Plymouth Data Breach Solicitors – Expert Claims Support
Our guide will look at how data breach solicitors for Plymouth could help support you when claiming for breach of your data privacy. A data breach occurs when a data subject – those whose personal information is processed – is lost, stolen, disclosed, destroyed or accessed without authorisation and when there is no lawful basis. If you have experienced a data breach in Plymouth, you may have found the experience emotionally distressing. Moreover, the data breach may have led to financial problems.
Data breach solicitors for Plymouth
Whether a private company or a public organisation breached your data, you may be eligible to claim compensation. Legal Expert can provide you with a skilled data breach claim solicitor covering the Plymouth area to handle your claim if you have a valid case. What’s more, your solicitor can handle your claim as a No Win No Fee case, reducing any financial risk involved.
To begin your data breach claim, call Legal Expert today. An advisor will be happy to speak to you in-depth about your claim and offer legal advice. Afterwards, we can appoint an experienced lawyer to work on your claim.
- Call us today on 0800 073 8804 to speak to a claims consultant.
- Or, use our online claims form to get started on your claim.
- Alternatively, please type a question into our Chat widget. Our advisors will answer you directly.
Select A Section
- An Examination Of Data Breach Solicitors For Plymouth
- What Qualifies As A Breach Of Data Protection?
- What Mistakes And Errors Could Cause A Data Breach?
- How Common Are Data Protection Breaches?
- What Steps Could Data Breach Solicitors Covering Plymouth Help You Take?
- How To Calculate A Data Breach Compensation Payout
- Do Data Breach Solicitors For Plymouth Offer No Win No Fee Services?
- Speak To Specialist Data Breach Solicitors For Plymouth
- Latest Data Breach Claim Guides
An Examination Of Data Breach Solicitors For Plymouth
We have created this data breach claims guide for people in Plymouth. However, Legal Expert can help you claim compensation for a data breach, wherever you live. This guide will explain what a data breach is and what you can do if your data has been breached. And we will give you advice on working with a data breach solicitor for Plymouth claims. Moreover, we will look at the causes of data breaches.
You may be wondering, “Can I get compensation for a data breach?“. People who experience emotional distress, psychiatric injuries, and financial losses can claim compensation for a data breach. However, you must be able to prove that the data controller – those who handle a data subjects personal information – failed to protect it appropriately.
How long do you have to make a data breach claim? The data breach claims time limit is six years. However, if the data breach has affected your human rights, the time limit will be one year. Also, you have just one year to start a claim if you intend to claim against a public body. So, please feel free to call our helpline for advice on the matter.
What Qualifies As A Breach Of Data Protection
Not all data is protected under data privacy laws. Organisations are legally required to protect the personal data that they collect. A data breach can occur for many reasons. Some can be accidental while others can be malicious. Often they are caused by human error but sometimes occur because of cybercriminals. A breach of data protection can include the following incidents:
- An email that includes personal data is sent to the wrong email.
- A file containing personal information is left on a train
- Memory stick with personal files is not disposed of correctly
- Cybercriminals exploit a vulnerability in a database network
- Data is accidentally or intentionally altered
- Or an unauthorised person gains access to data
A data breach can happen because of human error. Incidents such as email data breaches are often accidents. Or data breaches can happen due to malicious intent. For example, cybercriminals may use malware to attack an organisation and gain unlawful access to their database.
Organisations in the UK are legally required to be UK GDPR compliant. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a piece of EU data protection legislation. The Data Protection Act 2018 enacted the GDPR into the laws of the United Kingdom. However, since leaving the EU we now look to the updated version of the Data Protection Act 2018 and our own version – UK GDPR. The UK GDPR requires organisations to protect personal data. These measures include training their staff to handle data safely and having an adequate computer security system.
Organisations should report data breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office within 72 hours if a data subject’s rights and freedoms are affected. And the ICO may fine the organisation for breaching personal data. Moreover, if it is found that the organisation failed to protect the data it stores a data subject could file a claim for compensation. You can use data breach solicitors for Plymouth to manage your compensation claim.
What Mistakes And Errors Could Cause A Data Breach?
How can a data breach in Plymouth happen? A Plymouth City Council data breach occurred in 2011 after information about allegations of child neglect was sent to the wrong family. Consequently, the data breach compromised the safeguarding of vulnerable children.
The Information Commissioner’s Office investigated the Plymouth data breach. The ICO fined Plymouth City Council £60,000 for breaching personal data.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-20758794
Other Causes Of Data Breaches
Here are example scenarios of possible data breaches:
- Email address data breach when the Cc bar is used rather than the Bcc bar. This means everyone who is sent the email has access to other email addresses without a lawful basis.
- A university data breach could occur if a university fails to have updated cyber security systems on their networks and cybercriminals exploit this failure and access the private Infomation of students.
- A social services data breach could happen if a social worker unlawfully discloses confidential information about a child’s adoption. Therefore the data breach threatens the child’s security.
- If a manager at a company loses a USB drive containing employee information that is not encrypted, this is an employer data breach. Therefore if a third party finds the USB drive, they could access the personal data.
- A school in Plymouth could breach students’ data if they send a letter about a student to the wrong address. Subsequently, a third party could access the pupil’s personal information.
Have you experienced a data breach in Plymouth? Then you may be eligible to claim compensation. Data breach solicitors for Plymouth could offer to handle your case on a No Win No Fee basis which means you will not have to pay upfront fees for the service of the solicitor.
How Common Are Data Protection Breaches?
