Privacy Policy

Information 

The Law Office of Robert S. Ward (“firm”) is a U.S. law firm based in Martinsville, Virginia. We may collect personal information from any of our offices or locations.

The Law Office of Robert S. Ward respects your privacy and is committed to using responsible practices in processing your personal information. Our Privacy Policy and its associated Privacy Notices explain how we process personal information. You should review this Policy and those Privacy Notices specific to you each time you visit our website as we may update it from time to time without notice to you.

 

Scope of Privacy Policy This Privacy Policy applies to any personal information we collect and any you provide to us as related to the following services:

  • Our website including the contact forms and the privacy rights form on the website;
  • Our marketing, educational and event mailings activities;
  • Our business contacts and communications;
  • Our legal services that we provide to you.


Acceptance of Privacy Policy 

This Privacy Policy is important and affects your legal rights, so please read it carefully. By accessing or using our website and the associated pages and forms therein, lawofficeofrobertward.com, you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy and the terms incorporated herein by reference. By submitting your personal data to or our collecting any personal data from lawofficeofrobertward.com, you accept and expressly consent and agree to our practices surrounding the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Further, any personal information you provide us for the purposes listed above will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy. IF YOU DO NOT CONSENT AND AGREE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU CANNOT, AND WE DO NOT AUTHORIZE YOU TO, ACCESS, BROWSE, OR USE lawofficeofrobertward.com or our legal services.

Our processing of personal information, such as your name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number, will be undertaken consistent with the requirements of applicable privacy laws.



Please note that any communications that you may have with us do not establish an attorney-client relationship. Any information sent to The Law Office of Robert S. Ward before establishing an attorney-client relationship will not be held in confidence and may be used for the benefit of the firm’s other clients or future clients. Accordingly, unless and until we formally establish an attorney-client relationship, do NOT send, or otherwise communicate to us any information you would want to be maintained in confidence, whether through this website, through any email address posted on this website, or otherwise.

 

Information Security 

Any information you send to us electronically, while using our website or our legal services or otherwise interacting with us, may not be secure during its transmission. We recommend that you do not use unsecure channels to communicate sensitive or confidential information to us. Please be aware, despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee “perfect security.” Any information you transmit to us through any means is sent at your own risk.

 

Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you.

A. Information We Collect Directly

1. Sources of Personal Information We Collect Directly

We may collect information, which may be personal information, as otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent:

  • In relation to a business association between you and The Law Office of Robert S. Ward or one or more of its personnel
  • From third parties involved in legal proceedings in which you are named or otherwise associated
  • From legal and regulatory agencies and entities
  • From conversations, mail, email, faxes, voice mail and texts sent to our personnel
  • From social media services
  • From the device(s) you use as a visitor to our website
  • From the device(s) you use to connect to our networks
  • Via our website, www.lawofficeofrobertward.com
  • By your acceptance of an invitation to and/or attendance of a firm event
  • By feedback that you have provided to us regarding a firm event or publication

B. Information We Collect Indirectly When You Use Our Site

To access and use certain areas or features of our website, you consent to our collection and use of certain information about your use of lawofficeofrobertward.com through the use of tracking technologies or by other passive means. Your consent to our access and use of this “passively collected” information may include, but is not limited to, the internet protocol (“IP”) address used, the length of time spent on our site and the pages you looked at on lawofficeofrobertward.com, the type of device and/or internet browser you have, the frequency of your visits to our site, and other relevant statistics (collectively “Traffic Data”).

We collect information (including personal information and Traffic Data) when you use and interact with us, and in some cases from third party sources. Such means of collection may include:

  • When you access, use, or contact us through our website or from our personnel.
  • When you voluntarily provide information to us.
  • If you use a location-enabled browser, we may receive information about your location and device.
  • Through cookies, web beacons, analytics services, and other tracking technologies (collectively, “Tracking Tools”).

C. Tracking Tools

1. Cookies
 “Cookies” are small computer files transferred to your device or to your browser that contain information such as user ID, user preferences, lists of pages visited and activities conducted while using lawofficeofrobertward.com. We use cookies to: (I) improve the services we provide on our website, (ii) to support and improve the experience of our website visitors, (iii) measure performance, and for (iv) analytics and fraud prevention.

