Advantage Family Law
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Advantage Family Law respects the privacy of anyone who contacts our office. As legal professionals, we have an ethical duty to make sure that the personal information of our clients/potential clients is kept confidential.
Any personal information we obtain from you is safeguarded within our law firm. We only use information you give us to help you with your family law legal case. In other words, personal information is only used in relation to your legal proceedings with us. Under no circumstances do we share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes or for any purpose that is not related to advancing your legal case.
We Need Personal Information to Represent You
To effectively represent our clients, we need to obtain personal information from them. For example, we need the full legal names of anyone who may wish to hire us. It is also necessary for us to have information such as someone’s date of birth, and/or the legal names of their spouse and children. Because many of our cases involve families breaking up, having the correct information about each member of the family is very important.
Similarly, if someone contacts us to inquire about our services, we will need some basic personal information so we can give effective advice. For example, we cannot advise someone about a divorce unless we know who their spouse is and/or where the couple was legally married.
Conflicts of Interest
As lawyers, we also have an ethical duty to make sure we are not acting for two people who are against each other/adverse in interest. In other words, we need to make sure that we are never in a conflict of interest between two clients. To verify this, when a new client first contacts us, we must obtain personal information such as the full legal names of all parties.
Other Personal Information (income, medical, etc.)
In family law cases, a person’s ability to earn income is very important evidence. How much a person makes often determines amounts which need to be paid or received for spousal and child support. With this in mind, we often require clients to provide us with personal tax data so we can request income details from Canada Revenue Agency and/or past employers.
Sometimes, a client may have medical issues which are relevant to their case. For example, a medical issue which impacted your ability to work would be important for us to investigate. In these circumstances, we may need to obtain medical records from your treating physician (s).
Storage of Personal Information and File Destruction
As an Alberta law firm, we are required to strictly follow the rules for client data as set out by the Law Society of Alberta. Any storage of your personal information will be in accordance with the rules as set out by law society’s rules for lawyers. Similarly, after a client’s matter is completed, we store and eventually destroy all information in accordance with the rules and procedures set out by the Law Society of Alberta.