Law firm sends witness statement to an incorrect email address

Discovery

Mr Peter Summerhill instructed a firm of solicitors to act for him in regards to family law proceedings; this firm was Hewitts Solicitors. During the same, Mr Summerhill was advised by Hewitts Solicitors that a witness statement about him that was provided by his ex-wife had been sent to an incorrect email address/unknown third party instead of to him. The said witness statement contained particularly sensitive and unproven allegations made by Mr Summerhill’s ex-partner and attached evidence to the same too.

Away from this error, Mr Summerhill was forced to lodge a complaint with Hewitts Solicitors in regards to the standard of service that he had received from them. In response, Hewitts Solicitors waived their legal fees and now no longer act for Mr Summerhill. It was then that Mr Summerhill wanted to take further action for Hewitts Solicitors’ email error.

Representation

Mr Summerhill found our firm and specialist Data Protection Solicitor/Head of Department, Mr Matthew McConville, who agreed that Hewitts Solicitors had unlawfully infringed the personal data of Mr Summerhill by sending a witness statement containing sensitive and unproven allegations about him to an unknown person by mistake.

Mr McConville then presented a Letter of Claim on behalf of Mr Summerhill to Hewitts Solicitors who instructed DWF Law LLP to represent them in this case. This was after, Mr McConville had alleged that Hewitts Solicitors had breached / invaded Mr Summerhill’s privacy under the Human Rights Act, had breached the Data Protection Act 2018/the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as confidence following their misuse of private information pertaining to Mr Summerhill.

Resolution

Upon considering Mr McConville’s Letter of Claim on behalf of Mr Summerhill, DWF Law LLP insisted on ‘without prejudice’ discussions in regards to settlement. It was Hewitts Solicitors’ position that they believed that they had settled Mr Summerhill’s data breach claim as part of his grievance about their service to him and the waiving of legal fees was partly in recognition of this said data breach. However, Mr McConville outlined that there was seemingly no settlement agreement to express the specific terms of this waiving of legal fees.

Due to this and following several other lengthy discussions, Hewitts Solicitors eventually agreed to pay Mr Summerhill a further £6,500.00 in full and final settlement of his claim in respect of compensation and legal costs.