For more information on cookies, including how to control your cookie settings and preferences, visit http://www.allaboutCookies.org. You can also manage cookies in your web browser (for example, Edge, Explorer, Chrome, Safari). If you choose to change cookie settings, you may find that certain functions or features of our website may not work as intended.

2. Web Beacons
 “Web Beacons” (a.k.a. clear GIFs or pixel tags) are tiny graphic image files embedded in a web page or email that may be used to collect information about the use of our website. The information collected by web beacons allows us to analyze how many people are using lawofficeofrobertward.com, what pages or services they are using, and for what purpose.

3. Web Service Analytics
 We may use third-party analytics services in connection with our website, including, for example, to register mouse clicks, mouse movements, scrolling activity and text typed into lawofficeofrobertward.com. We may use the information collected from these services to help make our website easier to use and as otherwise set forth in Section VII “How We Use Your Information.” These analytics services generally do not collect personal information unless you voluntarily provide it.

4. Mobile Device Identifiers
 As with other Tracking Tools, mobile device identifiers help The Law Office of Robert S. Ward learn more about our visitors’ demographics and Internet behaviors in order to personalize and improve the services we provide on our website. Mobile device identifiers are stored on mobile devices that may track activities occurring on and through it, as well as the applications installed on it. Mobile device identifiers enable collection of personal information (such as media access control, IP address, and relative location) and Traffic Data.

D. Behavioral Advertising

We do not track your online activity across other website or engage in cross-context behavioral advertising.

E. Opting Out of Cookies and Mobile Device Identifiers

If we process cookies based on your consent (as indicated at the time of collection of such data), you have the right to withdraw your consent at any point in time by contacting us at robert@lawofficeofrobertward.com. Please note, if you exercise this right, you may have to provide your consent on a case-by-case basis to enable you to utilize some or all of the functions of our website.

You may be able to reject cookies and/or mobile device identifiers by activating the appropriate setting on your browser or device. Although you are not required to accept firm cookies or mobile device identifiers, if you choose to block or reject them, you may not have access to all features available within lawofficeofrobertward.com.

Our Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies and other Tracking Tools by any third parties, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third party. Please be aware that some third-party cookies could continue to track your activities online even after you have left lawofficeofrobertward.com

F. “Do Not Track” (DNT) and Universal Opt-Out Preference Signals

Some web browsers (including Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome) incorporate a “Do Not Track” (DNT) or similar feature that signals to web services that a visitor does not want to have their online activity and behavior tracked. If a web service operator elects to respond to a particular DNT signal, the web service operator may refrain from collecting certain personal information about the browser’s user. Not all browsers offer a DNT option and there is currently no industry consensus as to what constitutes a DNT signal. For these reasons, many web service operators, including Snell & Wilmer, do not proactively respond to DNT signals. For more information about DNT signals, visit https://allaboutdnt.com.

New standards are being developed for a Universal Opt-Out Mechanism, such as the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”), which allow users with GPC-enabled browsers and devices to send a signal that will communicate the user’s request to opt-out of sales of their personal information and to opt-out of certain sharing of their personal information. The CPRA and other laws allow for the acceptance of Opt-Out Preference Signals such as the GPC, as an option for individuals to transmit an Opt-Out of selling/sharing personal information. If we detect and recognize such a signal from your device or browser, we will honor it.


How we use your information

We do not engage in automated decision making. We may use information (including information that has been de-identified and/or aggregated) to understand who uses our website and how we can deliver a better user experience. We use information, including personal information, to provide the legal and other services, improve or develop new services, and to advertise our services. Specifically, such use may include:

  • Providing you with the products, services, and information you request.
  • Administration of an employment relationship or services contract with you.
  • Corresponding with you.
  • Providing, maintaining, administering, or expanding our services, performing business analyses, and for other internal purposes.
  • Improving the performance of lawofficeofrobertward.com through the use of analytics and website traffic information.
  • Combining information received from third parties with information that we have from or about you and using the combined information for any of the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
  • Fulfilling our legal obligations, such as preventing, detecting, and investigating security incidents, fraud, and potentially illegal or prohibited activities.
  • Fulfilling our ethical and professional obligations.
  • Fulfilling your privacy requests and other inquiries.
  • Marketing, educational or advertising purposes.
  • Enforcing our Privacy Policy and other agreements.


