Privacy Policy.

Hoare Claxton Criminal Defence Lawyers is an association of independent law practices operating in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Registered address:

For privacy-related inquiries, contact us at the above address marked attention: Privacy Officer.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected by Hoare Claxton Criminal Defence Lawyers through:

• Our website at hoareclaxton.com and any associated subdomains.
• Contact forms, consultation request forms, and any other forms submitted through our website.
• Email communications initiated through our website.
• Phone consultations initiated through contact information provided on our website.

This policy does not apply to information collected in the course of an established solicitor-client relationship, which is governed by our professional obligations under the Law Society of Alberta Rules of Conduct and the common law of solicitor-client privilege.

This policy is governed by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which is substantially similar federal private-sector privacy legislation.

Information You Provide Directly

When you contact us through our website, we may collect the following categories of personal information:

• Contact information including your name, phone number, and email address.
• Information about your legal matter including the nature of the charges or legal situation you describe in your message.
• How you heard about our firm.

We collect only the information you choose to provide. You are not required to provide any personal information to browse our website.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our website, our servers and third-party analytics tools may automatically collect certain technical information including:

• Your IP address and general geographic location derived from it.
• Browser type and version.
• Operating system.
• Pages visited and time spent on each page.
• Referring URL (the page you visited before arriving at our site).
• Date and time of your visit.

This information is collected in aggregate and is not linked to your identity unless you have also submitted a contact form.

Information We Do Not Collect

• We do not collect payment card information through our website.
• We do not collect sensitive personal information such as health information, financial account details, or government identification numbers through our website.
• We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18 years of age.

We use the personal information you provide for the following purposes:

• To respond to your inquiry or consultation request.
• To assess whether we can assist you with your legal matter.
• To communicate with you about your inquiry and any follow-up questions we have.
• To improve our website and the services we offer based on aggregated usage data.
• To comply with our professional obligations under the Law Society of Alberta Rules of Conduct.

We do not use your personal information for marketing purposes without your express consent.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties under any circumstances.

We do not use your personal information for automated decision-making or profiling.

This section is important and applies specifically to communications about your legal matter.

We do not disclose your personal information to third parties except in the following limited circumstances:

Service Providers

We use a small number of trusted third-party service providers to operate our website and communications infrastructure. These include website hosting providers, email service providers, and analytics platforms. These providers are contractually required to protect your information and are not permitted to use it for any purpose other than providing services to us.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose personal information if required to do so by law, court order, or other legal process. We will notify you of any such request to the extent permitted by law before complying with it unless doing so is prohibited or would defeat the purpose of the legal requirement.

Protection of Rights

We may disclose personal information where we reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent fraud, protect the safety of an individual, or protect the rights and property of our firm, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

We Never Sell Your Information

We do not sell, rent, license, or otherwise transfer your personal information to third parties for commercial purposes under any circumstances.

Under PIPEDA and Alberta's PIPA, you have the following rights with respect to your personal information:

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at triallawyers@telus.net or in writing at 600 6 Ave SW Suite 210, Calgary, Alberta T2P 0S5, marked attention: Privacy Officer.

We will respond to privacy requests within 30 days.

What Are Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. They allow the website to recognize your browser on subsequent visits.

Cookies We Use

Our website uses the following categories of cookies:

• Essential cookies that are required for the website to function correctly. These cannot be disabled as the website does not function without them.
• Analytics cookies from Google Analytics that help us understand how visitors use our site. These cookies collect aggregate, anonymized data about pages visited, time spent on the site, and general geographic location. No individual identifying information is collected through analytics cookies.

Cookies We Do Not Use

• We do not use advertising or retargeting cookies that track your browsing across other websites.
• We do not use social media tracking cookies.

How to Control Cookies

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse new cookies, delete existing cookies, and set preferences for specific websites. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website.

For Google Analytics specifically, you can opt out by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on available at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.

For general website inquiries that do not result in a retainer: we retain contact information for a maximum of 12 months from the date of last communication, after which it is securely deleted.

For inquiries that result in a retainer: personal information is retained in accordance with our professional obligations under the Law Society of Alberta Rules of Conduct, which require law firms to retain client files for a minimum period after the conclusion of the matter.

Analytics data collected through our website is retained for a maximum of 26 months in aggregate, anonymized form.

You may request deletion of your personal information at any time by contacting us at triallawyers@telus.net. We will comply with deletion requests to the extent permitted by our legal and professional obligations.

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

Our website uses HTTPS encryption for all communications between your browser and our servers.

Access to personal information within our firm is restricted to lawyers and staff who need it to respond to your inquiry or provide legal services.

We do not store sensitive personal information such as payment card numbers or government identification numbers on our website systems.

No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure. While we take reasonable precautions, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have a concern about transmitting sensitive information, please contact us by telephone at (587) 355-8889.

Our website contains links to external websites including government agencies, legal aid organizations, and other resources. These external sites have their own privacy policies and we have no control over their content or practices.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party websites linked from our site. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any external website before providing personal information to it.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, applicable law, or the services we provide.

We will post the updated policy on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date at the top. For significant changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify visitors, which may include a notice on our homepage.

Your continued use of our website after any changes to this policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms.

For questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or your personal information:

We take privacy inquiries seriously and will respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact: