Can I Claim For A Magistrates’ Court Data Breach?
Our guide explores the eligibility criteria that need to be met in order to claim for a Magistrates’ Court data breach. We examine the obligations the court has under data protection law to keep your personal data safe and how failures to abide by the legislation can lead to data breaches.
To illustrate this, we have included some example scenarios of how a breach of court data could occur and the impact it could have. You will also see information on how data breach compensation for two different types of damage is calculated for data protection claims to address how you’ve been affected.
The final section of this guide looks at the No Win No Fee contract offered by our panel of expert data breach solicitors and how claimants can benefit when pursuing their case under these terms.
If you have any other questions about data breaches and such claims, you can get in touch with our team of advisors. They are on hand all day every day, to answer your questions, address your concerns and provide a free assessment of your eligibility to claim compensation. Talk to an advisor today using any of the contact details provided here:
- Call the team on 020 3870 4868.
- Begin your claim online by completing this form.
- Click the live chat button at the bottom of the screen to be connected to an advisor now.
Browse This Guide
- How To Claim For A Magistrates’ Court Data Breach
- What Personal Data Could The Courts Process?
- How Could A Court Breach Your Data?
- Examples Of Payouts For Data Breach Claims
- Can I Claim For A Magistrates’ Court Data Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
- Further Guidance On How To Claim For A Court Data Breach
How To Claim For A Magistrates’ Court Data Breach
Personal data is information that can be used to identify a living individual. A personal data breach is a security incident that affects the availability, confidentiality, or integrity of personal data, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent body for the protection of information rights.
Data controllers are the organisation responsible for deciding when, how, and why your personal data is to be processed. Where the data controller contracts the processing of the data to an external organisation, that organisation is referred to as a data processor. The individuals to whom the personal data relates are called data subjects.
Data controllers and data processors are required to uphold the standards of data protection set out by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).
Data breaches can be both accidental, known as human error data breaches, or deliberate, where a cyber attack has occurred. The eligibility criteria are the same for both types of data breach:
- The data controller, processor or both committed some positive wrongful conduct. This means they failed to meet their obligations under data protection legislation.
- This conduct resulted in a breach that impacted your personal data.
- As a result of the breach, you experienced a financial loss, psychological distress or both.
A data protection breach is not always grounds for a valid claim, you must be able to show all the above criteria have been met to seek compensation.
What Are The Time Limits In A Claim For A Data Breach?
Data breach claims generally have to be made within 6 years. However, a claim will be subject to a limitation period of 1 year if it is being made against a public body. Some exceptions could apply.
For more information on the time limits for data breach claims, speak to our advisory team today using the details provided above. They can also assess whether you could potentially be eligible to claim for a Magistrates’ Court data breach.
What Personal Data Could The Courts Process?
Magistrates’ Courts handle a wide range of cases, including most motoring offences, minor criminal damage, common assault not causing significant injury, burglary, and drug offences. This means the Court may process personal data such as names, addresses, bank and credit card information, and contact details of those involved in the cases the Court hears.
Special category data is personal data that is considered to be more sensitive than other examples and, therefore, demands higher standards of security per Article 9 of the UK GDPR. Special category data such as race and ethnic origin information, trade union membership and health data could all be processed by a Court during a number of different cases.
What this means is that due to the large quantities of data processed during court proceedings and the fact that some of that data is of considerable sensitivity, a breach of court data could have a significant impact either psychologically, financially, or both. To enquire further regarding your eligibility to claim for a Magistrates’ Court breach, talk to our advisors today.
How Could A Court Breach Your Data?
Here we have provided some hypothetical circumstances in which a court could be responsible for a data breach.
- Administrative errors within the court resulted in a letter containing details of you and your child’s new address being mailed to your old place of residence. This resulted in your abusive ex-partner discovering your new address, causing significant distress. Furthermore, you had to relocate and change jobs causing significant financial loss.
- Inadequate cyber security measures on court systems resulted in the bank card information of multiple defendants who’d paid fines being accessed by unauthorised persons during a cyber attack. A large sum of money was subsequently taken from your account.
- A failure to redact sensitive data from a discrimination case in a group email to court staff resulted in multiple people who were not authorised to see your case details seeing extensive information concerning your race and ethnic origin. As a result, you experience stress and anxiety.
Remember, in order to make a data protection claim, you will need to show that the data controller engaged in some positive wrongful conduct and that this conduct resulted in you suffering damage due to a personal data breach.
To check the validity of your potential claim for a Magistrates’ Court data breach, contact our team today using the details provided below.
Examples Of Payouts For Data Breach Claims
Upon the success of your claim a court data breach, you will receive a compensation payout for the damage caused by having your personal data compromised. There are two types of damage that compensation for a data breach can be awarded for. These are:
- Material Damage: This refers to the financial impact of having your personal data breached. This could include money being taken directly from your account or purchases being made using your details without your consent.
