Privacy Policy

Riverdale Mediation Ltd. recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We have an obligation to keep confidential all information we receive from you within our professional relationship in accordance with the terms of this policy.

This policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy. It explains how we use your personal information, with whom it will or might be shared, and under what circumstances. It confirms our dedication to protecting your privacy and maintaining the trust that you have placed in us.

Your privacy rights

From January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged in commercial activities must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the “Act”) and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code (the “Model Code”) for the protection of personal information. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

Purposes for collection of personal information

Our firm collects personal information for the following limited purposes:

to determine whether your matter is appropriate for the process you wish to retain us to provide;
to identify and assess any potential risks associated with your matter, and to provide appropriate supports and referrals whether or not we agree to be retained;
to establish and maintain client lists;
to assist you as our client, including for accounting and invoicing purposes;
to fulfill our obligations under any process agreements you may sign with us, including to deliver Hear the Child, mediation, parenting coordination and arbitration reports and decisions as applicable;
to comply with any relevant legal obligations we may have;
to enable us to seek guidance and advice on your matter as appropriate; and
for internal purposes including the professional development of contractors and interns.

What personal information do we collect?

Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. We are committed to collecting personal information in a fair, open and lawful manner. Wherever possible, we collect your personal information directly from you before we agree to be retained, at the start of a file and in the course of our retained relationship.

Implied consent to collect and use your personal information

In some cases, we will ask you to specifically consent to the collection, use, and/or disclosure your personal information. In most cases however, your consent will be implied through your conduct with us.

For example:

when you complete an intake or other form , on our website or otherwise, and submit it to us, or provide information about your matter to our contractors or staff, your consent to collect and use that information, in accordance with the terms of this policy, is implied.
if you or your agents provide us with documents, correspondence, financial disclosure or any other information or materials, your consent to collect and use that information in accordance with the terms of this policy is implied.
if you send us an email or respond to an email from us, we will imply your consent to collect and use your information in accordance with the terms of this policy, including with anyone whom you have copied on your email.
we will imply your consent to share your personal information with those who you advise us are your agents, such as your lawyer or accountant, unless you advise us otherwise in writing.
if you make complaints or claims of any kind against or about us, we will imply your consent to share your personal information as needed to respond;
if you post about us, our contractors or services on social media, website or other online forum, including google reviews, or send emails to anyone who is not a party to your matter nor your agent, we will imply your consent to respond and to share your personal information to the extent necessary to respond to your post or other communication.

Disclosure of your personal information

Riverdale Mediation Ltd. will use or otherwise disclose your personal information in a number of circumstances, including but not limited to:

when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena or makes an order for disclosure of your personal information;
where we have a duty to report a child in need of protection to a Children’s Aid Society;
where we believe that information in our possession indicates a risk of serious or imminent harm to a person or animal;
when you have consented to the disclosure, actually or by implication;
when the services we are providing to you require us to give your information to third parties (for example, when legal, financial, mental health or other professionals are retained to assist with a matter, or to participate in the process with the consent of all parties) your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise in writing;
when it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
to respond to any complaints or claims that made be made about or against us;
to respond to any complaint about or assessment of our fees;
to respond as appropriate to any public or online or third party comments made by you about any of our contractors, staff or services;
for the purpose of providing any required data to the Ministry of the Attorney General;
for the purpose of training and interns;
where we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (accounting, book keeping, IT support, computer backup services, shredding services or archival file storage) and
if the information is already publicly known.

Retention of your information

We retain files containing your information after our contract for services with you has ended. For example, we are required by law to retain family arbitration and parenting coordination files for a specified period of time. We retain your information in our accounting and book keeping systems indefinitely for accounting, tax and legal purposes.

Our firm stores and maintains personal information in conformity with the requirements of the Act and the Model Code.

Is my personal information secure?

Our firm has developed and implemented security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal information kept by us. We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your information are:

premises security where the information is stored at our head office;
secure storage for closed files or parts of closed files that must be retained and the use of professional shredding services for all other personal information when matters are closed;
restricted internal access to personal information;
use of secure document sharing portals for the exchange of personal information where possible;
ongoing vigilance and training for staff and contractors;
deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
the retention of an IT security company to manage and monitor our hardware and software security;
internal password and security policies for hardware and software for staff and contractors.

We ensure that any of our employees, contractors or interns who deal with personal information are properly trained and are aware of the necessary and appropriate measures required to protect your personal information.

Openness

We are pleased to answer any questions that you may have regarding the collection and maintenance of personal information.

You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you. Summary information is available on request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs will be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees in effect at the time of the request.

Accuracy

Our firm is committed to maintaining accurate, complete and up-to-date personal information. If you are aware of changes to the personal information you have given to us, simply inform us of the changes and we will update our records accordingly.

Communicating With Us

We use email to communicate with our clients and their counsel and agents. When contacting us or communicating with us, please be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium. We routinely provide file updates, memoranda, arbitration and parenting coordination decisions, and all other communications via email to parties and to their lawyers. If you prefer to use another means of communicating with us please let us know.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

Since Riverdale Mediation Ltd. regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, we may change our privacy policy from time to time.

Requests For Access

If you have any questions or wish to access your personal information, please write to our Privacy Contact at Riverdale Mediation Ltd., 393 University Ave. Suite 2000, Toronto ON, M5G 1E6, attention: Hilary Linton.

Website

Our website, www.riverdalemediation.com, contains links to other sites which are not governed by this Privacy Policy.

On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.