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Lawyer Data Breach – How To Claim Compensation
By Marlon Cooke. Last Updated March 2024. This guide will explain if you are eligible to claim compensation after a lawyer data breach.
Lawyer data breach claims guide
When we use the services of a lawyer, they may be privy to all sorts of personal data, such as your name, home and email address, and contact number, as well as a type of personal data known as special category data. Very often, a law firm will be considered a data controller, a party that has control over the means and purpose of data processing. They could choose to outsource the processing to a data processor or conduct it in-house. Both the data controller and processor must comply with data security laws. Failure to do this can make them liable should you suffer harm if your personal data is breached.
If you contact Legal Expert, we can offer free legal advice about making a data breach claim. Moreover, if you have a legitimate reason to claim compensation, we can appoint a knowledgeable data breach solicitor to work on your claim.
So please get in touch with us today to see if you can begin a claim for compensation for a data breach:
- Call our helpline on 0800 073 8804
- Fill out our online claims form
- Or speak with an advisor directly using our Live Chat widget
Select A Section
- What Is A Data Breach By A Lawyer?
- How Could A Lawyer Data Breach Happen?
- Types Of Sensitive Data Lawyers Could Handle
- How Long Do You Have To Claim For A Data Breach By A Lawyer?
- Lawyer Data Breach Claims – What Could You Claim?
- How To Claim For A Lawyer Data Breach
What Is A Data Breach By A Lawyer?
If you hire a lawyer, they will need to process your personal data in order to offer you their service. The UK General Data Protection Regulation UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 DPA requires any personal data to be protected according to their rules.
A security issue can comprise the availability, security and integrity of your personal data leading to a breach. If personal data is accidentally or deliberately ;
- Lost or stolen
- Deleted, altered or encrypted
- Accessed without authority
- Or verbally disclosed
Then a data breach has taken place.
For a data controller to legally process your personal data, they must have a lawful basis for doing so. They must also comply with the 7 principles of the UK GDPR.
To be eligible to claim data breach compensation for a lawyer data breach, it must first be proven that the data breach is the fault of the lawyer/law firm as they failed to comply with data protection legislation. This will have led to your personal data being breached and you suffering harm as a consequence.
Data breach cases can be complex matters. So please feel free to call our claims helpline, and an advisor can let you know if you can begin a claim for a solicitor data breach.
How Could A Lawyer Data Breach Happen?
A lawyer data breach can happen because of human error. A human error data breach may be unintentional, but the incident can still harm the victims of a data breach. Unfortunately, some data breaches are caused by cybercriminals.
We will look at how a personal data breach could happen:
- A law firm employee can verbally disclose a client’s ethnicity without a lawful basis to do so.
- Lawyers email containing personal data is sent to the wrong email address. Consequently, the lawyers would share the data with an unauthorised party.
- Similarly, a lawyer could send a letter about a case to the wrong address.
- A law firm’s cyber security system may be substandard. Therefore leaving the firm vulnerable to a cyber attack.
- A computer is stolen from a law firm. If the device is not password protected, the criminal could access files on the device that contain personal data.
How Common Are Data Breaches In The Legal Sector?
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is an independent public body responsible for governing adherence to data protection legislation. It publishes data security incident trends every financial quarter. From Q2 2019 to Q2 2022, the legal sector reported 2,457 data security incidents. Of these, 1,955 were non-cyber-related, whereas 502 were caused by cyber-attacks.
Types Of Sensitive Data Lawyers Could Handle
A lawyer data breach could potentially expose sensitive data about a client. Lawyers may handle sensitive information about a client. If a lawyer breaches sensitive data, this could cause emotional distress, stress or psychiatric injuries.
Sensitive data is a type of personal data that is categorised as special category data. This type of sensitive data is given added security when being processed by a data controller. Special category data includes the following:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Political information
- Philosophical or religious information
- Trade Union membership
- Biometric or genetic data
Call our team today and have your lawyer data breach case looked at by one of our advisors. Valid claims can be connected to an expert No Win No Fee data breach solicitor.
How Long Do You Have To Claim For A Data Breach By A Lawyer?
If you are wanting to start a lawyer data breach claim, you must be mindful of the limitation period. The data breach claims time limit varies depending on which party is liable for the breach. However, claims time limits can be a complex matter, so please feel free to contact us to see if you can claim compensation.
- Generally, you have 6 years to start the claim
- Or, 1 year against a public body
Lawyer Data Breach Claims – What Could You Claim?
If a data breach by your lawyer, or a data breach that your lawyer was liable for had affected you financially, then you could make a claim for suffering from material damage.
There are many ways that a data breach can affect a person financially. You could:
- Lose money to fraud, if someone uses your personal details to steal money from you
- Incur replacement costs, to replace any exposed or breached materials
- Lose out on income, if the breach affects your ability to work
You should collect evidence of how you have been financially affected to present as part of your claim.
If the breach had affected you mentally, then you could also make a claim for suffering from non-material damage.
The figures in the table below are from a document called the Judicial College Guidelines, which could be used to value your claim for psychological harm.
| Mental Health Injury | Level | Damages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | Severe | £59,860 to £100,670 | Severe forms of post traumatic stress disorder. This may prevent claimants from being able to function at the same level as they did before suffering the traumatic event. |
| Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | Moderately severe | £23,150 to £59,860 | Serious disability for the foreseeable future. However with professional help there might be room for some recovery. |
| Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | Moderate | £8,180 to £23,150 | There should not be any remaining symptoms which are grossly disabling. The injured party should largely have made a recovery. |
| Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | Less Severe | £3,950 to £8,180 | This bracket is for cases where an (almost) full recovery has been made in around 1 – 2 years. |
| Mental illness | Severe | £54,830 to £115,730 | There are marked problems present with regards to the person’s ability to cope with life. |
| Mental illness | Moderately severe | £19,070 to £54,830 | Education, employment and relationships will all be significantly impacted however there is a more better prognosis than the severe category. |
| Mental illness | Moderate | £5,860 to £19,070 | There will have been serious issues at the outset but improvements will have been made. |
| Mental illness | Less severe | £1,540 to £5,860 | The impact on daily life as well as how long this person experienced any disability for will be taken into account. |
These types of compensation can be sought as part of the same claim, or separately. This follows the ruling made in the Court of Appeal Case of Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc [2015].
You can reach out to one of our advisers for more advice about how your claim could be valued, or to learn more about how to start a claim against a solicitor for a data breach.
How To Claim For A Lawyer Data Breach
If you are thinking about using legal representation for your case, have you thought about using a solicitor on a No Win No Fee basis? Generally, solicitors that opt to work on this funding basis use a Conditional Fee Agreement CFA. Usually, there are no upfront fees to pay your solicitor for their service. Only a success fee is required if the case is won. This is a percentage of the payout, but it is capped by law. If the claim does not succeed, then you do not have to pay this success fee.
To see if you can begin the claims process, please use the information below to reach us.
- Call our helpline today. Just dial 0800 073 8804
- Send us a message using our online claims form
- Or you can ask us a question using the web chat feature on the corner of your screen
More About Data Breach Claims
To find out more about data breach claims, please look at these online resources.
Employer Personal Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide
Loan Company Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide
Trade Union Membership Data Breach Compensation Claims
Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) – an ICO guide
Raising A Complaint With An Organisation – an ICO guide
How To Protect Yourself From Nuisance Calls – an ICO guide
We are grateful that you took the time to read our guide to making a lawyer data breach claim.
Guide By Chelache
Edited By Melissa.
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