Local council data breach compensation advice

If you have suffered as a victim of a local council data breach, you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation with our team on a No Win, No Fee basis.

The law is on your side and it’s there to be used if you’re ever the victim of an incident where personal information has been exposed or misused. We represent thousands of people for data breach cases and many involve local authorities, so you are not alone, and you have a voice for justice.

Here’s a little guidance in terms of when you may be able to bring a legal case and what you could be eligible to claim for.

Claim compensation for a local council data breach

You could be eligible to make a claim for compensation if you have been the victim of a local council data breach. If your personal information has been exposed or misused and the cause was the result of negligence on the part of a local authority, that’s when you may have a case.

Examples of where you could have a case may include:

• Data being exposed in a preventable cyberattack. Hackers do target local authorities given the nature and volume of information they store and process;
• Email or postal leaks, such as where a mass email is sent to many recipients that discloses information, or where a letter is sent to the wrong address or two letters for different people end up in the same envelope;
• Information being accessed with appropriate reason or authority to do so;
• Data shared or published without clear consent when it should have been sought.

We represent thousands of people for data breach compensation cases. A large volume of the individual claims that we take forward involve local authorities, and this can include departments under their management. For example, social services data breach can fall into this category and can be one of the most severe in terms of the impact for the victim.

What you could claim for

When you claim compensation as the victim of a local council data breach, there are usually two main factors that we can consider. These are:

• General Damages: for the distress and suffering caused by the loss of control of your personal information; and
• Special Damages: for any financial losses or expenses incurred.

You do not have to have suffered any financial loss or expense to be able to claim. The GDPR can allow you to recover damages for the distress alone, and this can be substantial in cases involving local authorities. One council could hold what we may view as the ‘full range’ of data for a person, from personal to medical, and from domestic to financial.

If one document or file is exposed for just one person, this could include:

• Personal and contact data;
• Financial information used for council tax reasons;
• Medical and healthcare data for blue badge or similar scheme matters;
• Sensitive domestic and family history information for social services.

Any misuse or exposure of this kind of information can have a huge impact for the victim.

Free, no-obligation advice today

Our team is on hand now to offer free, no-obligation advice to victims of a local council data breach. We may be able to represent you for a case on a No Win, No Fee basis if we believe that there’s a case to answer.

All you need to do is click on the Contact tab and you can complete a call back form to speak to our team ASAP.