Privacy Policy

Rivers Law Firm PLLC ("we," "us," or "our") is a professional limited liability company organized under State of North Carolina law. We practice law in North Carolina only. Ersula Rivers is the attorney responsible for the content of this website. Ms. Rivers is licensed to practice law in both the State of North Carolina and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and share personal information when you visit our website (riverslaw.org) or submit information through our digital contact, inquiry, and scheduling forms. Our website, client relationship management, and analytics functions are operated using third-party platform providers. A current list of those providers is available upon request.

1. Personal information we collect

When you visit our website, our platform providers automatically collect technical information about your visit, which may include your IP address, browser type, device type, referring page, pages viewed, and the date and time of your visit. This information is collected through cookies and similar technologies.

When you submit a contact form, request a resource, or schedule a consultation, we collect the information you provide, which typically includes your name, email address, phone number, and any descriptive text details you provide.

When you schedule or pay for a service, our scheduling and payment providers collect appointment details and payment information. We do not receive or store your full payment card number or financial account details.

Please do not submit Social Security numbers, account numbers, medical or diagnostic information, or other sensitive details through our website forms. Refer to Section 4 of this Privacy Policy before you send us anything about your situation.

2. How we use your personal information
We use the information we collect to:

• Respond to your inquiries, resource requests, scheduled consultations, and to evaluate whether we are able to assist you.

• Perform conflict of interest checks before accepting any matter.

• Protect our website and forms against spam, fraud, and misuse.

• Send you newsletters, educational materials, or updates about our services, but only where you have given us express consent. You may withdraw that consent at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us at the address in Section 6.

• Comply with our legal, regulatory, and professional obligations, including the record keeping requirements applicable to North Carolina attorneys.

If you provide your mobile number and separately consent to text messaging, we may send you appointment reminders and firm communications by SMS. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out. Your consent to text messaging is not a condition of receiving legal services, and we do not share mobile opt-in data with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

3. Sharing and disclosing your information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising purposes. We share information with service providers who perform functions on our behalf, including website hosting, client relationship management, scheduling, email delivery, and website analytics. These providers are permitted to use your information only to provide services to us.

We use website analytics to understand how visitors find and navigate our site. Analytics providers may set cookies and collect usage data as described in Section 1.

We may also disclose information where necessary to comply with applicable law, to respond to lawful subpoenas, court orders, or government requests, or to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights. Any such disclosure is subject to our professional obligations of confidentiality.

We do not transfer your information outside the United States except as necessary for our service providers to operate their platforms.

4. Forming an attorney-client relationship

Submitting information through this website does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Rivers Law Firm PLLC or Ersula Rivers. An attorney-client relationship is formed only when you and Rivers Law Firm PLLC have signed a written engagement agreement. Because no relationship exists at the initial inquiry stage, please share only enough information for us to determine whether we may be able to help, e.g. name, how to reach you, and the general nature of your situation. Do not send documents, detailed facts, or sensitive information until we have confirmed in writing that we are able to speak with you further.

We handle inquiry information consistently with our professional obligation as North Carolina attorneys. However, submitting information to us does not necessarily prevent us from representing another person in the same or a related matter.

Communications sent through this website are transmitted over the internet and through third-party platforms and are not a secure channel for confidential information.

5. Your rights and our retention obligations

Depending on your legal jurisdiction, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, request erasure of your personal information, or ask that your information be corrected or updated. As of the Latest Revision Date, the State of North Carolina does not have a comprehensive consumer data privacy statute. We will honor requests from any website visitor to:

• upon identity verification, access the personal information we hold.

• Correct information that is inaccurate or out of date.

• Delete information we are not required to retain. We cannot delete information we are required to keep. This includes records needed to perform conflicts of interest checks, client and matter files retained under our professional obligations as North Carolina attorneys, and records we must retain to comply with tax, accounting, or other legal requirements. Where we cannot delete information, we will inform you about the data and the reason. for retention

We retain inquiry information from people who do not become clients for 24 months and then delete it, except for the minimum record needed to run future conflict checks. Client files are retained under our separate file retention policy.

To request information about your data rights, email us at [email protected]. Please do not submit a rights request through the website contact form.

6. Data security and breach notification

We use commercially reasonable measures to protect the information we collect, including access controls on our systems and contractual protections with our service providers. No method of transmitting or storing information is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

If a security breach affecting your personal information occurs, we will notify you and the North Carolina Department of Justice as required by North Carolina's Identity Theft Protection Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 75-65.

7. Children's information

Our website is directed to adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Contact us if you believe a child has submitted personal information.

8. Changes and contact

We may update this Privacy Policy without notice. When we do, we will revise the "Latest Revision Date" in the heading. Material changes will be posted prominently on our website.