Last updated: September 1, 2026

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Website Terms and Conditions govern your access to and use of the DCL Law website, including its pages, articles, forms, downloadable materials and other online features. In these Terms, the website and its related online features are referred to collectively as the “Website.”

By accessing or using the Website, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to these Terms. If you do not agree with these Terms, you should not use the Website.

In these Terms, “DCL Law,” “DCL,” “we,” “our” and “us” refer to DCL Law.

These Terms apply only to the Website. They do not govern professional legal services provided by DCL Law. Legal services are governed by the applicable retainer agreement, professional obligations and applicable law.

2. General Legal Information Only

The information provided on the Website is for general informational purposes only.

Website content does not constitute:

• Legal advice.
• A legal opinion.
• A recommendation about a particular legal matter.
• An assessment of your legal rights, obligations or available remedies.
• A substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer who understands your particular circumstances.

You should not act, refrain from acting or make a legal, financial, business, family, estate, property or other decision based solely on information found on the Website.

Every legal matter is different. The application of the law depends on the specific facts, documents, dates, location and circumstances involved.

3. Laws May Change

Legal information can become outdated as legislation, regulations, court decisions, government policies and professional requirements change.

Although DCL Law may update Website content from time to time, we do not guarantee that all information is current, complete or applicable to your circumstances.

Unless otherwise stated, Website content is intended primarily to provide general information concerning the laws of Nova Scotia and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Nova Scotia. It may not apply in another province, territory or country.

The date on which an article or other material was published should be considered when reviewing it.

4. No Lawyer Client Relationship

Accessing the Website, reading an article, submitting a contact form, sending an email, leaving a telephone message or otherwise communicating with DCL Law does not, by itself, create a lawyer client relationship.

An automated response, acknowledgment of your message, preliminary discussion or request for additional information does not mean that DCL Law has agreed to act for you.

DCL Law intends to establish a lawyer client relationship only after:

• DCL Law has reviewed the proposed matter.
• Required conflict checks have been completed.
• Applicable client identification and verification requirements have been satisfied.
• DCL Law has expressly agreed to accept the matter.
• The scope and terms of the engagement have been confirmed, ordinarily through a written retainer agreement.

Nothing in these Terms overrides any circumstance in which applicable law or professional rules determine that a lawyer client relationship or professional obligation has otherwise arisen.

5. Retainer Agreements and Legal Services

Descriptions of DCL Law’s practice areas, lawyers and legal services do not constitute an offer or commitment to provide legal services.

DCL Law may accept or decline a proposed matter in its discretion, subject to applicable professional obligations.

When DCL Law agrees to provide legal services, those services will be governed by a separate retainer agreement or other engagement terms. The retainer agreement may address matters including:

• The identity of the client.
• The scope of the legal services.
• Fees, taxes and disbursements.
• Client responsibilities.
• Electronic communications.
• File storage and retention.
• Termination of the engagement.
• Other terms specific to the matter.

If there is a conflict between these Website Terms and a retainer agreement concerning professional legal services, the retainer agreement will govern to the extent of the conflict. Applicable law and DCL Law’s professional obligations will always take priority.

6. Confidential and Sensitive Information

Do not send confidential, privileged, highly sensitive or time sensitive information through the general contact form or by unsolicited email.

Before sending detailed information about a proposed legal matter, you should first contact DCL Law and confirm that the firm is prepared to receive it.

Sending information to DCL Law does not automatically make the information subject to solicitor client privilege and does not establish that DCL Law represents you.

DCL Law will handle information it receives in accordance with applicable privacy laws, confidentiality obligations and professional responsibilities. Nothing in these Terms reduces any professional obligation that DCL Law may have concerning information it receives.

However, you should not assume that an unsolicited communication is secure, privileged or sufficient to prevent DCL Law from representing another person. Any such determination is subject to applicable law and professional rules.

7. Conflict Checks

Before DCL Law can agree to act, it may need basic information about you, the other parties and the nature of the matter in order to conduct a conflict check.

You should initially provide only the information reasonably necessary to identify:

• Yourself.
• The other parties involved.
• The general nature of the matter.
• Any immediate dates or deadlines.

Do not provide a detailed history, legal strategy, confidential documents or sensitive evidence until DCL Law confirms that it is appropriate to do so.

Submitting information through the Website does not automatically disqualify DCL Law from representing another person whose interests may differ from yours, subject always to DCL Law’s professional obligations and applicable law.

8. Deadlines and Urgent Matters

The Website and general contact form are not intended for urgent or emergency communications.

DCL Law does not guarantee that a contact form, email or telephone message will be reviewed or answered within any particular period.

You remain responsible for protecting your rights and meeting all applicable deadlines unless and until DCL Law expressly confirms that it has accepted responsibility for the matter.

This includes:

• Limitation periods.
• Court and tribunal deadlines.
• Filing and registration deadlines.
• Real estate closing dates.
• Contractual notice periods.
• Appeal periods.
• Response dates.
• Government or regulatory deadlines.
• Any other date that could affect your rights or obligations.

