Law Office of Charles L Hastings Privacy Policy
Updated: October 21, 2018
The Law Office of Charles L Hastings recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. At Hastings we have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a attorney-client relationship. We promise to protect any personal and confidential information that we receive and holds on behalf of our clients. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information.
Your Privacy Rights
From January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. This obligation extends to lawyers and law firms, including the Law Office of Charles L Hastings. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information. Hastings is responsible for personal information we collect and hold. To ensure this accountability, we have developed this policy, and trained our lawyers and support staff about our policies and practices.
Why Does The Law Office of Charles L Hastings Need Personal Information?
The Law Office of Charles L Hastings provides legal services and products to a wide range of clients. In doing so, it produces direct marketing materials concerning its services and developments in the law.
What Personal Information Do We Collect?
Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. If we did not collect and use your personal information, we could not provide you with legal services.
How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?
We collect information only by lawful and fair means, and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Wherever possible we collect your personal information directly from you, both at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation. Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources, for example:
your insurance company;
your real estate agent in a property transaction;
from a government agency or registry;
your employer, if we are acting for you, at its request;
your accountant
Consent
In most cases, we shall ask you to specifically consent, if we collect, use, or disclose your personal information. Normally, we ask for your consent in writing, but in some circumstances, we may accept your oral consent. Sometimes, your consent may be implied through your conduct with us.
Use of Your Information
We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, to administer our client (time and billing databases) and to include you in any direct marketing activities. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive information about our services, or about new developments in the law, we will not send further material. Hastings Law Office does not disclose your personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services. For example, we do not provide our client mailing lists to other law firms.
Disclosure of your Personal Information
Under certain circumstances, The Law Office of Charles L Hastings will disclose your personal information:
when we are required or authorized by law to do so. For example, if a court issues a subpoena;
when you have consented to the disclosure;
when the legal services we are providing to you requires us to give your information to third parties (for example, a lender in a real estate mortgage transaction) your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise;
where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf;
if we retain other law firms at your request, and on your behalf;
if the information is Publicly Available Personal information as it is defined under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act;
Updating Your Information
Since we use your personal information to provide legal services to you, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date. If during the course of the retainer, any of your information changes, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.
Is My Personal Information Secure?
The Law Office of Charles L Hastings takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your information are:
premises security;
restricted file access to personal information;
deploying technological safeguards like security software, firewalls and two factor-authentication to prevent hacking or unauthorized access to our network;
internal password and security policies.
Access to Your Personal Information
You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you. Summary information is available on request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.
Correcting Errors
If the Law Office of Charles L Hastings holds information about you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, we will take reasonable steps to correct it.
Can I be Denied Access to my Personal Information?
Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. We may deny access when:
it is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is protected by solicitor-client privilege);
to do so would reveal confidential commercial information, and the personal information cannot be severed from the record;
to do so could reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual, and the personal information cannot be severed from the record; or
the information was generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process.
Can I Request Anonymity
Whenever it is legal and practicable, we may off the opportunity to deal with general inquiries without providing your name (for example, by accessing general information on our website). The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act requires us to confirm the identity of all new clients. It may also require us to disclose information to FINTRAC in relation to certain large cash transactions.
Credit Bureaus
To help us make credit decisions about clients, prevent fraud, check the identity of new clients and prevent money-laundering, we may, with our consent, request information about you from the files of consumer reporting agencies.
Communicating with Us
You should be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Since the Law Office of Charles L Hastings regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time.
Website
On our website contains links to other sites, which are not governed by this privacy policy. On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.
How to Contact Us
You can contact us via email at chastings@hastingslawoffice.com.
If you prefer to contact us by postal mail, please use the following
addresses based on your location:
The Law Office of Charles L Hastings
4568 Feather River Drive
Stockton CA 95219
209-476-1010
California Privacy Rights:
Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice identifying the categories of personal customer information which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the following address: Hastings Law Office 4568 Feather River Drive, Stockton CA 95219.
What If I Have Questions or Concerns?
If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy using the Services, please send us a detailed message to chastings@hastingslawoffice.com. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.