Privacy Policy

VanWest Law Professional Corporation ("VanWest Law", "we", "us") is an Ontario law firm based in Markham. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard personal information when you visit vwlaw.ca (the "Site"), submit our contact form, or engage us for legal services.

We are committed to handling personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA") and applicable Ontario law, including our professional obligations under the Law Society of Ontario's Rules of Professional Conduct.

We collect personal information when you provide it to us — for example, when you submit our contact form (name, email, phone, matter description), engage us as a client (information necessary to perform the retainer), or correspond with us by email.

We may also collect limited technical information automatically when you visit the Site, including IP address, browser type, pages visited, and the date and time of the visit. This information is used for security, troubleshooting, and improving the Site.

We use personal information to:

• Respond to your inquiry and assess whether we can act on your matter;
• Perform the services you have engaged us to provide;
• Comply with our professional, legal, and regulatory obligations;
• Operate and improve the Site;
• Communicate with you about your file and, with your consent, related matters.

We do not sell personal information. We share personal information only as necessary to provide our services and as permitted by law. This may include:

• Accounting, tax, or other professional service providers engaged on your authorization where coordinated counsel is required;
• Service providers (e.g., secure document storage, email, IT infrastructure) bound by confidentiality and data-protection obligations;
• Courts, regulators, and other parties where required by law or court order.

Where we share information with any external professional, we do so on the basis of confidentiality and only to the extent required to perform the engagement you have authorized.

Communications with us in the course of a retainer are subject to solicitor-client privilege. We protect privileged information in accordance with our professional obligations and do not disclose it except as authorized by you or required by law.

We maintain reasonable physical, organizational, and technological safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, including secure document storage, access controls, encrypted transmission for sensitive communications, and confidentiality obligations on our staff and service providers.

We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet our professional, legal, and regulatory obligations. Closed files are retained in accordance with Law Society of Ontario requirements.

Subject to applicable law and our professional obligations, you have the right to access and request correction of the personal information we hold about you. To make a request, contact us at the email below.

The Site uses a minimal set of cookies for essential functionality and may use privacy-respecting analytics to understand aggregate site usage. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site trackers.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of the page indicates when the policy was last revised. We encourage you to review it periodically.

Questions about this Privacy Policy or our handling of personal information can be directed to info@vwlaw.ca.