Privacy policy

Home Counsel Legal Services Professional Corporation ("Home Counsel Legal Services") is committed to maintaining the accuracy, security and privacy of Personal Information in accordance with applicable privacy legislation, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). This policy covers information under HCLS’s control. Independent Network Members are responsible for information in their own practices; ask your lawyer about their privacy practices. This Home Counsel Legal Services Privacy Policy is a statement of principles and guidelines concerning the protection of Personal Information of our clients, service providers and other individuals ("you").

We explain the purposes for collecting, using and disclosing personal information and obtain meaningful consent where required. The form of consent depends on the sensitivity of the information and the circumstances. Visiting this website does not give blanket consent to unrelated uses, marketing or disclosure. We may handle information without consent where permitted or required by law and professional obligations.

You may withdraw consent by contacting us below, subject to legal and contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. We will explain any effect on the services we can provide. Please provide another person’s information only where you have authority or another lawful basis to do so, and only to the extent needed for your inquiry or matter.

What Personal Information do We Collect?

Canadian privacy legislation broadly defines "Personal Information" as information about an identifiable individual or information that allows an individual to be identified. For the purposes of this policy, Personal Information means information about an identifiable individual as defined from time to time in applicable privacy legislation. Business contact information is excluded from PIPEDA only when used solely to communicate with someone about their employment, business or profession. This may include: your name, title or position, business address, telephone number, facsimile number or e-mail address. The types of Personal Information that Home Counsel Legal Services may collect about you include your name, home address, telephone number, personal e-mail address, billing and account information, information about a client's legal issue and other information incidental to providing legal advice and services (including Personal Information about witnesses, family members, beneficiaries, directors, officers, employees, adverse parties, parties-in-interest, investigators, decision-makers, experts, other professional advisors and our clients' business partners, investors, shareholders, competitors and customers who are individuals).

We also collect from former employers and other third parties, and from publicly available sources, personal information about prospective or current employees, contractors and partners that is reasonably required to establish, manage or terminate an employment, contractual or partnership relationship.

Why do We Collect Your Personal Information?

In general, Home Counsel Legal Services collects, uses and discloses Personal Information about our clients and service providers in order to provide our clients with professional legal services, and about applicants for positions with Home Counsel Legal Services for the purpose of evaluating the application and deciding whether to establish (and subsequently to manage or terminate) an employment, contractual or partnership relationship. More specifically, we collect, use and disclose your Personal Information for the following purposes:

to establish and manage client relationships, provide legal advice, perform legal services, fulfil legal duties, and avoid conflicts of interest. This may include the sharing of Personal Information by and between Home Counsel Legal Services personnel and the independent lawyer involved in your inquiry or matter, as needed and subject to confidentiality obligations;
to share Personal Information to and from third parties for the purpose of providing legal services. Such third parties may include opposing parties; parties in interest; opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors; witnesses; decision-makers; and experts;
to consider whether Home Counsel Legal Services should establish a commercial relationship with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including to evaluate credit standing and to match credit bureau or credit reporting agency information;
to establish and maintain commercial relationships with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including issuing invoices, administering accounts, collecting and processing payments, and fulfilling contractual obligations;
to establish, manage and terminate employment, contractual and partnership relationships;
to understand and respond to client, supplier and other third-party needs and preferences, including to contact and communicate with such parties and to conduct surveys, research and evaluations;
to develop, enhance, market, sell or otherwise provide Home Counsel Legal Services' products and services;
to distribute our newsletters and other informational e-mail communications, conference information and other material to individuals on our mail and e-mail lists, including via third-party mailing houses and e-mail service providers;
to develop and manage our knowledge-management precedent systems and databases;
to develop and manage Home Counsel Legal Services' business and operations;
to detect and protect Home Counsel Legal Services and other third parties against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity, and to audit compliance with Home Counsel Legal Services policies and contractual obligations;
to engage in business transactions, including the purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal, securitization or financing involving Home Counsel Legal Services;
as permitted by, and to comply with, any legal or regulatory requirements or provisions; and
for any other purpose to which you consent.

To Whom do We Disclose Your Personal Information?

From time to time, Home Counsel Legal Services may disclose your Personal Information to:

service providers, including an organization or individual retained by Home Counsel Legal Services to perform functions on its behalf, such as marketing, data processing, document management and office services;
an organization or individual retained by Home Counsel Legal Services to evaluate your creditworthiness or to collect debts outstanding on an account;
a financial institution, on a confidential basis and solely in connection with the assignment of a right to receive payment, the provision of security or other financing arrangements; or
a person who, in the reasonable judgment of Home Counsel Legal Services, is providing or seeking the information as your agent;
to our insurers and to regulatory agencies such as provincial law societies, insurers or others in connection with regulatory or other activities relating to the obligations of Home Counsel Legal Services and its practice of the profession of law;
to personnel in Home Counsel Legal Services, government authorities, insurers, benefits providers, consultants or agents as reasonably required to establish, manage or terminate employment, contractual and partnership relationships; and
any third party or parties, where you consent to such disclosure or where disclosure is required or permitted by law.
No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

We use service providers for website delivery and business functions. This website links to Clio for intake and payments and Zoom for appointment booking. Those providers explain their own collection practices on their websites. Where a provider processes information on our behalf, HCLS remains accountable for information under its control and uses contractual and other appropriate measures to protect it. The live website loads a Clio Grow chat widget 20 seconds after your first page opens. Once loaded, Clio Grow sets a “_grow_session” cookie that expires within two days and uses service providers including Amazon CloudFront, Bugsnag and Google Fonts; see our Cookie Policy. Google Analytics loads only after you allow Analytics in Cookie settings; advertising features are disabled.

