Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Compensation Claim
Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Claim Guide
This guide will explain how to make a divorce lawyer data breach claim. A divorce can be an upsetting and highly stressful experience. Divorce lawyers will often be privy to sensitive information about you. Therefore, by law, any organisation that handles personal or sensitive data including, divorce lawyers, must keep this information secure and safe.
Please contact us today to begin your No Win No Fee data breach claim. If we can see that you are eligible for compensation, we can assign an experienced data protection lawyer to work on your claim. Call our advice line on 0800 073 8804 to begin your claim. Or see if you can begin your claim online.
Select A Section
- What Is A Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Claim?
- Ways A Lawyer Could Breach Your Data Privacy
- Sensitive Data Handled By Divorce Lawyers
- How To Make A Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Claim
- Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Claim Calculator
- Contact A Data Breach Lawyer
What Is A Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Claim?
Data protection legislation such as the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 controls how organisations can use personal data. For example, organisations can only share personal data if there is a lawful basis for doing so. A data subject’s consent is only one basis for processing personal information, there are 5 others. The UK GDPR requires organisations to protect the personal data that they collect from clients, employees and other stakeholders.
A divorce lawyer data breach could happen in different ways. Here we have looked at how a potential data breach could occur:
- An email containing a client’s personal details is sent to the wrong recipient.
- Due to poor cyber security systems, a hacker can steal all personal information held on a computer.
- Personal data is lost, destroyed or altered in a security incident.
- Unauthorised persons gain access to the data unlawfully.
- Or an employee discloses personal data without a lawful basis
If you have fallen victim to a personal data breach then in order to make a claim your case must reflect the following criteria:
- Firstly, personal data was breached because those that should have been protecting it failed to take the right steps in keeping it secure. This means they failed to adhere to data security regulations.
- As a result, you suffered emotional distress or mental health injuries.
- Alternatively, you experienced financial losses.
Don’t hesitate to contact us today to see if you are eligible to make a solicitors data breach claim. Our advisors can assess any divorce lawyer data breach claim you wish to make in a free no-obligation consultation.
Ways A Lawyer Could Breach Your Data Privacy
Many data breaches happen because of human error. But even an unintentional data breach can still harm the people involved. Training employees in data awareness can help to prevent unintentional data breaches. However, malicious people may intentionally cause a data breach for personal or financial gain.
Here are some potential examples of how a divorce lawyer data breach could occur:
- A family law firm employee may send a shared company email without redacting a client’s personal information.
- Moreover, a divorce lawyer may send an email containing sensitive data to the wrong recipient.
- A divorce lawyer could leave paper files containing personal data in an unlocked filing cabinet for anyone to access.
- Criminals may steal personal files in a cyber attack because the law firm does not have any cyber security defence systems in place.
- Or, a criminal could steal a work computer containing personal files because the office was not locked at the end of the day. Therefore the criminal could access the files on the stolen computer because the computer was not password protected.
Sensitive Data Handled By Lawyers
Under the UK GDPR, sensitive data is referred to as special category data. Special category data refers to a person’s characteristics, such as religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Special category data requires additional protections because of its sensitive nature. The following personal information is considered special category data:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Political information
- Trade Union membership
- Biometric or genetic data
- Philosophical or religious information
In addition to special category data, divorce lawyers may handle information that belongs to their clients that is deeply private. For example, they may process information about infidelity that occurred in the marriage, which led to the divorce. If personally identifiable information is made public, the victim may experience acute stress. Or the victim may suffer emotional distress or mental health problems.
How To Make A Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Claim
Contact us today if a divorce lawyer has breached your personal data because they failed to abide by the laws in this country that protect personal information. We will assess your case and let you know if you are eligible to make a divorce lawyer data breach claim.
To help your lawyer handle your data breach claim, you can collect evidence to support your case. The evidence can include the divorce lawyer’s notification to inform you a data breach had taken place. In addition, you can provide medical records to prove any psychiatric injuries you suffered, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, you can provide us with financial records such as bank statements to prove the financial losses suffered.
Reporting A Data Breach By A Lawyer
You can report misconduct by a lawyer to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Including a solicitor’s data breach. That said not all data breaches are the fault of the data controller so always best to check this first. In addition, if you report a data breach to the data controller and you are not happy with the response you receive, you can make a complaint to the ICO.
Divorce Lawyer Data Breach Claim Calculator
Successful personal data breach claims can include compensation for emotional distress or psychological injuries. What’s more, you may experience financial losses because of the data breach. For example, criminals may have stolen money from your bank account because of the leaked personal information. You can also be compensated for that as well
If your data breach claim is successful, you could receive these damages:
- Material damages are compensation for financial losses.
- Non-material damages are compensation for emotional distress or mental health injuries.
Please feel free to use the compensation table to estimate what your non-material damages payout could be. The table does not include material damages. We used information from the updated version 2022 of the Judicial College guidelines to apply the compensation bracket amounts in the table. Solicitors also use this information to help them value your claim.
| Condition | Level | Compensation | Notes On This Injury |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychiatric and Psychological Damage | (A) Severe | £54,830 to £115,730 | The injured party has serious problems with their ability to cope with life. They could face problems with work, relationships and education. Their prognosis is poor. |
| Psychiatric and Psychological Damage | (B) Moderately Severe | £19,070 to £54,830 | Whilst the injured party still has significant problems in the areas highlighted above, they have a better prognosis. |
| Psychiatric and Psychological Damage | (C) Moderate | £5,860 to £19,070 | This person could have been affected in similar ways to the above, but has already made improvements by the time a claim goes to trial. |
| Psychiatric and Psychological Damage | (D) Less Severe | £1,540 to £5,860 | How much may be awarded in damages will depend on the length any disabilities lasted and how serious these were. |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | (A) Severe | £59,860 to £100,670 | Cases involving permanent effects to the injured party. These prevent them from working or functioning as they did pre-trauma. All parts of their life could have been affected. |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | (B) Moderately Severe | £23,150 to £59,860 | This category is distinguished from that above by the person having a better outlook in the future. |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | (C) Moderate | £8,180 to £23,150 | Largely this person has made a recovery and if they do still have any symptoms, these will not be grossly disabling. |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | (D) Less Severe | £3,950 to £8,180 | Those in this category will have virtually recovered from their injury within 1-2 years. |
Please note that the contents of the table are advisory. So please call our advice line, and we can accurately estimate how much data breach compensation you could claim.
Contact A Data Breach Lawyer
To begin a divorce lawyer data breach claim, please get in touch with Legal Expert today. You can call our claims helpline for free and speak to an advisor. We can assess your case, and if we think you are eligible for compensation, we can provide you with a No Win No Fee data breach solicitor to handle your case.
There are many benefits to using a No Win No Fee solicitor. First of all, there are no fees to pay to your solicitor if you do not win your claim. Instead of paying an upfront solicitors fee, you will pay a success fee if you win your claim. The success fee is paid from your compensation payout at a capped rate to keep costs under control.
To enquire about making a solicitor data breach claim, please get in touch with us today:
- Call our helpline on 0800 073 8804
- Contact us in writing via our website
- Alternatively, ask an advisor about claiming using our Live Support widget
Related Data Breach Claims
Thank you for reading our guide. Please feel free to read these resources to learn more about making a data breach compensation claim.
How To Report A Data Breach Incident
Lost And Stolen Devices Data Breach Claims
Employer Personal Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide
Raising a complaint with an organisation – an ICO guide
Identity theft – an ICO guide
Does an organisation need my consent? – an ICO guide
If you would like to make a divorce lawyer data breach claim, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Guide By Chelache
Edited By Melissa.