If your matter is urgent, contact the DCL Law office directly by telephone and clearly explain that the matter is time sensitive. Contacting the office does not itself mean that DCL Law has accepted the matter.

9. No Service of Documents

DCL Law does not accept service of court documents, legal process, formal notices, demands, undertakings, trust conditions or other legally significant documents through the Website, general contact form or general email address unless DCL Law has expressly agreed in writing to accept them through that method.

An automated delivery confirmation or acknowledgment does not constitute acceptance of service.

10. No Guarantee of Results

Nothing on the Website guarantees or predicts the result of any legal matter.

Any discussion of legal outcomes, transactions, court decisions, settlements, examples or hypothetical situations is provided only for general information.

Past results do not guarantee future results. Legal outcomes depend on the particular facts, evidence, parties, documents, applicable law and decisions of courts, tribunals, government authorities and other participants.

References to awards, rankings, testimonials, memberships or third party recognition do not guarantee a particular outcome or level of service in any individual matter. Awards and rankings reflect the criteria and assessment process used by the organization that issued them.

11. Accuracy and Availability

DCL Law makes reasonable efforts to provide useful and accurate information. However, we do not guarantee that Website content will always be:

• Accurate.
• Complete.
• Current.
• Free from typographical or technical errors.
• Appropriate for a particular purpose.
• Continuously available.
• Compatible with every browser, device or operating system.

DCL Law may correct, update, modify, remove or reorganize Website content at any time and without notice.

Information about lawyers, staff members, practice areas, services and availability may change. The presence of a lawyer or service on the Website does not guarantee that the lawyer or service is available for a particular matter.

12. Permitted Use of the Website

You may use the Website only for lawful informational purposes.

You must not:

• Use the Website in violation of any law or the rights of another person.
• Attempt to obtain unauthorized access to the Website, its hosting environment, accounts, databases, servers or connected systems.
• Interfere with the operation, availability, security or performance of the Website.
• Introduce malware, ransomware, viruses, harmful code or other destructive technologies.
• Circumvent security measures, access restrictions or rate limits.
• Impersonate another person or provide false or misleading information.
• Use the Website to transmit unlawful, threatening, defamatory, discriminatory, fraudulent, infringing or harmful material.
• Use automated systems to scrape, extract, copy or compile Website content, except for ordinary public search engine indexing performed in accordance with applicable instructions.
• Use Website content to create a competing publication, content database or legal information service without written permission.
• Use substantial Website content to train, test or improve an artificial intelligence or machine learning system without DCL Law’s written permission.
• Suggest that DCL Law endorses you, your organization, your products or your services without written authorization.
• Frame or reproduce the Website in a manner that obscures its source or misrepresents its content.

DCL Law may restrict or terminate access to the Website where we reasonably believe these Terms have been violated.

13. Links to the Website

You may provide an ordinary link to a publicly available page of the Website, provided that the link:

• Is lawful.
• Is accurate and not misleading.
• Does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by DCL Law.
• Does not damage or take unfair advantage of DCL Law’s reputation.
• Does not frame the Website or alter its appearance.

DCL Law may withdraw permission to link to the Website where the link is misleading, unlawful or otherwise inappropriate.

14. Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise stated, the Website and its content are owned by or licensed to DCL Law and are protected by applicable copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws.

Protected content may include:

• Articles and written materials.
• Legal information and explanations.
• Photographs and graphics.
• Logos and branding.
• Page designs and layouts.
• Videos and audio.
• Forms and downloadable documents.
• Databases and compilations.
• Website software and code.

DCL Law grants you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive and nontransferable right to access and view the Website for lawful informational purposes.

You may print or save a reasonable amount of Website content for your own personal and noncommercial reference, provided that you do not modify the content or remove copyright, attribution or proprietary notices.

Except as permitted by applicable law or with DCL Law’s prior written consent, you may not reproduce, republish, distribute, sell, license, modify, translate, commercially exploit or create derivative works from Website content.

Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of any intellectual property to you.

“DCL Law,” the DCL Law logo and associated branding may be trademarks or business identifiers of DCL Law. They may not be used in a manner that suggests endorsement, affiliation or authorization without prior written consent.

15. Information You Submit

When you submit information through the Website, you represent that:

• The information is accurate to the best of your knowledge.
• You have the authority to provide it.
• Your submission does not violate the rights of another person.
• Your submission does not contain unlawful, malicious or harmful material.

You retain any ownership rights you have in materials you submit.

You authorize DCL Law to use, review, copy, store and disclose submitted information to the limited extent reasonably necessary to:

• Review and respond to your inquiry.
• Conduct conflict checks.
• Determine whether DCL Law can accept the proposed matter.
• Administer and secure the Website.
• Comply with legal and professional obligations.
• Protect DCL Law’s legal rights.

Personal information will be handled in accordance with DCL Law’s Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Do not submit personal information about another individual unless you are authorized to provide it or the disclosure is otherwise permitted by law.