Verifying your Identity

Your lawyer may need to collect and verify identity information under Law Society of Ontario requirements. If electronic verification through RealAML or another provider is used, the relevant process, information requirements and any required consent will be explained when verification is requested. This privacy policy does not itself authorize your mobile carrier to release account or device information.

Where do We Store Your Personal Information?

Your Personal Information is stored in secure locations and on servers controlled by Home Counsel Legal Services, located either at our offices or at the offices of our service providers.

How May You Obtain Access to Your Personal Information?

Upon your written request, subject to certain exceptions, Home Counsel Legal Services will inform you of the existence, use and disclosure of your Personal Information and will give you access to that information. You may also request that we correct any Personal Information that is inaccurate or incomplete; if we do not make a requested correction, we will note your request on file. Access and correction requests should be sent to our Chief Privacy Officer, using the contact information below.

Your personal information may be shared, stored or accessed in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area and other jurisdictions or countries. Your information may be disclosed in response to valid demands or requests from governments, regulators, courts and law enforcement authorities in those jurisdictions or countries.

How do We Protect Your Personal Information?

To help protect the confidentiality of your Personal Information, Home Counsel Legal Services employs administrative and technological safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of your Personal Information. Where Personal Information is sent to a third party for processing, we ensure, through appropriate contractual and other safeguards, that it is kept secure. We operate secure data networks protected by industry-standard firewalls and password protection systems.

Retention of Personal Information

We retain Personal Information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and to meet our legal, regulatory and professional obligations, including the file-retention requirements applicable to legal practices in Ontario. When Personal Information is no longer required, we take reasonable steps to securely destroy, erase or de-identify it.

Privacy and Our Website

Cookies and local preferences – Optional analytics and video cookies are controlled through the cookie banner. Advertising features are disabled. If you choose to reduce motion using the site’s accessibility control, we save that preference in your browser’s local storage under “hcls-reduce-motion” so it can be remembered on later visits. The theme control also saves “hcls-theme”. Both preferences remain on your device until changed or cleared. The cookie banner stores your separate Analytics and Office tour choices under “hcls-cookie-consent” for up to 180 days. You can change it through “Cookie settings” in the footer, or clear this website’s saved data in your browser. See our Cookie Policy for more information.

Website Analytics and Advertising Features – With your Analytics permission, the live website uses Google Analytics to understand visits to public pages and use of contact links. Google receives information about those interactions, your browser and device, and technical connection data. Our tag excludes query strings, fragments, search terms, form answers, calculator inputs and results, and the addresses behind contact links. It does not enable Google Signals or advertising features. Analytics cookies last up to 180 days without automatic renewal. You can withdraw permission through Cookie settings; this stops collection by our tag and clears our first-party Analytics cookies, but does not delete data already received by Google. Google may process data outside Canada under its privacy policy. Local and staging previews do not load analytics. Links to third-party services, including intake, booking, and payment providers, take you to websites operated by those providers. Their own privacy policies apply to information collected on their sites. The Ottawa office tour loads an embedded Vimeo player only after you allow Office tour cookies. Once accepted, it plays silently when it comes into view, unless reduced motion is enabled. “Essential only” blocks the embedded player; changing to that choice removes any loaded player. Playback pauses when the tour leaves view or the browser tab is hidden. If reduced motion is enabled before loading, a still image is shown instead. Vimeo receives technical information needed to deliver the video and processes it under its own privacy policy. See our cookie policy for details.

Inquiries and technical information – We use information you provide by email, telephone or linked intake services to respond, assess conflicts and arrange services. Website delivery and security may involve technical logs such as IP addresses, requested pages, timestamps and browser information. These are distinct from advertising cookies. Please avoid sending detailed confidential material until your lawyer has confirmed an appropriate channel.

Email and text messages – Service communications are used to respond to inquiries and administer matters. Marketing messages require consent or another lawful basis under applicable anti-spam law and provide an unsubscribe method. Consent to marketing is separate from obtaining legal services. We do not share mobile information or text-message opt-in information with third parties for their marketing purposes.

Links – Our website may contain links to other websites, which are provided only as a convenience. Visitors are advised that other third-party websites may have different privacy policies and practices than Home Counsel Legal Services, and Home Counsel Legal Services has no responsibility for such third-party websites.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

Home Counsel Legal Services reserves the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make a change to this Privacy Policy, we will post such changes on our website and make such revised policy and changes available upon request to the Home Counsel Legal Services Chief Privacy Officer. However, Home Counsel Legal Services will obtain the necessary consents required under applicable privacy laws if it seeks to collect, use or disclose your Personal Information for purposes other than those to which consent has been obtained unless otherwise required or permitted by law.

For access requests, we normally respond within 30 days, subject to extensions or exceptions permitted by law. We may verify your identity and explain a refusal and available recourse. If a privacy concern remains unresolved, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Where a breach of security safeguards occurs, we assess the risk, keep required records, and notify affected individuals and report to the Commissioner where required by PIPEDA.

Further Information

For information on Home Counsel Legal Services' privacy practices, please contact us using the following information:

Privacy inquiries — Home Counsel Legal Services Professional Corporation

150 Elgin Street, 8th Floor, Ottawa, ON, K2P 1L4

Email: admin@hcls.law

Phone: (613) 519-4518

Last updated: September 27, 2026

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