Ontario Small Claims Court is an independent educational resource — it is not affiliated with the Ontario government or the Ontario Court of Justice. This policy describes how we handle personal information collected through this website, and works alongside our Terms of Use, which govern your use of the site more broadly.
Who we are
References to "we," "us," or "this site" mean the operator of Ontario Small Claims Court. If you have questions about this policy or how your information is handled, see Contact us below.
Information we collect
We collect information in a few limited ways: when you voluntarily submit the consultation request form, when you sign up for our newsletter, and through standard technical information collected by any hosted website (such as basic server request logs). We don't require an account to browse this site, and most pages can be read without submitting any personal information at all.
The consultation request form
If you submit the "Talk to an Ontario Small Claims Lawyer" form found on most pages, we collect your name, phone number, email address, and anything you choose to write in the optional message field. This information is used to connect you with an independent lawyer or paralegal in our referral network who may contact you about a free consultation. Submitting this form does not create a lawyer-client relationship with us — we are not a law firm, and we don't provide legal advice ourselves. This referral service may involve compensation paid to us by participating legal professionals; it does not change the fact that any consultation itself is offered directly by the lawyer or paralegal you're connected with, on their own terms.
The newsletter signup
If you sign up for site updates, we collect the email address you provide and use it only to send you occasional updates from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link included in those emails, or by contacting us directly.
The embedded calculators and wizards
The interactive calculators and wizards throughout this site (in the Calculators and Legal Wizards sections) are embedded from Lexscale.ai and run inside an embedded frame on the page. Information you enter into one of these tools is submitted directly to Lexscale.ai, not to us, and is subject to Lexscale.ai's own privacy practices rather than this policy. We encourage you to review Lexscale.ai's own privacy information if you have questions about how they handle what you enter into a specific tool.
Cookies and analytics
This site does not currently use cookies or third-party analytics or advertising trackers of its own. Our search feature runs entirely in your browser and does not transmit your search terms anywhere. Standard hosting-level logs (such as IP address and browser type) may be generated automatically by our hosting provider as part of normal web traffic handling, as is the case for virtually any website. If this changes in the future — for example, if we add analytics to understand how the site is used — we'll update this policy accordingly.
How we use information
We use the information described above only for the specific purpose it was collected for: responding to and facilitating a consultation request, sending newsletter updates you signed up for, and maintaining and securing the site itself. We don't sell personal information.
When we share information
We share consultation request information with participating lawyers or paralegals in our referral network, as described above. Forms on this site (including the consultation request and newsletter signup forms) are processed by FormSubmit, a third-party form delivery service, which receives what you submit in order to email it to us — see FormSubmit's own privacy policy for how they handle that data. We may also share information where required by law, to protect our legal rights, or with service providers who help us operate the site (such as our web hosting provider and form processor), under obligations to keep it confidential.
Retention and security
We retain information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose it was collected, and we take reasonable steps to protect it against unauthorized access. No method of transmission or storage over the internet is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.
Your choices and rights
You can choose not to submit the consultation request or newsletter forms — doing so has no effect on your ability to read the rest of the site. If you'd like to access, correct, or request deletion of personal information you've previously submitted to us, contact us using the details below and we'll respond to reasonable requests.
Children's privacy
This site is intended for adults dealing with civil legal disputes and is not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example to reflect a change in how the site operates. The date at the top of this page reflects the most recent update — check back periodically if you have ongoing concerns about how your information is handled.
Contact us
If you have questions about this policy or how your information is handled, use the Contact form.