HMCTS unlawfully disclose personal details to neighbour

Discovery

Irvings Law have successfully represented a client in a data breach compensation claim against Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS); the client wishes to remain anonymous for the purposes of this case report and as such will be referred to as ‘the Claimant’.

On 24^th July 2018, the Claimant made a complaint to HMCTS regarding the validity of proceedings that had been brought against him by Medway Council in respect of tax liability. The Claimant contested the same and was subsequently summonsed to Court. At the hearing, the case was adjourned because although Medway Council had arranged the hearing and issued the summons, they informed the Court that they had not prepared for the same properly as they had no information to present. Despite the Claimant asking for the case to be struck out, the Court gave an adjournment and relisted the hearing but the Claimant did not receive a further summons.

Medway Council stated that HMCTS should have issued the summons and HMCTS said the opposite; neither accepted any fault. The Claimant’s above-mentioned complaint was lodged because he had received no summons and that he had only found out about the new relisted hearing date by chance; the day before in fact. HMCTS responded to the  Claimant’s complaint but sent the same to the wrong address. The said letter contained the following information:

• The Claimant’s name,
• Reference number,
• Information regarding Claimant being summonsed to Court,
• Information regarding the outcome of the case, and
• Details of the outcome of the complaint response.

The Claimant became aware of this when HMCTS informed and apologised to him for the error. This caused a great deal of stress/embarrassment and left the Claimant feeling angry particularly because he felt as though he was the subject of speculative gossip within the tight knit cul-de-sac where he lives. As such the Claimant made a further formal complaint to both HMCTS and the ICO regarding this data breach. HMCTS offered £300.00 in recognition of their error and the ICO upheld the said complaint by deciding that HMCTS had failed to comply with their data protection obligations.

Representation

Unhappy with this, the Claimant then instructed the specialist team at Irvings Law to represent him in his data breach claim against HMCTS. Without hesitation, Irvings Law agreed to act for the Claimant on a no win no fee basis and then presented a claim to HMCTS due to their breach of their obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (GDPR) and the Human Rights Act 1998.

Resolution

HMCTS responded by offering £1,000 as a “good will gesture”. Irvings Law advised the Claimant to reject this offer as compensation in excess of that should be awarded. In line with his Solicitor’s advice, the Claimant rejected the offer. Following careful negotiations after this, the Claimant’s claim later settled for £2,250.00 plus legal costs; seven times more than the initial figure that was offered by HMCTS before Irvings Law got involved.