Background

Mr Mathew McConville, Head of Irvings Law’s specialist Data Protection Department, has successfully represented a client in a claim for compensation against William Hill; the client wishes to remain anonymous for this report and so will be referred to as Miss M.

Miss M sent an email to William Hill’s CEO, complaints email address and support email address which included her name, address, account username, passport details, debit card details and photograph.  Miss M discovered that this email had been re-directed to another customer in error whom contacted her about the same. Given this, Miss M made a complaint to William Hill’s data protection team whom investigated the incident and accepted their error, apologising for the same and confirming that their internal processes were going to be reviewed to avoid any reoccurrence but Miss M wished to take matters further.

Representation

As such, Miss M approached specialist Data Protection Solicitors, Irvings Law, for assistance. Mr McConville immediately acknowledged that what happened was completely wrong and without hesitation, offered to act for Miss M by way of “no win, no fee” presenting a claim to William Hill for a breach of data protection and misuse of private information.

Resolution

Despite the above concessions before Miss M instructed Mr McConville, William Hill denied liability forcing Miss M to issue and serve Court proceedings. After taking this step, William Hill then decided to engage in settlement negotiations which resulted in Miss M agreeing to settle her claim for four thousand pounds plus the payment of her legal costs without a Defence being formally filed.