This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use, and disclose the personal information of our clients, other individuals and our web site visitors (“you”).

1. Scope and Application

This policy applies to personal information collected through our website. Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. In general, personal information does not include business contact information that we use to contact you in your business capacity, including your name, title or position, business, telephone or facsimile number.

2. Personal Information We Collect and Use

Courtside collects, uses and discloses personal information for the primary purpose of providing our clients with professional legal services and representation, including for the following purposes:

  • to establish and manage client relationships, provide legal advice, perform legal services, fulfil legal duties (including Know Your Client obligations), and avoid legal conflicts of interest;
  • to share personal information with third parties for the purpose of providing legal services in the context of legal proceedings, including conducting litigation, arbitrations, mediations or other proceedings. Such third parties may include opposing parties, parties in interest, opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors, witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbitrators, other decision-makers and experts;
  • to represent clients in the context of business transactions involving the exchange or disclosure of personal information, including by purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation, arrangement or any other type of acquisition, disposition, public offering, securitization, investment, financing or other transaction;
  • to establish and maintain commercial relationships with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, evaluate credit standing, and to fulfil contractual obligations;
  • to contact and communicate with clients and other individuals for the purpose of conducting market research, and evaluating client service and satisfaction;
  • to maintain, develop and manage our information systems, such as file transfer, e-discovery, document management, knowledge-management, and precedent systems and databases;
  • to detect and protect against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity, and where necessary to meet our insurance requirements;
  • to develop and manage our business and operations; and
  • as permitted by, and to comply with, applicable legal or regulatory requirements or provisions.

We keep records of the work performed and services provided by us in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and professional standards. These records may include personal information. Our records are stored with safeguards against inappropriate or unauthorized access (see Safeguards).

We may ask you to update your personal information, contact information or preferences from time to time.

Job Applicants: If you apply for a job with us, we collect personal information you provide in connection with a job application or related inquiry, such as information contained in a resume, cover letter, or similar employment-related materials. We use this information for the purpose of processing and responding to your application for current and future career opportunities, conducting interviews and facilitating the on-boarding process in the event you accept a position at the firm. With your consent, we may also obtain personal information from third party job references or former employers, or conduct background checks.

3. Accountability and Privacy Policies

Courtside is responsible under applicable privacy legislation for the personal information in our possession or control. We have appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee privacy matters for our firm. Our Privacy Officer can be reached as set out below in the Contact Us section.

We are committed to protecting personal information and have established policies and procedures that govern our treatment of personal information. These policies and procedures include, among other things, the following:

4. Consent

We will obtain a client’s consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information about the client, and the consent of other individuals where required by applicable privacy legislation. We assume that an individual has consented to our reasonable collection and use of personal information consistent with the purposes for which the information was given, when the individual initiates contact with us or voluntarily provides personal information to us. We also assume that clients who retain us, or individuals involved in proceedings or matters opposite or adverse to our clients, consent to the reasonable collection, use and disclosure of their personal information by our professionals and agents for purposes of our representation or provision of legal advice to our clients and the conduct of the transactions or proceedings involving our clients. If you provide us with personal information about a third party, we rely on you to obtain all necessary consents to permit us to collect, use and disclose the personal information for the purposes for which the information was collected and as set out in this Privacy Policy.

We do not collect, use or disclose personal information without consent unless authorized or required by law to do so, such as in the following circumstances:

5. Visiting our Website and Use of Cookies

Visiting our Website: In general, you can visit our Website without telling us who you are or submitting any personal information. However, we collect the IP (Internet protocol) addresses of all visitors to our Website and other related information such as page requests, browser type, operating system and average time spent on our Website. We use this information to help us understand our Website activity and to monitor and improve our Website.
We use cookies to analyze traffic and improve user experience. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to not accept certain cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from our Website, you may not be able to take advantage of all the Website features. For more information about the use of cookies and your choices, please click on the cookie icon located on the bottom left-hand corner of the web page.

Analytics: We may use a third party such as Google Analytics to help us gather and analyze information about the areas visited on the Website (such as the pages most read, time spent, search terms and other engagement data) in order to evaluate and improve the user experience and the Website. These third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies. For more information about Google Analytics or to prevent the storage and processing of this data (including your IP address) by Google, you can download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en. You can also obtain additional information on Google Analytics’ data privacy and security at the following links:

Interest-Based Advertising: We work with third-parties such as ad networks and other advertising companies that use their own tracking technologies (including cookies and pixel tags) on our Website in order to provide you with tailored advertisements across the Internet. These companies may collect information about your activity on our Website and third-party websites (such as web pages you visit and your interaction with our advertising and other communications) and use this information to analyze your behaviours to make predictions about your interest and preferences, develop personalized content and deliver ads that are more relevant to you on third party websites. This process is known as “behavioural advertising” or “interest-based advertising”. This information may also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of our online advertising campaigns.

