Background
Mr Matthew McConville, Head of Irvings Law’s specialist Data Breach Department, has successfully represented a client in a claim for compensation against a well-known law firm. Due to confidentiality, the client will be referred to as Mrs M and the identity of the law firm will not be disclosed.
A Solicitor of the involved law firm emailed Mrs M to confirm that ‘…Due to an error on [his] part, [he had] not filed with the Court a C8 Form to keep [Mrs M’s] address confidential’ and the said Solicitor ‘sincerely apologised’ for this. To explain further, the reason why a C8 Form would have been needed was because Mrs M’s ex-partner pleaded guilty to an offence of assault of a person occasioning them actual bodily harm and the sentence he received was nine months imprisonment suspended for 24 months as well as 150 hours unpaid work and a restraining order to operate for a period of five years. Clearly, such a disclosure put Mrs M and her daughter at risk. Due to this, Mrs M notified the Police and a marker was then placed upon the property where she lived with her daughter.
Representation
After this, Mrs M approached specialist Data Breach Solicitors, Irvings Law, for assistance. Mr McConville immediately acknowledged that what happened was completely wrong and without hesitation, offered to act for Mrs M and her daughter by way of “no win, no fee” presenting a claim to the involved law firm on the basis their human rights to privacy were breached as well as GDPR following this misuse of private information.
Resolution
After presenting the claim and despite the above admission and apology, the involved law firm sought to dispute liability leaving Mrs M and her daughter with no other option but to issue and serve Court proceedings. Once proceedings were served however, the involved law firm wished to then settle Mrs M’s claim and an agreement was reached not long after such discussions took place in the sum of £7,500.00 plus the payment of her legal costs; Mrs M’s daughter’s claim remains ongoing due to the impact she has suffered.
