Knowledge Base Editorial Standards and Comments Policy

Purpose

Our Knowledge Base offers free, plain-language guides to help people in Ontario understand their legal issues. This policy explains the standards we write them to, how to tell us about a mistake, and the rules for comments.

What our guides are

• General information, not legal advice. A guide explains the law in general terms and can't take account of your situation. Reading a guide, commenting on it or writing to us about it doesn't make us your representative. See our Legal Disclaimer and Engagement and Non-Engagement Policy.
• About Ontario. Our guides are about the law that applies in Ontario, unless they say otherwise.
• Dated. Each guide shows the date it was first published. Laws, rules, forms and fees can change after that, so check the current rule, or speak to a licensed legal professional, before you act.

Our standards

When we write or update a guide, we aim to:

1. Be accurate. We base each guide on the laws, rules and official guidance it describes. We point to official sources so you can check them, such as Ontario's e-Laws, the federal Justice Laws Website and court and tribunal websites.
2. Be clear. We use plain language and short sentences, and explain legal terms.
3. Be balanced. We explain options and risks honestly, without promising results or suggesting that past results predict future ones, as our Marketing and Advertising Policy requires.
4. Say when you need a lawyer. If a topic is outside what a paralegal may do, the guide says so.
5. Protect confidentiality. Examples are general or made up. We never describe a real client's matter in a way that could identify them without their written consent.
6. Keep guides current. When the law changes, we update the guides it affects as soon as we reasonably can.

We may use software, including AI tools, to help research and draft a guide, under our Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence Policy. NEO is responsible for every guide we publish.

Reporting a mistake

If you think something in a guide is wrong, unclear or out of date, email info@neolegalservices.com with the page address, what you think should change and, if you have one, a source. We review every report and correct the guide where it needs it. Please don't include confidential details of your own case.

If you are worried about a deadline or a decision in your own matter, don't wait for a guide to be corrected. Contact us, or another licensed legal professional.

Comments on our guides

Anyone can read the comments on a guide. To comment, or to like a guide or a comment, you sign in with an account that has a completed profile and a profile photo.

• Comments are public. Your name and profile photo are shown beside your comment. Never post confidential details of a case, whether yours or anyone else's.
• Plain text, one level of replies. Comments are plain text, up to 2,000 characters, and replies go one level deep. We limit how many comments one person can post in an hour.
• Views are the commenter's own. A comment is the view of the person who posted it, not NEO's, and we can't check every comment for accuracy.
• No legal advice in comments. Our replies give general information only. We can't advise anyone on their own situation in a public comment, so we may invite them to book a free consultation instead.
• Your own comments. You can delete a comment you posted at any time.

Comments we remove

Comments appear as soon as they are posted, and we review them. We may hide or delete a comment, or stop an account from commenting, if it:

• shares private or confidential details about a case or a person;
• is abusive, threatening, harassing or discriminatory;
• is spam or advertising, or has nothing to do with the guide;
• infringes someone else's rights, or is unlawful or defamatory;
• pretends to be someone else, or to come from NEO.

We don't remove a comment just because it disagrees with us or criticizes us. To report a comment, email us with the page address and the comment.

Emails about new guides

If you subscribe, we email you about new guides. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and our Anti-Spam Policy applies.

Sharing our guides

How you may link to, quote and share our guides is explained in our Website Content, Intellectual Property and Automated Access Policy.

Review

This policy is reviewed at least once a year, and whenever the Law Society's By-Laws or rules change. The principal approves every change. We also review it whenever the way our Knowledge Base works changes.

Questions

Email info@neolegalservices.com, call 647-200-3526 or toll-free 888-519-2435, or write to us at Unit 236, 1099 Kingston Road, Pickering, Ontario L1V 1B5.