK Legal. We will include instructions on how to unsubscribe and inform us of preferences if you decide you do not wish to receive future marketing or promotional emails from SLK Legal.

Our website may contain links to other websites provided as a convenience only. Visitors are advised that third-party websites may have different privacy policies and practices than SLK Legal, and SLK Legal has no responsibility for such third-party websites.

Amendments to Our Privacy Policy

We may add, modify, or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time when we deem it appropriate. Policy changes will apply to information from the date of posting of the revised Privacy Policy on our website and to existing information held by SLK Legal.

This Privacy Policy is effective as of June 01, 2024. By providing us with your personal information, you signify your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.