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LegalMatch [www.legalmatch.com] is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent,
non-profit organization whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence
in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. Because
this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it
has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy
practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.
By displaying the TRUSTe trustmark, this Web site has agreed to notify
you of:
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What personally identifiable information of yours or third party personally
identifiable information is collected from you through the Web site
- The organization collecting the information
- How the information is used
- With whom the information may be shared
- What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information
- The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of
information under (Name of the Company) control
- How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, please send an e-mail to
privacy@legalmatch.com or write to: LegalMatch,
642 Harrison St., Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94107. If you do not receive acknowledgment
of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then
contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will
then serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve your concerns.
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Privacy and Security Statement
At LegalMatch.com, we are committed to protecting your privacy. It is also our goal to
constantly improve our services to you and to keep up with rapidly changing technologies.
In order to maximize our services to you, we use information collected about you while
still protecting your privacy. Expecting future variations in our service, these policies
are subject to change. If there are any modifications to these policies, we will post them
on this page and notify you as described at the end of this policy.
I. Security Measures Concerning Your Personal Information
While transmission of information over the Internet cannot be guaranteed 100% secure, we
make every effort to provide protection for the information that we collect about you. We,
on our fully functional site, will use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology in the transmission
of logon identification and passwords. SSL technology provides advanced encryption tools that
convert the information you input into code before it is sent to us. The encryption helps
protect you and the information in your account.
In addition to SSL technology:
- Your personal information is password-protected. It is our policy to never sell or share
traceable information about our users to third parties without user permission. See “Use
of Information Collected” below.
- Advanced firewall technologies protect our database from outsiders.
- Your password and password reminder answers are kept encrypted at all times, so they cannot
be decoded even if someone gains access to our database.
However, to avoid unauthorized use of your account by others, you must take steps to control
your password. Further, this site contains various links to other Web sites. LegalMatch.com is
not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. You should not assume that other sites
take similar steps in securing your information and should evaluate their privacy standards
before using their systems.
II. Collection of Information
When you register with LegalMatch.com, we ask that you provide your name, e-mail address, and
zip code. If you are an attorney, you will also be asked to provide your firm name, address,
telephone number, state where you are licensed, and bar number.In the course of your use of the
site, we may also request additional information from you. For example, if you are an attorney,
you will be asked to describe your areas of practice, experience, and education. If you are
searching for an attorney, you will be asked to describe your situation so that attorneys can
evaluate your legal needs and make a response to work for you.
If you elect to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask you for
your friend's name and e-mail address. We will automatically send the friend a one-time e-mail
inviting them to visit the site. LegalMatch stores this information for the sole purpose of sending
this one-time e-mail and tracking the success of our referral program. The friend may contact us at
UNSUBSCRIBE to
request the removal of this information from our database.
If you elect to request benefit information via the Employer/Association Benefit Request Form, we
ask you for your name, relationship to the business, business or association name, address, telephone,
e-mail and contact name. We will contact the designated individual and attempt to negotiate a deal for
discount services. The business may contact us at
UNSUBSCRIBE to
request the removal of this information from our database.
In the course of using our site, we automatically track certain information including your IP
address, what browser you are using, and the URL you just came from. We also collect information
about your use of our site in order to optimize our site usability.
We use cookie technology to assist users in navigating through our site more efficiently. Third party
affiliates may also set cookies on the site for the purpose of tracking leads. A cookie is a small
text file that resides on your hard drive. At various points on our site, our system will request the
cookie from your browser so that we can retrieve the stored information. The cookie may be linked to
a unique number that our system can read to determine your user ID and preferences. This prevents you
from repeatedly making the same selections. Knowing how you use the site enables us to better tailor
content and services to your needs.The cookie does not contain information that others could use to
personally identify you, and other Web sites cannot access the information we store on your computer.
Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted at the end
of a session. You must set your browser to accept cookies to be able to use our site at this time.
III. Use of Collected Information
The primary reason that LegalMatch collects information from its users is to match the right attorneys
with the people and businesses who need them.
LegalMatch.com does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. We use your information
to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, statistically analyze site usage, and improve our site's
content, offering, and layout. Your IP address may be used to help diagnose problems with our server, to
administer our Web site, and for security needs. LegalMatch.com may provide aggregate statistics about
our customers, sales, traffic patterns, and related site information to third-party vendors, but these
statistics will include no personal identifying information.
