If you have been affected by a data breach, meaning that the availability, integrity, or confidentiality of your personal data has been compromised, our panel of solicitors can help. The data breach claims process can be anxiety-inducing, but our guide helps to explain this process to you in easy-to-understand terms.
Additionally, should you have a valid data breach compensation claim, our expert panel of solicitors will be by your side throughout the claiming process.
It’s easy to begin – all you have to do is pick a contact method. You’ll speak to one of our friendly advisors, who will ask for some information about your case and then let you know if you have a valid claim.
- Dial 0208 050 3051 to speak to a team member.
- Live chat via the box below.
- Contact us online.
We Can Help With Your Claim
Our team of specialist advisors are ready to assist you with your data breach claim
Select A Section
- Starting The Data Breach Claims Process
- Assessing The Impact Of A Data Breach
- Seek Legal Advice From A Data Breach Solicitor
- Gather The Evidence To Support Your Data Breach Claim
- The Data Breach Litigation Process
- Paying Out The Data Breach Compensation
- How Can Data Breach Claims (DBC) Help You Through The Process?
- Learn More
Starting The Data Breach Claims Process
Knowing when to start the data breach claims process can be difficult. There are several ways to know if you have been the victim of a personal data breach.
- Being informed of a breach by the company or organisation that holds your data via a notification letter or email.
- Contacting the relevant company or organisation if you have noticed any suspicious activity, e.g. you have been receiving suspicious calls or emails from someone pretending to be from the company.
- Looking out for any suspicious transactions.
- Searching your antivirus or password manager programs to see if any data breach reports have been made.
Experiencing one or more of the above issues may mean you have been a victim of a personal data breach.
If you’re unsure about any part of the data breach claims process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to an advisor to see if you could start to claim compensation today.
Assessing The Impact Of A Data Breach
The impact of your personal or sensitive information being compromised is important when it comes to data breach claims. The two main things to consider are psychological and financial impact, otherwise known as non-material damage and material damage.
- Psychological impact, or non-material damage: This refers to any psychological harm caused by your personal data being breached, such as anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder, among other psychological conditions.
- Financial impact, or material damage: This refers to any financial loss you experienced because of a personal data breach. This could be lost income from having to temporarily stop working, the cost of having to move or employ home security, or the cost of assistance like therapy for any psychological conditions.
Assessing what harm a personal data breach has caused you to suffer, and gathering supporting evidence of this, will help you when making a claim. Later in this guide, we explore the various types of evidence you could collect.
Want to know more about how data protection breach compensation is assessed? Please get in touch.
Seek Legal Advice From A Data Breach Solicitor
The best thing to do if you think you might have a valid data breach claim is to speak to a professional. Our panel of solicitors has dealt with hundreds of cases involving personal data breaches and ensure their clients receive the best possible outcome for a claim.
To speak to a solicitor from our panel, contact us via phone, live chat, or our online form. If our advisors think you could be eligible to receive data protection breach compensation, your case will be referred to a solicitor.
If you have any questions about the data breach claims process in general, we encourage you to contact us.
Gather The Evidence To Support Your Data Breach Claim
The correct evidence is vital for data breach claims to prove who was at fault, how the breach occurred, and what harm this caused you to suffer. Beginning to gather evidence as soon as possible is also beneficial, so you have a wider range. We recommend the following types of evidence if you are looking to make a data breach compensation claim.
To prove financial harm (material damage):
- Bank statements or invoices to show relocation costs or paying for therapy.
- Payslips to show a loss of earnings.
To prove psychological harm (non-material damage):
- A letter from a psychiatrist confirming any diagnoses you have.
- Your full medical records.
To prove that a data breach happened or who was at fault:
- Any letters or other communication confirming the breach.
- Any findings of the breach, if you were the one to discover it.
- Any correspondence between you and the organisation regarding the data breach.
- Any reports from an Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigation – you can find out more about this in the next section.
When To Report A Data Breach To The ICO
The ICO is an independent body that enforces legislation regarding data protection. They can also investigate reported data breaches and issue fines. They cannot, however, award compensation.
All organisations must report a data breach to the ICO within 72 hours of discovering the breach.
You can also make a report to the ICO about a data breach. The report must be made within a 3-month limit of your last meaningful communication with the organisation that was responsible for the breach. The ICO can choose whether to investigate the report, which can then be used as evidence for a data protection compensation claim.
Our advisors can assist if you’re unsure about when to report a data breach, evidence, or how the ICO works. Contact them today.
The Data Breach Litigation Process
Once you know that a personal data breach has taken place and your claim has been accepted, the litigation process begins. Your appointed solicitor will contact the relevant organisations to confirm the situation and notify them of the claim.
Negotiations between your solicitor and the organisation for a compensation settlement will then begin. You can find out more about what happens if a settlement cannot be reached in the section below.
If you want to know more about the litigation process, our advisors are always here to answer any questions or offer further information.
Paying Out The Data Breach Compensation
The data breach claims process can take a while to resolve. An agreement between you and the organisation that breached your personal data may be made, in which case you will be awarded compensation without needing to go to court.
If an agreement cannot be made, your claim may have to go to court, where the judge will decide how much compensation should be paid. This process could take months to years, depending on the circumstances of the case.
If you would like further information about how compensation is awarded in the data breach claims process, you can contact our advisors.
We Can Help With Your Claim
Our team of specialist advisors are ready to assist you with your data breach claim
How Can Data Breach Claims (DBC) Help You Through The Process?
Our panel of data breach solicitors here at Data Breach Claims (DBC) can help you through the data breach claims process in many ways, including:
- Helping you to collect evidence.
- Negotiating the best compensation settlement.
- Communicating with all parties.
- Connecting you with specialists like psychiatrists or therapists.
Plus, you won’t have to worry about the financial risk often associated with legal representation when making a claim with one of the solicitors on our panel. Our panel take on their clients’ claims under a Conditional Fee Agreement, meaning you are claiming on a No Win No Fee basis. Simply put, this means:
- You will not pay any solicitor service fees either before or while your claim is ongoing.
- There is nothing to pay for your solicitor’s work if the claim does not succeed.
- You pay a success fee to your solicitor if the claim is a success. The law limits the percentage of this fee, and it is taken directly from your compensation.
Contact Our Data Breach Advisors
If you still have any questions about the data breach claims process, or if you would like to discuss the eligibility of your own case, you can contact one of our advisors. They are available to answer any of your questions and offer free advice:
- Dial 0208 050 3051 to speak to a team member.
- Live chat via the box below.
- Contact us online.
Learn More
You may also find the following guides about personal data breach claims beneficial.
- Discover statistics for council data breaches.
- Find out the time limit for data breach claims.
- Read more about pension data breach claims.
We’ve also included some external links for further information.
- Find out how to stay safe online via the National Cyber Security Centre.
- Read guidance about data protection laws from GOV.UK.
- Discover some data security incident trends via the ICO.
Thank you for reading our guide on the data breach claims process.