Opting-out of Interest-Based Advertising: To opt-out of receiving online interest-based advertising from third party advertising companies who collect data on our Website, please click on the cookie icon located on the bottom left-hand corner of the web page, located here: ADD LINK

For more information about interest-based advertising and to understand your options, including how you can opt-out of receiving behavioural ads from third-party advertising companies participating in the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada website at http://youradchoices.ca/choices.

  • Please note that even if you opt-out of interest-based advertising by a third party, these tracking technologies may still collect data for other purposes including analytics and you will still see ads from us, but the ads may be less relevant to you and your interests.
  • To successfully opt out, you must have cookies enabled in your web browser (see your browser’s instructions for information on cookies and how to enable them). Your opt-out only applies to the web browser you use so you must opt-out of each web browser on each computer you use. Once you opt out, if you delete your browser’s saved cookies, you will need to opt-out again.

Third Party Links:  Our Website may contain links to other websites that Courstide does not own or operate. We provide links to third party websites as a convenience to the user. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked websites. The linked websites have separate and independent privacy policies, notices and terms of use. We do not have any control over such websites, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations that operate such linked websites may collect, use or disclose, secure and otherwise treat personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

6. Safeguards

We protect your data through reasonable measures. We have implemented reasonable administrative, technical and physical measures in an effort to safeguard the personal information in our custody and control against theft, loss and unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure.

7. Rights of Individuals

You may have the right to access, update, rectify and correct inaccuracies in your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of personal information (subject to legal and contractual restrictions). You may also request that we cease dissemination of your personal information or de-index your personal information where we are required to do so by applicable law.

To exercise these rights, please send a written request to our Privacy Officer using the contact information as set out in the Contact Us section below.

Such requests will be processed subject to exceptions under applicable privacy legislation. Examples of such exceptions include information protected by solicitor-client privilege; information generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process; information about another individual where disclosure would reveal confidential commercial information; or information disclosed to the police or other lawful authorities where we are required to withhold disclosure.

8. Disclosure to Third Parties

Legal services: We may share personal information with third parties for the purpose of providing legal services such as in the context of legal proceedings, including conducting litigation, arbitrations, mediations or other proceedings. Such third parties may include opposing parties, parties in interest, opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors, witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbitrators, other decision-makers and experts.

Service Providers: We rely on affiliated and unaffiliated companies, agents and contractors to assist us with the provision of our services, including: hosting our data; providing billing support; document storage; software support; delivering webinars; sending our communications; conducting background checks; managing job applicants; and facilitating secure file transfers.

We provide our service providers with access to your personal information as  necessary for them to provide services to us. We require our service providers to protect the confidentiality and security of personal information and our service providers are not authorized to use personal information for other purposes.

Legal Requirements:  We or our third-party service providers may disclose personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, to other organizations in the case of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of law or detecting, suppressing or preventing fraud, or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable Canadian, US or other law (which may include lawful access by Canadian, US or other foreign governmental authorities, regulators, courts or law enforcement agencies in the jurisdictions in which we or our service providers operate).

Business Transactions: Personal information may be disclosed where necessary in connection with a prospective or completed sale of assets, merger or other corporate restructuring.

9. Cross-Border Transfers

Client data is stored and processed in Canada; however, we and our service providers (including affiliates) may otherwise access, store and otherwise process non-client personal information outside of Canada (including, for Quebec individuals, outside of the province of Quebec), including in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other foreign jurisdictions.

10. Changes to the Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes to our privacy practices and post changes on the site.  We encourage you to periodically review this page to ensure you are familiar with those changes. We will indicate at the top of this privacy policy when it was most recently updated.

11. Contact

If you have any questions, complaints or comments about this privacy policy or the manner in which we or our service providers treat your personal information, or to request access to our collection of your personal information, please contact us at:

Privacy Officer at info@ctside.ca
Courtside Counsel Lawyers Inc.
154 av. Laurier W., suite 210
Montréal, QC
H2T 2N7