Privacy policy

We handle personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the federal statute that governs how private-sector organizations in Ontario collect, use and disclose personal information in the course of commercial activity.

Personal information belonging to our clients is subject to a second and stricter set of obligations: the duty of confidentiality owed by every Ontario lawyer under the Law Society of Ontario's Rules of Professional Conduct, and, where it applies, solicitor-client privilege. Those obligations are broader than this policy. Where they and this policy differ, the stricter obligation governs.

This policy applies to pdllawpc.ca and to personal information you give us when you contact the firm by telephone, by email, by mail, or through our Facebook page.

It does not apply to any other website or service that this site links to. Those are operated by others and governed by their own privacy policies.

This website has no contact form, no account sign-in, no newsletter subscription, and no advertising, analytics or social media tracking pixels. Browsing it does not, by itself, tell us who you are.

We collect personal information in three ways:

Information you give us

Your name, telephone number, email address, and whatever you choose to tell us about your situation when you call, email, write, or message us on Facebook.

Server logs

Our hosting provider automatically records standard technical information for every request — IP address, browser and device type, the pages requested, and the date and time. It is used to keep the site running and secure, and is not used to identify or profile visitors.

Client file information

If you retain the firm, we collect what the matter requires: identification and verification information that the Law Society of Ontario's client identification and verification rules oblige us to obtain and record, information needed to bill and administer the file, and the documents and facts relevant to your matter. In a family law matter that can include personal information about your spouse or partner and your children; in an immigration matter it can include information about family members and prior immigration history.

This website does not set cookies of its own, and does not use analytics, advertising or behavioural tracking technologies. Our hosting provider may set a small number of strictly necessary cookies required to deliver and secure the site; these are not used to build a profile of you.

If we ever add analytics or any other tracking technology, this policy will be updated before it goes live.

We use personal information only for the purposes it was collected for:

• To respond to your enquiry and to determine whether we are able to act for you, which includes running a conflict-of-interest check
• To provide legal services and to communicate with you about your matter
• To meet the professional, regulatory and statutory obligations that apply to an Ontario law practice, including client identification and verification, record-keeping, and anti-money-laundering requirements
• To prepare accounts, process payments, and administer our trust and general accounts
• To protect the security and integrity of this website and our systems

We do not use personal information for any purpose incompatible with these without asking you first, and we do not send marketing emails.

We collect, use and disclose personal information with your knowledge and consent, except where the law permits or requires us to do otherwise. Contacting us about a potential matter is taken as your consent to our using that information to respond to you and to assess whether we can act.

You may withdraw your consent at any time, on reasonable notice, subject to legal and professional restrictions. If you withdraw consent while we are acting for you, we may be unable to continue to act, and certain obligations — such as our duty to keep records and our continuing duty of confidentiality — survive the withdrawal.

We do not sell, rent, trade or barter personal information. We disclose it only in these circumstances:

• With your consent, or on your instructions
• To advance your matter — for example to a court or tribunal, opposing counsel, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or another government body — where doing so is a necessary part of the work you have asked us to do
• To service providers who host this website, deliver our email, or provide practice-management and accounting software, each of whom is required to protect the information and to use it only to provide that service to us
• Where disclosure is required or authorized by law, including by court order, subpoena, or a lawful demand from a regulator
• To the Law Society of Ontario or our professional liability insurer, where our professional obligations require it

Some of our service providers store or process information outside Canada, including in the United States. While it is held in another country, that information is subject to the laws of that country and may be accessible to its courts, law enforcement and national security authorities. We choose providers who commit to appropriate protection, but we cannot exclude this. If you would prefer that a particular document not be transmitted or stored this way, tell us and we will arrange an alternative.

Email and social media messaging travel over networks we do not control. Messages can be intercepted, delayed, lost, or read by someone other than the intended recipient, and messages sent through Facebook are additionally handled by Meta Platforms under Meta's own privacy practices rather than ours.

Please do not send us confidential or sensitive information until we have confirmed in writing that we act for you. Information sent to us before then may not be protected by solicitor-client privilege and may be subject to disclosure to third parties.

Please never send confidential information through social media, even after we are acting for you. If a matter is sensitive and time-sensitive, telephone us.

We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information: this site is served over an encrypted connection, access to client information is limited to those in the firm who need it to do their work, everyone in the firm is bound by the duty of confidentiality, and paper and electronic records are securely destroyed when they are no longer required.

No method of transmission over the internet and no method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

We keep personal information only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as long as the law and our professional obligations require — whichever is longer. Financial and trust records are retained for the period required by the Law Society of Ontario's by-laws. Client files are retained for the period required by our professional obligations and our file retention practice, then securely destroyed.

Enquiries from people the firm did not go on to act for are kept only as long as needed to record the conflict check, and are then destroyed.

You may ask us what personal information we hold about you, how we have used it, and to whom we have disclosed it. You may also ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete. Write to us using the contact details below. We will need to satisfy ourselves of your identity before responding, and we will respond within the time PIPEDA allows, which is generally thirty days.

PIPEDA permits and sometimes requires us to refuse access in limited circumstances — most importantly where the information is subject to solicitor-client privilege, where disclosing it would reveal personal information about another person, or where it was generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process. If we refuse, we will tell you why and tell you how to complain.

This site links to the firm's Facebook page and may link to government and court resources. We provide those links for convenience. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices, and a link is not an endorsement. Read their privacy policies before giving them personal information.

We may update this policy as our practice, our technology, or the law changes. The current version is always posted on this page, with the date it took effect at the top. This version took effect on September 21, 2026.

Mary Ponce de Leon-Barracoso is responsible for the firm's compliance with this policy. Please raise any question or concern about privacy with us first — most are resolved quickly.

By email

info@pdllawpc.ca

By telephone

(647) 686-5884

By mail

21 King Street West, 5th Floor, Box 6, Hamilton, Ontario L8P 4W7

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca or 1-800-282-1376. Concerns about a lawyer's professional conduct may be raised with the Law Society of Ontario at lso.ca or 1-800-668-7380.