Supplemental Terms of Service

Thank you for choosing to use our Menu of Services feature, offered online here (the “Menu of Services”). By purchasing a document or service from our Menu of Services, you agree to retain Spark Law Professional Corporation (“Spark”, “we”, “us”, “our”, “the firm”) on a limited scope basis for the particular document or service you chose and to be bound to following terms and conditions (the “Supplemental Terms of Service”). The Supplemental Terms of Service, together with our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Terms”) govern your use of our website and online services. Please read the following carefully.

Governing Terms. The terms of our limited scope engagement as your lawyers are set out below. Any changes to these terms shall be agreed to in writing. Please review these terms carefully and let us know if you have any questions. Please keep this statement for your records.

Party. You agree to retain Spark Law Professional Corporation, an Ontario corporation to perform the legal services requested. 

Scope of Our Limited Engagement(s) and Fees. The scope of our engagement is limited to the specific document or service you choose to purchase through our Menu of Services (the “Service”). If we are required to communicate with other lawyers while performing the Service, we will need to inform them the limited scope of our work for you.

Once we have delivered all of the documents related to the Service and confirm that the Service is complete, our engagement with you will end. We have no further obligation to provide services to you unless a new engagement is entered into in writing. The Fees for the Service will be those listed on our Menu of Services and not subject to change.

Client Intake. Before we agree to provide you the Services, you will be asked to complete a client intake questionnaire (“Client Intake”). The purpose of the Client Intake is to ensure that you or any related parties are not in conflict with our existing clients. We are not your lawyers until we confirm with you that we have cleared our conflict check.

In acting for you, we are not acting for or taking on any responsibilities, obligations, or duties to any related persons or affiliates and no lawyer-client or other fiduciary relationship exists between us and any such related persons or affiliates.

Lawyer-Client Privilege. Generally, information we receive from you is subject to lawyer-client privilege. However, we may be under an independent ethical duty to reveal privileged information where: (a) disclosure is required due to imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm; or (b) we are required to disclose the information by law or court order.

Confidentiality. Spark, its staff, and professionals have a duty of confidentiality to you and are required to protect your information. Other lawyers and clerks in the firm may assist in providing the appropriate legal services. Confidential information will be shared with those other lawyers and clerks regarding your matters for the purposes of providing the best service we can to you.

Without detracting from that duty, so long as we act in accordance with ethical codes of conduct, we may, without your consent, act for other persons or entities whose interests are or might be adverse to you or your affiliates but only in matters not substantially related to our engagement by you.

We will not act adversely to you in any situation where we have obtained proprietary or other confidential information of a sensitive private nature as the result of our representation of you, which information, if known to our other client, could be used by that other client to your or your affiliates’ material disadvantage unless we take steps to prevent our lawyers and paralegals who may have such information from any involvement in the adverse representation.

Similarly, you will understand that we may obtain confidential information from other clients that might be of interest to you, but which we cannot share with you.

Communication and Cooperation. You agree to communicate with and provide us with complete and accurate information as needed. Further, you will timely notify us of any changes in the structure of your organization, changes to the personal information or residence of any individuals related to this matter, or any extended periods of time when you will be unavailable.

You also agree to be truthful and to fully and accurately disclose to us all facts that may be relevant to the matter or that we otherwise may request. As soon as possible after you learn it, you will provide any new information that you receive about the matter so that we can provide the Services effectively.

Termination of Services.

Termination by You. You may terminate our services to you upon written notice to us. If you do, you agree to pay our fees and expenses for our legal services up until the time we stop work. If we have not yet provided you with your chosen agreement or service, we will refund you.

Termination by Spark. We have the right to terminate the engagement for good cause, subject to an obligation to give you reasonable notice to arrange for alternative representation. Good cause includes, but is not limited to, (a) your failure to honour the Terms of Services, (b) your failure to cooperate or provide accurate information, (c) circumstances where our continued representation would be unlawful or unethical, or (d) any other reason permitted by the applicable ethics rules. You agree to take all steps necessary to free us of any obligation to perform further, including the execution of any documents necessary to complete our withdrawal.

If a termination occurs, we reserve the right to close your account on our Menu of Services. Any documents you provide to us will be returned to you promptly at your request. We reserve the right, subject to any laws or rules of professional conduct, to destroy any items that are retained by us.

Privacy. In the course of providing legal services to you, we may receive non-public personal information about you. All such information will be held in strict confidence and will not be disseminated to any person or entity outside this law firm without your consent unless such disclosure is required under the applicable law. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information.

Electronic Documents and Communications. Our preferred way of communicating on your file is e-mail. We store all file material, where possible, electronically. As a result, your file will predominantly be stored in electronic format and the correspondence on your file will be sent in electronic format. We may also store your documents on our cloud-based client portal system (“Client Portal”). It is your responsibility to keep your password safe and to advise us immediately if you have any reason to suspect that your password has been compromised.

We try to exclude from our electronic documents any virus or mal-ware that might affect any computer or IT system. However, it is your responsibility to protect your computer or IT system against any such virus or defect, and we do not accept any liability for any loss or damage that may arise from the receipt or use of electronic documents or communications from us.