Privacy Policy

High Park Mediation Inc. recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. We have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a mediation relationship. Our relationship with you is founded on trust and we are committed to maintaining that trust. We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold.

For these reasons, we have created the following privacy policy. It outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy. It confirms our dedication to protecting your privacy and maintaining the trust that you have placed in our mediation firm. This privacy policy is your guarantee that we will maintain the confidentiality and privacy of the personal information that you have entrusted to 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 for the protection of personal information, which it incorporates. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

High Park Mediation Inc. is responsible for the personal information we collect and hold. To ensure this accountability, we have developed this policy and trained our associates and support staff about our policies and practices.

Purposes for Collection of Personal Information

Our firm collects personal information for the following limited purposes:

to establish and maintain client lists;
to assist you as our client; and
for internal purposes including the professional development of associates 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 collect and use your personal information in order to provide you with mediation services. Our firm restricts the collection of personal information only to that information that is necessary for the purposes noted above. We are committed to collecting personal information in a fair, open and lawful manner. Wherever possible, we collect your personal information directly from you 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 shall ask you to specifically consent if we collect, use, or disclose your personal information. Other times, your consent may be implied through your conduct with us. For example, if you complete a form that is on our website and send it to us, or if you provide information about your case to our staff in the FLIC, your consent to collect and use that information, in accordance with the terms of this policy, is implied. Likewise, 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. And we will imply your consent to share your personal information with those who you advise us are your agents, such as your lawyer, unless you advise us otherwise in writing.

Use of Your Information

By retaining our firm, you have confirmed your trust in us. We are honoured by this trust and take pride in serving you.

We use your personal information to provide services to you and to administer our client (time and billing) databases. We also maintain records such as those of mediation and information services encounters and outcomes, and provide such data on an anonymous basis to the Ministry of the Attorney General. We are obliged for legal and tax purposes to retain our client files after the contract for services has ended.

High Park Mediation Inc. does not disclose your personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services. For example, we do not provide our client mailing lists to other professional services.

Our firm stores and maintains personal information in conformity with the requirements of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the model code for the protection of personal information created and approved by the Canadian Standards Association.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

High Park Mediation Inc. will use or otherwise disclose your personal information in a number of circumstances, including:

when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena;
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 mediation, or 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;
for the purpose of providing required data to the Ministry of the Attorney General;
for the purpose of training mediation interns;
if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (like computer backup services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy; or
if the information is already publicly known.

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;
restricted file access to personal information;
deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
internal password and security policies.

We ensure that any of our employees, associates 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

Our firm makes information about its policies and practices respecting the collection and maintenance of personal information available to all interested parties.

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 may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.

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.

Can I Request Anonymity?

Whenever it is legal and practicable, we may offer the opportunity to deal with general inquiries without providing your name (for example, by accessing general information on our website).

Communicating With Us

You should be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium. You should be aware of this when contacting us to send or receive personal or confidential information. In particular, we require you to send us confidential information at the intake stage of all mediation processes. We routinely provide scheduling information, progress reports, memoranda, and other communications via email to parties and to their lawyers. If you prefer, you may fax or mail us a hard copy of your intake form or any other communications, and may request us to communicate with you in a similar fashion.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

Since High Park Mediation Inc. 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 Albert Gaudio at High Park Mediation Inc., albert@highparkmediation.com

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.