Look, we get it - nobody actually reads these things. But since we're dealing with your estate planning and inheritance matters, your privacy isn't just some checkbox for us. It's literally part of our professional duty. So yeah, we take this stuff seriously.
This privacy policy covers ShadowVale Origin Legal Services, operating out of Vancouver, BC. When you work with us on estate planning, wills, trusts, or any inheritance matters, you're sharing sensitive information - and we need to be crystal clear about what happens with it.
We follow PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) along with BC's privacy legislation. Plus, as lawyers, we've got additional confidentiality obligations through the Law Society that go beyond what regular businesses have to do.
Bottom line: Your info stays private unless you tell us otherwise or the law requires disclosure. That's not marketing speak - that's our legal and ethical obligation.
When you become a client, we'll need the basics: full name, date of birth, contact info (phone, email, address), and sometimes your SIN for certain trust or tax-related work. Yeah, it's a lot, but estate planning kinda requires knowing who you are.
Depending on your needs, we might collect details about your assets, property holdings, investment accounts, debts, and business interests. We're not being nosy - we can't properly plan your estate without knowing what's in it.
You'll tell us about family members, beneficiaries, executors, and trustees. This includes their contact details and sometimes their financial situations if it's relevant to your planning.
For powers of attorney or certain trust arrangements, we might need basic health info. We keep this to the absolute minimum necessary.
When you visit our site, we collect standard stuff like IP addresses, browser type, pages viewed, and how long you stuck around. It's mostly for making sure the site works properly and isn't being attacked by bots or whatever.
We use your information for pretty straightforward reasons:
We don't sell your data, rent it out, or use it for anything beyond providing you with legal services. That'd be a quick way to lose our law licenses.
We've got multiple layers of security in place because, well, we have to. And also because nobody wants their estate details leaked online.
Our office at 1450 West Georgia Street has controlled access, locked file rooms, and secure document disposal (cross-cut shredding, not just tossing stuff in the recycling).
Staff only access client info they need for their specific role. We've got confidentiality agreements with everyone who works here, and regular training on privacy and security. Plus, we vet any third-party service providers before letting them near client data.
Yeah, we use cookies. Here's the breakdown:
These make the website actually work - things like keeping you logged into the client portal, remembering your language preference, basic security stuff. You can't really turn these off without breaking the site.
We use these to see which pages people visit, how long they stay, where they're coming from. It's anonymized data that helps us figure out if our website is confusing or if certain info is hard to find. You can opt out of these if you want.
Your browser lets you control cookies - block them, delete them, get notified when they're being set. Just know that blocking all cookies means some parts of our site won't work properly. Most browsers have a "Do Not Track" setting we'll respect.
We work with some third parties, but we're picky about who gets access to client info.
There are limited situations where we have to share information without your permission:
We don't share client info with family members, other professionals, or anyone else without explicit authorization from you. Even if your spouse calls asking about your will, we're not telling them anything unless you've given us permission in writing.
Under Canadian privacy laws, you've got rights. Here's what you can do:
You can request copies of the personal info we have about you. We'll provide it within 30 days, though there might be some exceptions for privileged legal advice or info about other people.
If something's wrong or outdated, let us know and we'll fix it. Pretty straightforward.
You can withdraw consent for certain uses of your info, but understand that might limit our ability to provide services. We can't exactly draft your will without knowing your wishes and beneficiaries.
If you think we've mishandled your information, you can complain to:
To exercise any of these rights, just shoot us an email at contact@shadowvaleorigin.info or call (604) 555-8742. We'll need to verify your identity first, obviously.
We can't just delete your file when we're done. Law Society rules require us to keep client files for a minimum period, and estate planning documents sometimes need to stick around even longer.
While we're working on your matter, we keep everything. Obvious, but worth stating.
After your matter wraps up, we keep files for at least 10 years - that's the Law Society minimum. For wills and estate planning docs, we typically keep them longer because they might be needed decades later when you pass away.
If we're holding original wills or powers of attorney, we keep those indefinitely (or until you take them back). These are critical documents that might be needed 20, 30, 40 years down the road.
When we do finally destroy files, it's done securely - shredding for paper, secure deletion for electronic records. We don't just toss stuff in the dumpster.
This is important and separate from general privacy rules. Solicitor-client privilege means that communications between you and us as your lawyers are confidential and protected. This is a fundamental legal right.
What it covers: Legal advice we give you, info you share with us for legal advice, documents prepared in the course of giving legal advice.
When it applies: Pretty much always, and it survives even after you're no longer our client. It can even survive after you die in many cases.
Who can waive it: Only you. We can't disclose privileged info even if we wanted to (which we don't). Courts are super protective of this privilege.
Exceptions: Very limited - mainly if you're using our services to commit a crime or fraud. But that's rare and requires serious misconduct, not just disagreeing about something.
We might update this policy from time to time - laws change, technology evolves, we add new services, whatever. When we make significant changes, we'll let you know by:
Minor tweaks (fixing typos, clarifying wording, updating contact info) won't trigger notifications. We're not gonna spam you every time we adjust a comma.
Your continued use of our services after changes means you're cool with the updated policy. If you're not okay with changes, you can terminate our services (though we'd prefer you just talk to us about your concerns first).
If you've got questions about this privacy policy, how we handle your information, or want to exercise your privacy rights, reach out to us:
1450 West Georgia Street, Suite 820
Vancouver, BC V6G 2T4
We'll respond to privacy inquiries within 30 days. For urgent matters, call us directly - email's great, but sometimes you just need to talk to a human being.
Look, we get that trusting someone with your estate planning info is a big deal. If you've got specific questions or concerns about how we handle data, don't hesitate to ask. We'd rather spend 20 minutes explaining our security measures than have you worry about it.
Get In Touch