Serious council data breaches: claim compensation

For victims of serious council data breaches, it can be important to claim compensation to achieve some form of justice for what you have had to go through.

The GDPR can entitle you to claim compensation for any distress that is caused by the loss of control of your personal information, and you could be awarded thousands of pounds in damages. Your Lawyers, as leading Data Leak Lawyers, has a current average settlement award of just over £6,000 in damages alone for mostly individual clients. This shows that the law can ensure that victims are fairly compensated, and that our significant experience in this area of law can lead to high pay-outs.

We know some other firms that have only more recently started looking into data cases are settling quickly and cheaply, which may not allow for full justice for the victims. Our experience, having worked in this area of law for almost a decade, speaks for itself. Never get duped into accepting anything less than you deserve.

Compensation for serious council data breaches

Victims could be entitled to claim significant damages when it comes to serious council data breaches. With local authorities and the agencies that they outsource work to storing and processing such a great deal of sensitive information, any misuse or exposure event could cause significant harm to those affected.

When we assess a new data breach compensation case, we often look at things such as:

• The nature of the information affected.
• How much is involved.
• Who data has been exposed to or misused by.
• The personal impact, which can differ from person to person.

The first one is a key one to assess when it comes to council data breach compensation cases. Information that is classed as “special category” in accordance with the GDPR, or financial details and accounting information, can often cause the most distress. Since councils may need special category data such as medical information or disability details for looking after residents, and financial data for things like council tax matters, the scope of the information is expansive. This means that any breach of a council could lead to significant distress due to the nature of the data that they may hold.

Matters that involve social services, which are often run under the local authority, is a common type of case that we help people with. The nature of this kind of data being misused or exposed can have a huge impact on the victims.

Redcar and Cleveland Council: In the news

Redcar and Cleveland Council was recently in the news, reportedly over four serious council data breaches that are understood to have been reported to the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) last year.

According to media reports, they had suffered dozens of data breaches in the 2021 period, with four breaches, classed as serious, being reported to the UK’s data watchdog. Some involved the usual incidents of data being sent to the wrong recipient, with others understood to be lost information issues and unauthorised access events.

Like many local authorities, Redcar and Cleveland Council will store and process a great deal of very personal and sensitive information. It only takes one error to cause a huge leak or a serious security flaw that could lead to the personal information of thousands or even tens of thousands of people being leaked.

Compensation for council data leaks and privacy breaches

When it comes to council data leaks, hacks, breaches, or other privacy matters, victims can be eligible to claim compensation. We know from a great deal of experience that the victims can suffer significantly when it comes to serious council data breaches.

This is why we do what we do – and why we offer our services for our clients on a No Win, No Fee basis. We are true believers in access to justice, and we would not want to work in any other way.

You can speak to our experienced team for free, no-obligation advice here now.

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