| PRIVACY POLICY
Any communications with us concerning
your case we promise to keep secret and confidential
to the fullest extent permitted by laws, ethical rules
and regulations. We maintain the highest degree of commitment
to maintaining attorney-client privileged communications
and client secrets. Ethical rules which we are required
to abide by under the rules governing the conduct of
attorneys, including the Massachusetts Rules of Professional
Conduct, require us to maintain high standards of confidentiality
and secrecy with regard to communications with clients
and prospective clients.
Our Privacy Policy was developed as an
extension of our commitment to combine the highest-quality
services with the highest level of integrity in dealing
with our clients prospective clients, affiliated attorneys
and visitors to our Web site. The Policy is designed
to assist you in understanding how we collect, use and
safeguard the personal information you provide to us
and to assist you in making informed decisions when
using our site and our services. This statement will
be continuously assessed against new technologies, business
practices and our clients' needs.
What Information Do We Collect?
When you visit our Web site you may provide
us with two types of information: personal information
you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on
an individual basis and Web site use information collected
on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our Web
site.
1. Personal Information You
Choose to Provide
If you consult with us concerning your legal claim,
we treat all communications as confidential and subject
to the attorney client privilege. This means that
we will not disclose the contents of our conversation
with anyone other than other attorneys and staff,
who will also be obligated to maintain your confidences
and privileges, unless of course some court or administrative
body rules that the attorney client privilege does
not apply and orders us to disclose a communication.
Such an event would be extremely rare. Normally, communications
that you have with an attorney concerning your legal
rights and legal claims will be entirely privileged,
secret and confidential.
If you are an attorney and contact us
about a case or client, we will also maintain the
confidentiality of this consultation and will treat
your communications as privileged.
If you choose to correspond with us
through email, we may retain the content of your email
messages together with your email address and our
responses. We provide the same protections for these
electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance
of information received by mail and telephone. We
discourage potential clients from communicating with
us via e-mail from computers in their workplace because
employers may have rights to examine or have access
to electronic copies of these e-mail communications.
2. Web Site Use Information
Similar to other commercial Web sites, our
Web site may utilize a standard technology called
"cookies" (see explanation below, "What
Are Cookies?") and Web server logs to collect
information about how our Web site is used. Information
gathered through cookies and Web server logs may include
the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time
spent at our Web site, and the Web sites visited just
before and just after our Web site.
How Do We Use the Information
That You Provide to Us?
Broadly speaking, we use personal information
for purposes of providing legal services, locating qualified
attorneys to assist us on a co-counsel or referral basis,
administering our business and professional activities,
providing customer service and making available other
products and services to our clients and prospective
clients and attorney network participants. Occasionally,
we may also use the information we collect to notify
you about important changes to our Web site, new services
and special offers we think you will find valuable.
You may notify us at any time if you do not wish to
receive these offers by responding to the e-mail or
clicking on the link provided and clearly marked which
will advise us to remove your e-mail from our list.
What Are Cookies?
A cookie is a very small text document, which
often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When
you visit a Web site, that site's computer asks your
computer for permission to store this file in a part
of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies.
Each Web site can send its own cookie to your browser
if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect
your privacy) your browser only permits a Web site to
access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the
cookies sent to you by other sites.
How Can We Use Information We
Collect from Cookies?
As you use our Web site, the site can use cookies
to differentiate you from other users to personalize
your experience. Cookies, in conjunction with our Web
server's log files, allow us to calculate the aggregate
number of people visiting our Web site and which parts
of the site are most popular. This helps us gather feedback
in order to constantly improve our Web site and better
serve our customers. Cookies do not allow us to gather
any personal information about you and we do not generally
store any personal information that you provided to
us in your cookies.
Notice of New Services and Changes
Occasionally, we may also use the information
we collect to notify you about important changes to
our Web site, new services and special offers we think
you will find valuable. As our customer, you will be
given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not
to receive these offers by responding to the e-mail
or clicking on the link provided and clearly marked
which will advise us to remove your e-mail from our
list.
Evaluation of Information Protection
Practices
Periodically, our operations and business practices
are reviewed for compliance with legal policies and
procedures governing the security, confidentiality and
quality of our information.
Employee Access, Training and
Expectations
Our professional values, ethical standards,
and practices are committed to the appropriate protection
of client and visitor information. In general, our professional
practices limit employee access to confidential information,
and limit the use and disclosure of such information
to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
How Can You Access and Correct
Your Information?
You may request access to all your personally
identifiable information that we collect online and
maintain in our database by advising us via the contact
form on this web site.
What About Other Web Sites Linked
to Our Web Site?
We are not responsible for the practices employed
by Web sites linked to or from our Web site nor the
information or content contained therein. Often links
to other Web sites are provided solely as pointers to
information on topics that may be useful to the users
of our Web site. Please remember that when you use a
link to go from our Web site to another Web site, our
Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing
and interaction on any other Web site,
including Web sites which have a link on our Web site,
is subject to that Web site's own rules and policies.
Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.
Your Consent
By using our Web site you consent to our collection
and use of your personal information as described in
this Privacy Policy. If we change our privacy policies
and procedures, we will post those changes on our Web
site to keep you aware of what information we collect,
how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose
it.
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