Privacy & Security

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:

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, 49 Stevenson St., Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA 94105. 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.

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 or other professional services provider, 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 or other professional services provider, 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.

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 and professional services providers 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, LegalMatch members or potential members 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. If the user chose to release personally identifying information, it will only be released to LegalMatch members and staff.
When an attorney responds to a posted matter, the response, the name and the contact information of the responding attorney is seen only by 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