We may use the information we collect to notify you about the status of your LegalMatch account,
important functionality changes to our Web site, new LegalMatch.com services, and special offers we
think you'll find valuable. We may also contact you to verify your information or ask you about your
experiences with our system.
Except for communications that relate directly to the service being provided, you may "opt out" of
receiving communications from us. If you are seeking an attorney, required communications include
(1) confirmation of your registration, (2) notification that attorneys have made responses to work
on your case and (3) requests to determine which attorney (if any) you have retained. If you are an
attorney, required communications may include (1) confirmation of your registration, (2) notification
that your registration has been verified, (3) requests to determine which LegalMatch users have retained
you and the amounts billed to or collected from them and (4) if you are enrolled in a payment plan,
invoices. To opt out of non-required communications, check the appropriate boxes when you register or
at any time by logging into the system and modifying your profile information. Profile information can
be modified by logging into your homepage and clicking on the "My Profile" link. Users may also opt out
of receiving non-required communications by replying to unsubscribe in the subject line in the e-mail
or by e-mailing us at
UNSUBSCRIBE.
When it is necessary to contact you, we use your e-mail address and, in some situations your mailing
address, phone or fax number. Note: LegalMatch.com will not ask you for your password if we contact
you. Do not disclose your password if asked by a caller claiming to represent LegalMatch.com.
In order to achieve the benefits of the LegalMatch service, there are some situations in which personal
information may be disclosed to third parties. These are:
Service related disclosure
This Web site is designed to disclose certain limited information to connect attorneys with the
people who need them. The users have full control over when and to whom personally identifying
information is disclosed. Our service is designed specifically to keep initial exchanges of
information between clients and attorneys anonymous. The limited information we disclose is
described below.
When a user posts a description of his or her legal matter, that information is reviewed only
by attorneys and LegalMatch staff. The information is anonymous, meaning that the user's personally
identifying information is kept hidden unless the user chooses to release it.
When an attorney responds to a posted matter by making a response, the response is seen only
by the specific client and subscribing attorneys. The name and contact information of the responding
attorney is available only to the specific client.
If a user requests an attorney's contact information, the user's name and zip code may be
revealed to that attorney for the purpose of verifying whether an attorney-client relationship
was formed. The attorney is precluded from using this information to contact the user.
The name of the user posting a rating and commentary for any attorney on this system may be
released to that attorney, at the attorney's request, for the purpose of replying to the rating.
The name of the user notifying us that an attorney-client relationship was formed through our
service may be released to that attorney for the purpose of verifying the relationship.
Information regarding whether an attorney-client relationship was formed will be used only
for our internal records and statistics. We will not disclose this information to other parties,
unless we are required to do so by law.
Except for the information referred to above, user's contact information (i.e. address,
telephone, fax, or e-mail) is never revealed to attorneys or other users.
Partnership Related Disclosure.If you are on a site that is "Partner Site powered by LegalMatch"
or whose address is www.partner.legalmatch.com, this means that LegalMatch has a partnership with
the Partner Site and that LegalMatch may share some of your registration information with that partner.
For people and small business LegalMatch will share only your name, e-mail address and zip code.
For attorneys, LegalMatch may also share your firm name, address, telephone number, state of licensure,
bar number and areas of practice.
LegalMatch.com may also develop business partnerships with other companies, as part of our service to
users. These special business partnerships may include acquisitions by or mergers with other companies
or special joint ventures that integrate our Web sites and services.
Whenever LegalMatch shares personally identifying information with a partner, we will do so
confidentiality and require use restrictions on the information.
Legal Related Disclosure
LegalMatch.com may release account information when we believe, in good faith, that such release
is reasonably necessary to:
comply with law
enforce or apply the terms of any of our user agreements, or
protect the rights, property or safety of LegalMatch.com, our users, or others.
IV. Consent and Changes to This Policy
By using our Web site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by LegalMatch.com.
If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are aware of
what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. If we make
any changes to how we disclose personally identifiable information to others, we will notify you by
e-mail and provide you at least ten (10) days to object to such disclosure and to delete your registration.
Version 3.2.1; Effective 03/27/06
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