At Hart Law, your privacy and the confidentiality of your information are fundamental to the way we practise. This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you visit www.hartlawbc.ca or contact us through this website. It is designed to meet our obligations under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
Who we are
Hart Law is a law firm operated by Robert Hart, Barrister & Solicitor, with offices at 103 – 5682 Wharf Avenue, Sechelt, British Columbia. For any privacy-related question, you can reach us at info@hartlawbc.ca or 604-989-9000.
What information we collect
Information you give us directly
When you submit our contact form or otherwise reach out to us, you may provide us with:
- Your first and last name
- Your email address
- Your phone number (if you choose to include it)
- The area of practice your enquiry relates to
- The content of the message you send us
Information collected automatically
When you visit our website, certain information is collected automatically by our hosting provider and our spam-protection tools:
- Your IP address
- The date and time of your visit
- The pages you access and the referring site
- Your browser type and operating system
- A reCAPTCHA score generated by Google to help us distinguish legitimate enquiries from automated spam
How we use your information
We use the information you provide only for the purposes for which you provided it. In practice this means:
- Responding to your enquiry and arranging a consultation
- Opening a client file, conducting conflict checks, and providing legal services if you retain us
- Meeting our professional obligations under the Legal Profession Act and the Law Society of British Columbia's Code of Professional Conduct
- Maintaining the security of our website, detecting abuse, and preventing spam
- Complying with our legal, tax, and regulatory obligations
We do not sell your personal information, we do not use it for marketing by third parties, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles.
A note about email and this website
Please do not send confidential details through this website. Email and web forms are not encrypted end-to-end and are not a secure method of transmitting sensitive information. Submitting our contact form does not create a solicitor-client relationship. A solicitor-client relationship is only established once we have completed conflict checks and formally agreed in writing to act for you.
Solicitor-client privilege and confidentiality
If you do become a client of Hart Law, the information you share with us in the course of our retainer is subject to solicitor-client privilege and our professional duty of confidentiality. Those protections are broader than, and operate in addition to, this privacy policy. We will not disclose privileged information except as authorised by you, as required by law, or as permitted by the Law Society of British Columbia's rules.
Who we share your information with
We share your personal information only where necessary and only with parties who are obligated to protect it. These may include:
- Our hosting provider (Hostinger): which stores our website and email infrastructure on secure servers. Data may be processed in Canada, the United States, or the European Union.
- Google (reCAPTCHA): when you submit our contact form, Google's reCAPTCHA service analyses your interaction with the page to detect automated spam. Google's use of this information is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.
- Professional advisors and regulators: where necessary to provide you with legal services, or where we are required to do so by law or by the Law Society of British Columbia.
- Courts, tribunals, and opposing parties: where relevant to your matter and on your instructions, or where required by law.
We do not transfer your information outside Canada except to the providers listed above, and only to the extent necessary for them to perform their services.
Cookies
Our website uses only essential cookies and similar technologies required for the site to function and to protect against spam. We do not use analytics or advertising cookies. The Google reCAPTCHA service may set cookies to function; you can learn more at Google's privacy page linked above.
How long we keep your information
If you contact us but do not become a client, we will retain your enquiry only as long as reasonably needed to respond to it, and typically no more than twelve months thereafter.
If you do become a client, we retain client files for the period required by the Law Society of British Columbia and by Canadian tax and limitation legislation. This is generally at least ten years from the closing of the file, though specific retention periods vary by the nature of the matter. Files are then securely destroyed.
How we protect your information
We take the security of your information seriously. Our website enforces HTTPS (TLS encryption) for all traffic; our contact form is protected by reCAPTCHA, IP-based rate limiting, and honeypot controls; access to our systems is restricted; and sensitive credentials are stored separately from our public-facing code. Email and physical files are handled consistently with the Law Society of British Columbia's guidelines on client confidentiality.
No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure. We work to protect your information but cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Your rights
Under PIPEDA and BC PIPA, you have the right, on reasonable notice and subject to certain legal exceptions, to:
- Ask what personal information we hold about you
- Access that information and ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate
- Withdraw your consent to our continued use of your information (noting that, if you are a client, this may affect our ability to continue acting for you)
- Make a complaint to us, and if unresolved, to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
To exercise any of these rights, email info@hartlawbc.ca with the subject line "Privacy request" and we will respond within thirty days.
Children
This website is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors through the website. If you believe we have received information from a minor without parental consent, please contact us.
Links to other sites
Our site may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to review their own privacy policies before providing them with any information.
Changes to this policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be highlighted on our homepage.
How to contact us
For any question about this policy or about how we handle your personal information:
Hart Law
103 – 5682 Wharf Avenue, PO Box 1505
Sechelt, BC V0N 3A0
info@hartlawbc.ca · 604-989-9000