- Non-material damage: This is any psychiatric harm caused by the data breach. This can range from comparatively minor stress and anxiety over having personal information exposed, to the most serious cases where the data subject suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. It can also include the exacerbation or acceleration of pre-existing mental health problems.
Those who value data breach claims can refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) and any provided medical records when calculating how much you’re owed for non-material damage. The JCG contains detailed descriptions of various types of harm with corresponding guideline compensation figures.
Compensation Table
The table here provides some figures from the JCG for psychiatric injuries. We would like to emphasise that the first table entry was not taken from the Judicial College Guidelines and has come from another source. Also, please take note that the figures provided in this table are for guidance purposes only.
| Type of Harm | Severity | Guideline Compensation Value | Description of Harm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very Serious Psychological Damage as well as Significant Monetary Losses | Very Serious | Up to £250,000+ | The data subject will have experienced very serious psychological distress in addition to financial damage such as lost earnings or the cost of relocating. |
| General Psychological Harm | Severe (a) | £54,830 to £115,730 | A very poor prognosis with marked problems across all areas of life. |
| Moderately Severe (b) | £19,070 to £54,830 | The prognosis will be much more optimistic but significant problems across multiple life aspects will still be present. | |
| Moderate (c) | £5,860 to £19,070 | The injured person will have experienced substantial improvement and there will be a good prognosis. | |
| Less Severe (d) | £1,540 to £5,860 | Awards in this bracket consider the impact on sleep and daily activities, as well as the length of disability period. | |
| Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. | Severe (a) | £59,860 to £100,670 | Permanent effects that prevent the injured person from undertaking work at all or from functioning anywhere near the pre-trauma level. |
| Moderately Severe (b) | £23,150 to £59,860 | A better prognosis and potential for recovery with professional help. There will nonetheless be significant disabilities likely for the foreseeable future. | |
| Moderate (c) | £8,180 to £23,150 | Cases where the injured person has mostly recovered and is not experiencing any substantial disability. | |
| Less Severe (d) | £3,950 to £8,180 | A more or less full recovery within 2 years and only minor persisting symptoms. |
Material Damage
As specified above, material damage is the financial impact of a data breach, such as lost money and other financial costs incurred. This can include money being taken directly from your bank account or unauthorised financial activity using your credit card and the resulting negative impact on your credit score. It could also include lost earnings from having to take time off work to recover from the breach, as well as the cost of having to relocate.
Remember to retain copies of your bank and credit card statements, rent statements, wage slips, or other financial documents that show you suffered material damage due to the data breach.
To get a more personalised example of the data breach compensation you could be awarded for the damage you suffered due to a court data breach, talk to our advisors today using the contact information provided below.
Can I Claim For A Magistrates’ Court Data Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
In addition to providing free advice, our experienced and friendly advisory team can offer a free consultation regarding your eligibility to claim for a Magistrates’ Court data breach. If eligible, our team could connect you with a data breach solicitor from our panel of experts.
Our panel of solicitors can offer their services under a type of No Win No Fee contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). A CFA provides several benefits to claimants, including:
- No fees for the solicitor to commence work on your claim in most circumstances.
- There will also be no fees payable for such work during the claims process itself.
- And finally, you will not pay a fee to the solicitor should the claim fail.
Should, however, the solicitor win your claim, you will receive a data breach compensation payout. The solicitor will take a percentage of this compensation as their success fee. This fee will be discussed and agreed upon between you and the solicitor before the claim gets underway. Also, The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 imposes a legal cap on the percentage success fees can be, you know that you will keep the majority of any compensation that is paid out.
Contact Us About A Court Data Breach Claim Today
If you have been affected by a data breach and would like to discuss instructing a No Win No Fee data breach solicitor from our panel, get in touch with our team. Our advisors are on hand all day, every day, to answer your questions, address your concerns and provide a free assessment of your eligibility to claim compensation.
Talk to an advisor today about claims for data breach cases using any of the contact details provided here:
- Call the team on 020 3870 4868.
- Begin your claim online by completing this form.
- Click the live chat button at the bottom of the screen to be connected to an advisor now.
Further Guidance On How To Claim For A Court Data Breach
You can find some of our other data breach claims guides by following these links:
- Learn more about how a data breach compensation calculator works with this guide.
- You can read about data subject rights following a breach of data protection by clicking here.
- Find out if you could claim for a stolen paperwork data breach that affected your personal data.
We have also included some external resources with more information.
- You can complain to the ICO on their website regarding a data controller’s conduct at any time.
- Read the Government Cyber Security Strategy on their website.
- Access mental health services using this NHS portal.
- Information from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) about different types of courts, including Magistrates’ court and Crown Court.
- For more information on data breach litigation, see this ICO page on taking your case to court.
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide on who could be eligible to claim for a Magistrates’ Court data breach. For free advice about claiming compensation, contact our team today using the details given above.