How often do data protection breaches occur? The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021 gives us an idea of how many cyber security incidents occur in private and public organisations. The key statistics for 2021 are as follows:
- 39% of businesses experienced a cyber security breach or attack
- Of these businesses, 27% said they experience cyber security incidents once a week
- 26% of charities experienced a cyber security breach or attack
- And of these charities, 23% said they experience cyber security incidents once a week
- What’s more, 80% of businesses and 84% of charities said that Covid-19 had not made a difference in the importance of cyber security.
What Steps Could Data Breach Solicitors Covering Plymouth Help You Take
If you believe that a data breach has impacted you, please contact Legal Expert today. We can assess your case for free. If we can see that your case has a chance of succeeding we can provide a data breach solicitor for Plymouth to handle your compensation claim. In addition, we can advise you about what to do if your data has been breached.
If an organisation discovers that they have suffered a data breach and your rights and freedoms have been put at risk, it should notify you without undue delay. The organisation should also let you know what the impact of the data breach may be.
If you suspect a data breach, firstly, you could report the data breach to the organisation. The Information Commissioner’s Office has a guide about raising your concerns, advising you to escalate your complaint if necessary.
However, if you believe the organisation is not doing enough to resolve the matter internally you can report the issues to the ICO. Please raise your information concerns with the ICO within three months of your last meaningful contact with the data controller.
If you speak to the ICO later, the ICO may not investigate the data breach. Also please note that although the ICO can fine an organisation for breach of data protection laws they cannot issue you with any compensation.
How To Calculate A Data Breach Compensation Payout
If your data breach compensation claim is successful, you will receive up to two heads of claim. These are material damages and non-material damages. Let’s look at what these are, in more detail below:
Material Damages
Material damages will compensate you for the financial losses caused by the data breach. For example, if criminals gain access to your data and use it to steal money from you, you can claim back these costs.
Non-Material Damages
Non-material damages will compensate you for any injuries caused by the data breach. Unfortunately, the trauma of a data breach can be harmful to your well-being and mental health. Some data breach victims may experience emotional distress. And, some data breach victims may even be injured psychologically. For example, the person may suffer from acute stress, PTSD, or depression.
How much compensation can you get for a breach of the GDPR? We have created this table to estimate how much non-material damages compensation you can claim. The amounts of money in this table are based on guidelines from the Judicial College. However, the amount of compensation you receive may vary depending on your circumstances. Please call Legal Expert, and an advisor will be happy to provide you with a personalised compensation estimate.
| Type And Category Of Injury | About | Settlement Band |
|---|---|---|
| Less Severe Psychiatric Damage | Compensation for psychiatric injuries are based on several factors. These are by how much the person’s relationships, their work or their education has been affected. Other factors include the prognosis for recovery. | £1,440 to £5,500 |
| Moderate Psychiatric Damage | By the time the case comes to court, the victim should already have made a significant recovery and has a good chance of recovering. | £5,500 to £17,900 |
| Moderately Severe Psychiatric Damage | Significant problems with work life, education, social life and relationships. There will be opportunity for some recovery with the right help. | £17,900 to £51,460 |
| Severe Psychiatric Damage | This person has a poor prognosis for the future. Their ability to cope with all the factors listed above has been affected. | £51,460 to £108,620 |
| Less Severe PTSD | Injured parties will almost fully recover in around one to two years. | £3,710 to £7,680 |
| Moderate PTSD | Injured parties will have largely recovered from their injury and should not be left with any symptoms which are grossly disabling. | £7,680 to £21,730 |
| Moderately Severe PTSD | Significant problems for the foreseeable future. There is a chance of some recovery with appropriate help. | £21,730 to £56,180 |
| Severe PTSD | The person could have suffered effects in all parts of their life. There will be permanent injury due to the trauma. | £56,180 to £94,470 |
Material damages are not included in our compensation table.
Do Data Breach Solicitors For Plymouth Offer No Win No Fee Services?
Legal Expert’s team of data breach solicitors covering Plymouth can handle your claim on a No Win No Fee basis. What does No Win No Fee mean? No Win No Fee is an umbrella term that means the payment to the solicitor is conditional on the claim being won.
With No Win No Fee solicitors you will often sign a contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement CFA. The agreement will state that, if your claim is unsuccessful, you will not pay a success fee. If the claim is won the solicitor will take a percentage of the compensation for their success fee. Both parties will sign a Conditional Fee Agreement to formalise this agreement.
Please read our guide to learn more about making a No Win No Fee claim for a data breach.
Speak To Specialist Data Breach Solicitors For Plymouth
We hope you have found this guide helpful. If a Plymouth data breach has harmed you, be sure to get in touch with us as soon as possible. And if you are owed compensation, we can provide you with a skilful data breach solicitor for Plymouth to handle your claim.
- Call us today on 0800 073 8804 to speak to a claims consultant.
- Or, use our online claims form to get started on your claim.
- Alternatively, please type a question into our Chat widget. Our advisors will answer you directly.
Latest Data Breach Claim Guides
Thank you for reading our data breach compensation guide. If you would like to learn more about making a No Win No Fee data breach claim, please feel free to look at these resources.
Has A University Of Plymouth Data Breach Occurred? – How to claim compensation for a data breach at a university.
What To Do If An NHS Data Breach Happens – A guide to claiming compensation if you are affected by an NHS data breach.
Local Authority And Council Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – What to do if you are affected by a local authority or council data breach.
A National Cyber Security Centre guide on what to do if you are affected by a data breach.
Your data matters – information on protecting your data from the ICO.
We hope you have found this guide to finding data breach solicitors for Plymouth helpful. Thank you for reading our guide.
