Important New Client Identification and Verification Rules

The Rules of the Law Society of British Columbia on client identification and verification, effective December 31, 2008, require lawyers to obtain satisfactory evidence of their clients' identity. Boughton Law Corporation has established applicable compliance procedures in this regard.

To enable us to comply with the Rules we must ask you for the following information/documents as evidence of identity:

IDENTIFICATION

Individual (person) Client:

• Home address, home phone number, cell phone number
• Business address, business phone/fax number(s)
• Email address
• Occupation

Organization (company/business) Client:

• Incorporation number and jurisdiction of issue
• Business identification number
• Type of business
• Contact information of all individuals authorized to give instructions to Boughton (ie., name, position, business phone / fax number(s), cell phone number, email address)

If your matter involves a financial institution (ie., receiving, paying or transferring money, securities, negotiable instruments or other financial instruments), we may also need to verify further details about your (or your organization's) identity. We may ask for the following documents as verification of identity:

VERIFICATION:

Individual (person) Client:

• Two (2) valid original government issued identification, of which one (1) is photo identification (eg., driver's license, birth certificate, provincial/territorial health insurance card, passport, social insurance number, military card)

Organization (company/business) Client:

• Copy of the organization's Annual Report filed with the Registered Companies; or
• Copy of the Certificate of Incorporation; and
• Name and occupation of all Directors; and
• Name, address and occupation of all persons or companies which own 25% or more of the organization

If your organization is unincorporated or unregistered:

• Copy of the trust/partnership agreement or articles of association, and
• Name and occupation of partners or trustees

Please note that we are also required to collect information about any third parties whose interests you are representing in the matter. We are also required to collect information for each of the people authorized to give instructions on the matter.

We thank you for your cooperation in collecting this information. If you have any questions about how these new rules will affect you, please contact your Boughton Law Corporation lawyer.