How we may share your information 

In certain circumstances, and in order to provide you with The Law Office of Robert S. Ward services, we may share certain information about you.

  • We may disclose your personal information to legal authorities as a result of legal requests such as subpoenas, court orders or law enforcement demands) if we believe in good faith that the law requires it, or if we believe that it is necessary to protect our legal interests. We may also report personal information as may be required by law in the event of a suspected or actual violation of applicable laws or regulations. This includes, but is not limited to: regulators, tax authorities, governmental agencies or judicial and quasi-judicial bodies.
  • We may share your personal information and/or Traffic Data with our partners who perform operational services for us (such as website hosting, information security and web service analytics) or to analyze device activities (such as how often pages on our site are accessed) to improve the services we offer. These partners are required to process your personal information as we have described within our contract with them (or as otherwise described in writing to them) and in compliance with applicable law.
  • We also may need to disclose your personal information or any other information we collect about you if we determine in good faith that such disclosure is needed to: (1) comply with or fulfill our obligations under applicable law or professional regulations; (2) protect the rights, property or safety of you, a client, or another party; (3) enforce this Privacy Policy or other agreements with you; or (4) respond to claims that any posting or other content violates third-party rights.


We store the Personal Information which we collect on encrypted servers and computers located in the United States where data protection and privacy regulations may differ from those in other parts of the world or where you reside.


If you have provided us personal information via our website, we will retain it while we have an ongoing business relationship with you.


For your convenience, our website may contain links to other website whose information and privacy practices are probably different than ours. If you choose to use these links, you will leave our website, and will then be subject to the privacy and information practices of those website. We do not control and are not responsible for any of their content or their privacy policies, if any. We do not endorse or make any representations about them, or any information, software or other products or materials found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you choose to access any of the other website listed on our website, you should understand that you do so at your own risk.

Any personal information you choose to share on our social media account pages will be visible to persons visiting those internet-based services. Please be aware that the privacy of any personal information you share on those services is governed by the privacy policies of those social media services and not by the The Law Office of Robert S. Ward Privacy Policy or any other The Law Office of Robert S. Ward Privacy Notices.

We reserve the right to remove comments or postings from any of our social media accounts which we find to be offensive or illegal, unrelated to the intended subject matter or promoting the services or products of other businesses or entities.


Our website is not targeted to children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from any child visiting our website. If we become aware that such data has been collected, we will delete it.

Personal information from children under the age of 16 is generally obtained through parental consent. We will not knowingly collect personal information from a child without the parent contacting us and providing consent in a verifiable form. Additionally, a child’s parent or guardian may also request that the personal information of their child be deleted from our records by emailing us at robert@lawofficeofrobertward.com completing the form here or calling us at (276) 403-0259. Information that you provide to us on behalf of a minor child will be treated as personal information. By providing personal information on behalf of another person, regardless of age, you represent and warrant that you have authority to do so and agree to go through the verification process in the case of providing personal information of a child.

For individuals under the age of 18 or parents or guardians of individuals living in Mexico, please see the Child Consent section of our Privacy Notice for Mexican Data Subjects appended to this Policy.


If you are a resident of another state with similar privacy rights to Virginia, such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Oregon, Texas or Florida, we will honor the privacy rights in the same manner as for Virginia residents.


We will make every effort to review this Policy no less than once a year and update it whenever we have substantive changes. If such changes are made, we will update the Policy effective date. Any amended Privacy Policy supersedes all previous versions. In the event of a conflict between a translated version of our Privacy Policy and the English version, the English version will control.


If you have any questions, comments or wish to exercise your rights as described in this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

robert@lawofficeofrobertward.com;
 Submit the following form: “Your Privacy Rights”
 Or call us at (276) 403-0259.