Macaulay McColl Privacy Policy

The Personal Information Protection Act (“the Act”) regulates private sector organizations in British Columbia that collect, use and disclose personal information. “Personal Information” is defined by the Act as all information about an identifiable individual. Macaulay McColl recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information received by us.

Our professional obligation has always been to maintain the confidentiality of client information. Anyone’s personal information that we collect or use in our practice is treated the same, to the fullest extent possible. To ensure privacy rights are protected, we have developed policies and train our employees according to those policies.

Why We Need Personal Information

In order to provide legal advice and service to our clients, we collect all relevant facts and information that relate to their situation. This information includes personal information about our clients and about others dealing with our clients.

Our Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

We must collect information necessary to represent clients; much of this is often personal information. We also collect information for our business purposes, such as letting clients or others know of services we offer. Where practical, we collect personal information about a person directly from them. If necessary we may also collect personal information from other sources, such as insurers, realtors, government agencies, information resellers, accountants and employers. We sometimes receive information unsolicited, incidentally or accidentally as well.

By retaining this firm for legal advice, our clients must consent to collection, use or disclosure of their personal information required by us to advise and represent them.

Our policy is to collect personal information about individuals other than our clients only in accordance with the provisions of the Personal Information Protection Act.

The Act provides that an individual consents to our collection, use or disclosure of personal information about that individual if the purpose would be considered obvious to a reasonable person. We believe most of the information we collect, such as information about our own clients, falls into this category and we collect, use or disclose this personal information without obtaining any written or verbal consent to do so.

The Act also allows us to collect, use and/or disclose personal information about an individual in some circumstances without that individual’s consent. Some such circumstances include (but are not limited to) circumstances in which:

• the collection, use or disclosure is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way;

• it is reasonable to expect that the collection or use of personal information with the consent of the individual would compromise the availability or accuracy of the information, and the collection or use of the information is necessary for an investigation or proceeding;

• it is reasonable to expect that the disclosure of personal information with the consent of the individual would compromise an investigation or proceeding, and the disclosure of the information is necessary for an investigation or proceeding;

• the personal information is available to the public from a prescribed source;

• the collection, use or disclosure of personal information is required or authorized by law.

When we collect, use or disclose personal information, we take reasonable efforts to ensure its accuracy and completeness.

We will disclose information when it is necessary to provide services to our clients, when we are required to do so by the courts, when we have been directed to by the person about whom the information relates and possibly for administrative reasons, for example file storage and maintenance, office maintenance or dealings with the Law Society of British Columbia.

We do not share information we have collected with other people or organizations so that they can market services, other than our own. For example, we do not sell contact lists.

Security of Personal Information We Have

We have professional and legal obligations to protect the information of our clients. We also have legal obligations to protect the personal information we have about other individuals received by us during the course of our representing our clients.

We take all reasonable steps to avoid unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or inadvertent destruction of personal information, such as maintaining security in our office and building, restricting file access and using technological safeguards. Our procedures are reviewed and improved on an ongoing basis.

Requests from Individuals for Access to Personal Information

The Act allows individuals to request in writing that we provide them with:

• their personal information under our custody or control;

• information about how their personal information under our control has been and is being used by us;

• the names of the individuals and organizations to whom their personal information under our control has been disclosed by us.

We will respond to requests as required by the Act as accurately and completely as reasonably possible. All requests for archival searches or other retrieval costs will be subject to fees and disbursements the law permits us to charge.

The Act provides that we must not disclose personal information when:

• the disclosure could reasonably be expected to threaten the safety or physical or mental health of an individual other than the individual who made the request;

• the disclosure can reasonably be expected to cause immediate or grave harm to the safety or to the physical or mental health of the individual who made the request;

• the disclosure would reveal personal information about another individual;

• the disclosure would reveal the identity of an individual who has provided personal information about another individual and the individual providing the personal information does not consent to disclosure of his or her identity.

The Act further provides that we are not required to disclose personal information when:

• the personal information is protected by solicitor-client privilege;

• the disclosure of the personal information would reveal confidential commercial information that, if disclosed, could, in the opinion of a reasonable person, harm the competitive position of an organization;

• the personal information was collected without consent for the purposes of an investigation, and the investigation and associated proceedings and appeals have not been completed;

• the personal information was collected or created by a mediator or arbitrator in the conduct of a mediation or arbitration for which he or she was appointed to act:

(i) under a collective agreement,
(ii) under an enactment, or
(iii) by a court.

Requests for Us to Correct Personal Information

Individuals may legally submit written requests to us to correct errors or omissions in personal information of theirs that is in our custody or control. On receiving such a request, we will either:

• correct the personal information and, if reasonable, notify any other organizations to whom we disclosed the incorrect information; or

• not correct the personal information, but annotate the personal information that a correction was requested but not made.

Web Site

Our website contains links to other sites, which this privacy policy is not governed by.

On our website we may monitor usage patterns and site information in order to optimize our web service. We may release statistics on usage of our site to third parties to assist us in marketing or improving our services, but these statistics do not include identifiable personal information.

Contacting Us with Questions about Your Personal Information

If you have questions about our handling of your personal information, or if you wish to request access to, or correction of, your personal information, you may contact our Privacy Officer at either our mailing address or general e-mail address: lawyers@macaulay.com. 

If you are dissatisfied with how we handle your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer in writing, setting out the reasons for your concern. If, after our Privacy Officer has reviewed and responded to your concern, you remain dissatisfied, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner at:

P.O. Box 9038, Stn. Prov. Govt
Victoria; BC V8W 9A4
Telephone (250) 387-5629
Fax (250) 387-1696