Verbal Disclosure Data Breach Compensation Claims

By Stephen Moreau. Last Updated 20th December 2023. Is verbal disclosure a data breach? In some cases, it could be considered to be so.

A personal data breach claim will mean that your personal information has been involved in a security incident whereby it has either been lost, stolen, altered, destroyed accessed or disclosed accidentally or deliberately. In this guide, we will explain who is eligible to make a verbal disclosure data breach compensation claim.

Confidential Processed Data That Has Been Exposed In A Data Breach

Your claim will have its own unique aspects. So, we may not answer all your questions in this one guide.

If you have further queries that need answering, reach out to our claim advisors on 020 3870 4868 for the answers you need. Or you can use our contact form and ask for a call-back.

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What Is A Verbal Disclosure Data Breach?
Verbal Disclosure Case Study
How To Claim For A Verbal Disclosure Data Breach
Calculating Damages For A Verbal Disclosure Data Breach
Check If You Could Make A No Win No Fee Claim

What Is A Verbal Disclosure Data Breach?

Personal data is any information that could identify you directly or in combination with other information. Any organisation that processes your personal data must take all the necessary steps to protect it and adhere to the regulations set out within the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDRP) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). Together, these form data protection laws.

Verbal disclosure is one of the ways a personal data breach could potentially occur. The UK GDPR defines a personal data breach as a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data. Personal data breaches, including those caused by a verbal disclosure, can be either accidental or deliberate.

If someone’s personal information is shared verbally by one party to another, then this may be considered verbal disclosure. An example of a verbal disclosure data breach could be someone verbally sharing information from your medical records with a party who doesn’t have permission to receive or access it. However, if an organisation can prove that they had a lawful basis for disclosing your personal data, you might not be able to make a claim.

You may be able to pursue a personal data breach claim if you can prove the following:

The data breach occurred due to an organisation failing to adhere to data protection laws.
Your personal data was compromised in this breach.
Due to this personal data breach, you suffered mentally or financially.

Contact our advisors for free today for more advice on whether you could be eligible to make a personal data breach claim following a verbal disclosure.

Applicable Legislation

There are several bodies of legislation in the UK, that apply to data privacy and security. Firstly, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and also, the Data Protection Act 2018 2018 (DPA). It is the role of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to administer compliance with these data regulations.

These data security laws aim to give you, the data subject, more rights over how your personal information is processed. They also apply stringent rules to organisations that handle sensitive personal data. If these laws are not adhered to and you suffer a data breach to your personal information you could be eligible to make a claim if you can show how you suffered as a consequence

Protected Data

Only what is termed your personal or special data is protected by law in the UK. Personal data would be things like your name, address, date of birth, phone number, email address, etc. It would also include financial information such as your bank account number and sort code, and details of a credit card or debit card. Special data would be information such as your religion and ethnic origin, membership of trade unions or political parties, genome data, etc.

Contact our advisors for free for more advice on data protection laws and data breach claims.

How To Claim For A Verbal Disclosure Data Breach

Making a personal data breach claim for verbal disclosure will mean gathering evidence to support what you claim. Just above we described the criteria for making a valid personal data breach claim. So below we are going to look at steps you can take to strengthen any claim you want to make.

Firstly, make contact with the organisation or data controller you hold responsible for the data breach. You can ask them whether a data breach has happened. If so, they can tell you how badly your data was impacted. All correspondence can be used in your claim to show a data breach occurred, how it happened and what data was included.

Secondly, you can report the data breach to the ICO. However, you have to do this within three months of the last communication you had about the data breach with the third party involved. The ICO will not award you compensation but if they do agree to investigate the data breach any findings can be used in your case as evidence.

For free advice and to have your case assessed with no obligation to go forward with a claim why not call our expert advisors today.

Calculating Damages For A Verbal Disclosure Data Breach

It is difficult to give an average figure for data breach compensation for a verbal disclosure data breach. Each claim is different. In 2015, the Court of Appeal heard the case Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc. The claimants successful pursued damages for mental harm, even though there was no financial loss involved.

The table below gives examples of compensation ranges, all based on different levels of mental illness. We used the guidelines produced by the Judicial College to make this table. These are the same guidelines used by the legal system. Please note that the first entry in the table is an estimated figure and not based on the guidelines from the Judicial College.

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Mental Issue	Severity	Notes	Compensation
Serious impact to mental health with significant financial losses	Serious	The party affected by a data breach experiences a serious impact to their mental health with a poor prognosis. This has resulted in substantial monetary losses, such as loss of earnings.	Up to £150,000+
Psycholgical Injuries	Severe	Where the sufferer will have severe issues related to work, home life, school, etc. And where the chance of recovery is low.	£54,830 to £115,730
Psycholgical Injuries	Moderately Severe	Where the sufferer will have a significant level of issues that impact their ability to work, personal relationships, etc.	£19,070 to £54,830
Psycholgical Injuries	Moderate	Although there were significant health issues at the outset the claimant will have made some recovery.	£5,860 to £19,070
Psycholgical Injuries	Less Severe	In this category, how much mental harm the patient suffered and for how long, will drive the compensation award.	£1,540 to £5,860
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Severe	PTSD that will have a severe impact on the sufferer’s life and ability to function normally.	£59,860 to £100,670
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Moderately Severe	PTSD that will significantly impact the sufferer’s life professional help will be needed for any type of recovery.	£23,150 to £59,860
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Moderate	There will be a good prognosis any symptoms that remain will only be minor.	£8,180 to £23,150
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Less Severe	Within two years, the recovery from PTSD would be almost complete.	£3,950 to £8,180

The table above covers non-material damages for pain and suffering. You may have suffered monetary loss because of the data breach. You could attempt to reclaim these losses as material damages. These can be future losses or ones you already faced. You will need to provide documented proof of the losses though. Contact our team to learn whether you can claim back your losses or not.

Check If You Could Make A No Win No Fee Claim

You may be able to make data breach claims by using a No Win No Fee lawyer. Such an agreement means you don’t have to pay anything to your solicitor for them to start working on your claim. You also don’t pay them any fees until the claim has been processed. If the claim fails, you don’t have to pay your solicitor a fee at all. But if they win your claim for you, they will request a small success fee, legally limited by law.

Do you have more questions about making a claim for a verbal disclosure data breach? Then contact our team using the information below for answers. They can provide you with any more information you need, and also help you to get a claim started as soon as possible.

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