Terms of Use

CPLEA and the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta are operating names of the Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd. Any reference to CPLEA or the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta should be read as referring to the Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd.

By using any CPLEA resource, including our websites, videos, print publications, and online courses (collectively, CPLEA’s “services and resources”) you agree that you read, understand, and accept these Terms of Use of the Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd. (operating as the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (“CPLEA”)).

When we speak of “we,” “us,” and “our,” we mean CPLEA.

We reserve the right to change the Terms of Use at any time. When we make changes, we will revise the date of our Terms of Use. We encourage you to review our Terms of Use whenever you access our services and resources.

1. Disclaimer

Our services and resources are for general information purposes only and are not meant as legal or other professional advice. We do not provide legal advice or represent people in court. If you are looking for legal advice or assistance, please refer to our Get legal help in Alberta page for a list of legal clinics and services in Alberta.

The information in our services and resources were correct at the time of posting. Be aware that the law or process may have changed, which makes the information outdated at the time you are accessing it. Using our services and resources is at your own risk. We do not guarantee that viruses or other harmful items do not exist on our services and resources or on the server(s) that make them available.

2. Limiting our responsibility

CPLEA, its employees and directors will not be responsible for any losses, expenses, costs, claims or damages of any kind arising from:

• relying on information on CPLEA services and resources, or
• taking or not taking action because of the information on CPLEA services and resources.

3. Copyright and using our content

All materials on our services and resources (the “material”) are copyright of CPLEA or are freely available in the public domain. The material includes (but is not limited to):

• underlying HTML
• text
• illustrations
• designs
• icons
• audio clips
• video clips
• documents
• products
• software, and
• all other content.

We provide the material for public education purposes only. Commercial use of material from our services and resources, either wholly or partly, is prohibited.

The material does not include articles posted to LawNow.org that are attributed to anyone not employed by CPLEA.

4. Third party websites

Any links to third party websites are for convenience only. These sites are not under our authority. We do not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of information contained in linked websites.

Information on our services and resources may have come from outside sources. We are not responsible for the accuracy and reliability of outside material. Any opinions and views expressed are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect our opinion.

5. Privacy

5.1 Privacy statement

We are committed to providing users with services and resources that respect their privacy. The security and integrity of our users' personal information is important to us. Personal information means information about an identifiable individual (such as name, phone number or e-mail address). We collect, use, and disclose personal information according to Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). More specifically:

• Any personal information we collect remains confidential. We do not share your personal information with others except according to the law.
• We do not collect, use or disclose your personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with your consent or as required by law. We keep personal information only as long as necessary to meet those purposes.
• We do not collect personal information for commercial marketing or distribution to any private organizations.
• If you so request, we will inform you about the existence, use and disclosure of your personal information and will give you access to your information.
• We regularly review, and if necessary, revise our privacy practices.

5.2 Activities where CPLEA collects your personal information

You may engage with CPLEA in an activity where we will collect your personal information (such as your name, address, phone number and/or e-mail). Our purpose for collecting your personal information for activities are outlined below:

Activity	Purpose for collecting personal information
Contacting us through e-mail or website forms	To respond to requests for information and resources.
Making a publication order via our CPLEA store	To fulfill and deliver orders.
Registering for access to secure content	To create an account for you to access the content.
Signing up for our newsletters or mailing lists	To make sure our contacts are current and to send you updated information about our organization and/or resources.
Registering for our workshops or online courses	To administer the workshop or course. We may also use any information we collect for internal program evaluation and/or research purposes.
Submitting an article for LawNow	To vet potential contributors to LawNow and to attribute your article to you.

5.3 Data collection via CPLEA websites

Our websites do not collect personal information, but they do collect general computer or device information. Our server logs http requests (also known as "cookies"). This captures computer or device information, navigation, and click-stream data such as the originating IP address of the computer or device. We do this only for statistical purposes.

We also use aggregate data in website administration, planning, and security. We use the data to ensure that our websites are robust enough to handle traffic and to understand which of our resource pathways are most used.

We use Google Analytics to gather general website statistics. This information helps us learn about the number of website users, website traffic patterns, and the types technology our users use in accessing websites. We do not track or record information about specific individuals and their visits. We use this gathered information to improve our websites. Information collected and processed through Google Analytics follows Google’s privacy policy and terms of service. You can also choose to opt out of Google Analytics.

5.4 Social media

We post on and engage with users on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. These platforms use behavioral advertising to target our posts to potential users. These platforms collect their own data about you. Check with each platform to opt out of behavioural advertising.

By connecting with us through our social media accounts or posting public comments about us or in response to our social media content, you are providing your consent for us to:

• use any comments or content you submit, and
• make the comments or content available through such sites for promotional purposes without further notice or compensation to you.

5.5 Security

Our sites use industry-standard security measures to protect data against loss, misuse, and interception by third parties. We periodically review and enhance security policies as necessary. But we assume no liability for interception, alteration or misuse of information transmitted over the Internet or e-mail.

Whenever you disclose personal information online, there is a risk that your information may be intercepted, collected, and used. We are not responsible for intercepted information. You transmit information to anyone at your own risk.

We may review links on our websites to third party websites and update the links as necessary. But we cannot guarantee the privacy and security of third-party websites.

5.6 More information about privacy

For questions or comments about our privacy practices, contact our Privacy Officer at info@cplea.ca.

6. Terms for LawNow contributors

LawNow is our legal blog for non-lawyers and is available at www.lawnow.org. If you submit an article to LawNow for publication, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

6.1 Grant of non-exclusive irrevocable worldwide license

You give CPLEA a non-exclusive irrevocable worldwide license:

• for the duration of the copyright period of the article
• to reproduce and publish the article in all languages in whole or in part in LawNow
• to reproduce and publish the article in any format and through any medium which we may determine, in our absolute discretion, including without limitation in print or by analog or digital means whether used in a static or interactive manner, and
• o reproduce and publish the article using any method now known or eveloped in the future to publish, distribute, transmit or communicate to the public or to such persons as we, in our absolute discretion, may determine.

6.2 Contributor warranty

You warrant that the article is your own original work, does not infringe on the copyright of another, and is not libelous or defamatory.

6.3 Intellectual property rights

You retain the copyright in the article and may use and distribute the article as you see fit. You agree to waive your moral rights in the article.

6.4 No compensation

CPLEA does not pay contributors for articles. You have prepared the article without the expectation of any compensation, now or in the future.

6.5 CPLEA’s rights

CPLEA may:

• edit and modify your article, in our absolute discretion
• label any article as an Opinion piece, in our absolute discretion
• choose to not publish or unpublish any article, in our absolute discretion and for whatever reason
• enter into agreements with third parties who may index, reference or link to LawNow on their sites

6.6 Contact the editor

If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Editor of LawNow at editor@cplea.ca.

7. Governing law

The laws that apply in the Province of Alberta govern use of our services and resources.