How To Make A Data Breach Claim For Compensation

This guide can help you determine if you’re eligible to make a personal data breach claim. It will clarify under what circumstances you could able to claim data breach compensation and confirm why you may be able to receive redress. Additionally, it will also establish the potential benefits of using a data breach solicitor from our panel. 

data breach claim

Our advisors are experienced in dealing with queries relating to data breaches. Therefore, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Our advisors are available 24/7, offer free legal advice and can even provide you with a compensation estimate over the phone in minutes. Furthermore, they can connect you with a solicitor from our panel who could work on your claim under a No Win No Fee agreement. 

Contact us at a time that suits you using the details below. 

  • Call us using the telephone number above. 
  • Contact us through our website. 
  • Please write to us using the Live Chat window. 

Select a Section

  1. Why Would You Need To Make A Data Breach Claim?
  2. What Should I Do If My Data Is Breached?
  3. What Can I Be Compensated For In A Data Breach Claim?
  4. Get Help From No Win No Fee Data Breach Solicitors

Why Would You Need To Make A Data Breach Claim?

Firstly, when looking into making data breach claims, it’s important to clarify what one is. A personal data breach is when a breach of security leads to your personal data being disclosed, accessed, lost, altered or destroyed accidentally or unlawfully.

A data breach can happen to different types of personal data, ranging from name and address to bank details and credit card numbers. The important thing to remember is the reasoning behind you making a data breach claim. 

There are criteria to keep in mind when making a claim. Firstly, you need to be able to prove that a data breach has involved your personal information.

Any party that collects, holds or processes your personal data has legal obligations regarding how they can store and use it. These responsibilities are defined in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

This legislation also reflects the second criteria for making a claim. When seeking compensation for a data breach, it isn’t enough that the breach happened. Additionally, you need to have also suffered some form of damage as a consequence. This can be in the form of material damage (financial damage) or non-material damage (such as stress, anxiety, depression or PTSD caused by the breach). 

You’d also need to show that the positive wrongful conduct of the party that was supposed to protect your personal data led to the breach. For example, if they installed substandard cybersecurity and hackers were, therefore, able to access your personal data, it could lead to a claim.  

Are Data Breaches Common?

data breach claim statistics graph

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regulates UK GDPR compliance to ensure that companies are working within the required rules and legislation when handling personal data. Furthermore, they also record data breaches and, from this, have created a report of data security incident trends

As you can see above, in education and childcare, the reported number of data breaches in Q2 2021/22 for failing to redact information was 16. There were 14 instances of data being posted or faxed to the wrong recipient and 78 times in which personal data was emailed to the incorrect person. 

These figures alone show how GDPR compliance may be breached. If you’ve been negatively affected by this kind of incident, you may be able to claim data breach compensation. To see if you can make a successful claim, contact our advisors at a time that works for you using the details above. 

What Should I Do If My Data Is Breached?

If you’ve suffered due to a data breach, it can be difficult to know what to do. There are steps you can take which can help clarify the nature and extent of the breach. 

  1. Firstly, you need to be aware of the data protection breach. Either the party that was supposed to protect your personal data will inform you that it has occurred, or you may become aware of the breach yourself. 
  2. If you’ve discovered the breach yourself, you can contact the organisation responsible to determine what information has been compromised. 
  3. However, if the organisation has provided no satisfactory response to you, then within three months of their final response, you can make a complaint to the ICO. The Information Commissioner’s Office can investigate the breach. 
  4. Additionally, you can also seek legal advice and potentially make a data breach claim. Importantly, you don’t need to have complained to the ICO to seek compensation for a data breach under the GDPR. 

What Can I Be Compensated For In A Data Breach Claim?

You may be wondering, “what compensation could I receive for making a data breach claim?” You could receive data breach compensation for: 

  • Material Damages. You could receive this due to financial losses suffered due to the breach. For instance, you could have your account details stolen, resulting in theft where you aren’t able to recover the losses. 
  • Non-Material Damages. This relates to psychological harm caused by the breach. For example, you could suffer from stress, anxiety, PTSD or depression due to the data breach. 

You could make a claim for both damages or either.

Therefore, for instance, you could look into making a No Win No Fee claim due to the non-material damages you’ve suffered. Work from the Judicial College can help indicate what you could receive for this. They’ve analysed previous payouts for various injuries, comparing the award to the severity. By doing this, they’ve created guideline compensation brackets. 

Below is a list of injuries you could suffer due to a data breach. Furthermore, alongside them are the relevant compensation brackets to indicate what could be received for that injury. The Judicial College has provided these. 

Injury TypeCompensation AmountSeverityDescription
PTSD£7,680 to £21,730(c) ModerateThe injured person will either largely recover or will have already recovered from their injuries. However, continuing symptoms may still persist but won't be grossly disabling.
PTSD£3,710 to £7,680(d) Less SevereIn order to receive compensation from this bracket, a virtually full recovery will be made within 1 year to 2 years. Additionally, only minor symptoms will occur across a longer period.
Psychiatric Damage Generally£5,500 to £17,900(c) ModerateThis bracket includes injuries that will cause problems with aspects of the injured person's life, such as their ability to cope with life, education and work. The injury will affect the relationships they have with friends and family. However, there will be a good prognosis because of a marked improvement through trial.
Psychiatric Damage GenerallyUp to £5,500(d) Less SevereThe amount of compensation received from this bracket is determined by how long the disability affects the injured person and the extent to which their day-to-day life and sleep pattern are affected.

If you can’t see your injuries in the compensation table above, why not get in touch?

Get Help From No Win No Fee Data Breach Solicitors

A No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you receive compensation for a data breach claim. You may be unsure what the benefits of a No Win No Fee agreement are. 

Firstly, you don’t have to pay your solicitor’s fees until the settlement has come through. This means that you wouldn’t need to pay their fee at any point during the claims process.

Additionally, you wouldn’t have to pay the solicitor their fee at all if your claim wasn’t successful.  

As such, taking a claim on a No Win No Fee basis risks that the solicitor will not be paid for their work. Therefore, a data breach lawyer or solicitor will assess your chances of receiving compensation before taking your case. They do this by analysing: 

  1. Whether a data protection breach has occurred
  2. If the data breach was the fault of the organisation that was supposed to protect your personal information
  3. If you suffered financial or mental damage from the breach

Data Breach Time Limits

Another important aspect of making a data breach claim is the time limit to begin the claim. For data breaches, you could have one year to claim against a public body, such as a local council. However, you could have six years to claim against a non-public body. 

Our panel of personal injury solicitors can work on your case under a No Win No Fee agreement. You may find this financially beneficial as it means you wouldn’t have to pay your solicitor’s legal fees until a settlement has been agreed. Contact us now using the details below. 

  • Call us using the telephone number above. 
  • Contact us through our website. 
  • Please write to us using the Live Chat window.

More Resources On Making A Data Breach Claim

To learn more relating to data breaches, please use the links below. 

Please read this article on the ICO website to learn more about who they are

To learn more about taking your case to court and claiming compensation, read the ICO’s guide. 

Are you suffering from PTSD and would like some medical guidance? If so, please visit this NHS webpage. 

We also have some other guides on our site that you may find useful:

Please contact us using the details above to learn more about how No Win No Fee lawyers in the UK could help you make a data breach claim.