16. Third Party Websites and Services

The Website may contain links to or integrations with third party websites and services.

These may include:

• Mapping and location services.
• Spam and abuse prevention services.
• Social media platforms.
• Professional directories.
• Award and ranking organizations.
• Government websites.
• Courts, tribunals and registries.
• Legal and community resources.

DCL Law does not control third party websites or services and is not responsible for their content, availability, security, accessibility, accuracy or privacy practices.

A link does not necessarily mean that DCL Law endorses the third party, its information, its services or its views.

Your use of a third party website or service is governed by that provider’s own terms and privacy policies.

17. Privacy and Cookies

DCL Law’s collection, use, disclosure, storage and protection of personal information are described in our Privacy Policy.

The Website may use cookies and similar technologies for website operation, security, visitor preferences, performance measurement and other purposes described in the Privacy Policy.

Where required, available cookie choices will be presented through the Website’s cookie preference tool.

If there is an inconsistency between these Terms and the Privacy Policy concerning the handling of personal information, the Privacy Policy will govern.

18. Electronic Communications and Security

Communications over the Internet are not guaranteed to be private, secure, complete or free from error.

Messages may be:

• Delayed.
• Misaddressed.
• Intercepted.
• Altered.
• Blocked by spam or security systems.
• Infected with malicious software.
• Delivered to an unintended recipient.

Although DCL Law uses reasonable security measures, we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted through the Website or by ordinary email.

You are responsible for using appropriate security measures on your device, including current software, security updates, malware protection and secure networks.

When DCL Law accepts a legal matter, arrangements for electronic communications may be addressed in the applicable retainer agreement or through instructions provided by the responsible lawyer.

19. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Website and its content are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, DCL Law disclaims all representations, warranties and conditions relating to the Website, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including representations or warranties concerning:

• Accuracy.
• Completeness.
• Currency.
• Availability.
• Security.
• Reliability.
• Noninfringement.
• Fitness for a particular purpose.
• Compatibility.
• Uninterrupted or error free operation.

DCL Law does not guarantee that the Website will be free from viruses, harmful code, security vulnerabilities or other technical problems.

This section applies only to the Website. It does not replace or modify obligations that DCL Law may have under a retainer agreement, applicable law or professional rules.

20. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, DCL Law and its lawyers, employees, contractors and representatives will not be liable for losses arising from or relating to:

• Access to or use of the Website.
• Inability to access or use the Website.
• Reliance on Website content.
• Outdated, incomplete or inaccurate information.
• A failure to receive or respond to an electronic communication.
• Missed deadlines where DCL Law had not expressly accepted responsibility for the matter.
• Unauthorized access, interception, malware or another security incident beyond DCL Law’s reasonable control.
• Third party websites, services or content.
• Modification, suspension or discontinuation of the Website.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, DCL Law will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary or punitive damages arising from or relating to the Website.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits:

• Liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
• DCL Law’s obligations under an applicable retainer agreement.
• DCL Law’s professional obligations.
• Any rights or remedies that cannot be waived under applicable law.

21. Responsibility for Misuse

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless DCL Law and its lawyers, employees, contractors and representatives from third party claims, liabilities, losses and reasonable costs arising directly from:

• Your unlawful use of the Website.
• Your material breach of these Terms.
• Content you submit without proper authority.
• Your infringement of another person’s rights.

This obligation does not apply to the extent that a claim was caused by DCL Law’s own conduct.

22. Changes to the Website

DCL Law may modify, suspend, restrict or discontinue any part of the Website at any time.

We are not obligated to maintain any particular article, feature, service description, lawyer profile or other Website content.

DCL Law will not be liable merely because Website content or functionality is changed, removed or unavailable.

23. Changes to These Terms

DCL Law may update these Terms to reflect changes in the Website, our practices or applicable requirements.

The revised Terms will be posted on this page with a new “Last updated” date.

Your continued use of the Website after revised Terms are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

Changes to these Website Terms will not modify an existing retainer agreement unless the retainer agreement is separately amended in accordance with its terms.

24. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Nova Scotia and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Nova Scotia, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Subject to any mandatory legal requirements, disputes relating solely to the Website or these Terms will be submitted to the courts of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Nothing in this section alters the law that applies to professional legal services under a retainer agreement.

25. General Provisions

If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, that provision will be limited or removed only to the minimum extent necessary. The remaining provisions will continue in effect.

A failure by DCL Law to enforce a provision does not waive the right to enforce it later.

Section headings are included for convenience and do not affect interpretation.

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the agreement between you and DCL Law concerning use of the Website. They do not constitute a retainer agreement or an agreement for legal services.

26. Contact DCL Law

Questions about these Website Terms and Conditions may be directed to:

DCL Law
110 Garland Avenue, Suite 202
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B3B 0A7
Canada

Telephone: 902 404 3150
Fax: 902 464 0965
Email: info@dcllaw.org