NHS staff misusing information – No Win, No Fee compensation

The issue of NHS staff misusing information can have serious consequences for the victims that are affected, and those people could be eligible to claim data breach compensation.

For eligible clients, we can offer No Win, No Fee legal representation. This is a part of our commitment to Access to Justice, where we aim to make sure that anyone who may have a legitimate data breach claim can access the justice that they deserve.

Victims of an NHS medical data breach compensation case could be eligible to claim thousands of pounds in privacy damages. Claims can settle in the region of a few thousand pounds to even tens of thousands of pounds, depending on the nature of the case.

NHS staff misusing information

NHS staff misusing information happens quite a lot, unfortunately. Staff understandably need access to a lot of medical data to be able to help people, and for the public health service to be able to function effectively. What this can mean is that some may abuse their right of access, which they are not supposed to do. In fact, you are only legally allowed to access or use information when you have a legitimate reason to do so. As such, if someone accesses it without a good reason to do so, or without appropriate authority, they can be breaking the law.

The UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has been involved in several prosecutions against staff who have lost their jobs arising from misusing medical information. There were so many incidents that they had to issue a blanket warning about NHS staff making sure not to fall foul of the law in the last few years!

When could you claim compensation?

You could be eligible to claim data breach compensation for NHS staff misusing information that belongs to you. In short, if they accessed it, disclosed it without consent, or leaked it in error, you could have a case to make.

This can include where staff have snooped on your medical records, which can arise when staff look at the information for people they know. It can include when data is disseminated to others without your authority, or where it is accidentally sent to the wrong recipient.

We can normally assess cases by looking at key factors such as:

• What information is affected.
• How much is involved.
• Who is has been exposed to or by.
• The individual impact, which can differ from person to person.

No Win, No Fee legal representation

For eligible clients pursuing damages as a victim of NHS staff misusing information, we are proud to be able to offer No Win, No Fee legal representation.

This means that we can write off our legal fees if the case does not succeed, subject to the agreed terms and conditions in place being complied with.

Why we do this is simple. We are firm believers in access to justice, so we do not want people to be unable to afford to seek legal help when they need it. We also carefully risk assess cases so we can take forward the ones where we are confident enough that there are prospects of success. This does not mean that we only take forward “easy claims”, but that we make sure there are grounds for being able to win a case to be able to offer this way of working.