Privacy Policy
How Scharf Law, P.C. collects, uses, and protects your information.
The Short Version
This website collects personal information in exactly one place: the contact form. It sets one optional analytics cookie, and only if you click “Accept” on the cookie banner — if you decline or ignore the banner, no analytics ever load and the site works exactly the same. We do not sell your personal information, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not accept payments through this website.
Information We Collect
Contact form. When you use the contact form on this website, we collect your name, phone number, email address, county, and the message you provide describing your situation. The form submission also records the date and time of your submission. Submissions are delivered to the firm by email; this website does not keep them in a database.
Chat assistant. The chat widget on this site is an automated, pre-scripted assistant that runs entirely in your browser. It does not send your questions anywhere, and no conversation is transmitted or stored by us.
Calling or emailing us. If you call or email the office directly, we receive the information you choose to provide, handled under the firm’s ordinary client-intake practices.
Payments
This website does not accept payments and has no payment forms. No card numbers or banking details are ever entered on, seen by, or stored by this website.
Cookies, by Name
cps_consent — a first-party cookie that remembers your Accept or Decline choice on the cookie banner, so we don’t ask you again. Kept for about 180 days. This is a strictly functional cookie and is set regardless of your choice (it is how we remember the choice itself).
_ga and _ga_0KNV1768HG — Google Analytics cookies used to distinguish visitors and sessions. These are set only if you click Accept. If you later change your mind (see “Changing Your Cookie Choice” below), we expire them.
Google Maps (contact page only). Our contact page embeds a Google map showing the office location. The map is loaded from Google, and Google may set its own cookies inside the map frame under Google’s privacy policy.
Browser storage (not a cookie). The site uses a small session-storage flag so the “before you go” popup appears at most once per visit. It contains no personal information and is erased when you close the tab.
Analytics — Only If You Accept
If (and only if) you click Accept on the cookie banner, we load Google Analytics 4 to see which pages help visitors most. It collects information such as pages visited, browser type, and approximate region; we enable IP anonymization. If you decline or simply ignore the banner, Google Analytics never loads. Analytics data is processed for us by Google LLC.
Changing Your Cookie Choice
Use the “Cookie Preferences” link in the footer of any page to reopen the banner and change your choice at any time. Switching from Accept to Decline stops analytics on your next page view and expires the Google Analytics cookies this site can reach.
Global Privacy Control & Do Not Track
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as an automatic Decline: the cookie banner never appears and analytics never load. The older “Do Not Track” browser setting has no settled industry standard, and we do not respond to it directly — but because analytics on this site are strictly opt-in, nothing is tracked unless you affirmatively accept.
Service Providers
The following providers process limited data to make this website work: Google LLC (Google Analytics, only with your consent; Google Fonts, which serves this site’s typefaces — the font request includes your IP address but sets no cookies; and the Google Maps embed on the contact page), and our website hosting and email providers, which handle site traffic and deliver contact-form submissions to the firm. We do not use advertising networks, tracking pixels, or third-party chat services.
Website Imagery
Some scenic and illustrative images on this site (county landscapes and article thumbnails) were generated with artificial-intelligence tools. Photographs of attorney Taryn M. Scharf are genuine. No image on this site depicts a client.
How We Use Your Information
The information you provide is used solely to respond to your consultation request and to evaluate whether we can assist you. We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. Your information may be shared with staff members of Scharf Law, P.C. who are involved in evaluating and responding to your inquiry.
How Long We Keep It
Contact-form submissions are delivered by email and retained under the firm’s file-retention practices (for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to your inquiry and, if you become a client, as part of your client file under the firm’s professional record-keeping obligations). The consent cookie expires after about 180 days. Analytics retention is configured within Google Analytics and is set to the shortest period Google offers (two months for event-level data; aggregated reports may be retained longer).
Confidentiality Notice
Submitting a contact form does not create an attorney-client relationship. While we treat all inquiries as confidential, attorney-client privilege does not attach until a formal engagement agreement is signed. Please do not include highly sensitive details in your initial contact. We will establish a secure communication channel once a formal relationship is in place.
Data Security
We implement reasonable security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, or disclosure. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Your California Privacy Rights
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect and how it is used, to correct inaccurate personal information, to delete personal information we hold, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at Staff@ScharfLawPC.com or call (916) 782-3900. To protect you, we will verify your identity by matching the details in your request (such as name, email address, and phone number) against the information we hold before acting on it. You may also designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf.
We will never discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights — exercising them will not change the price, quality, or availability of anything we offer.
Children
This website is directed to adults seeking legal representation. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through this website.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.
Effective Date: January 1, 2026
Last Updated: September 9, 2026