What is data breach distress compensation?

The concept of data breach distress compensation is a relatively new area of law, and one that we’ve been at the forefront of for several years; but what is it, and what do we do?

As the world becomes increasingly more digitalised, the likelihood that data is misused, leaked or hacked is more common. We no longer have to just lock up our doors at night; we also need to make sure that our electronic doors are safe and secure. With more information accessible and stored digitally, it’s more susceptible to being breached.

The result is that data breach incidents have grown astronomically in recent years. As a result, people are suffering; and that’s where we can help.

About data breach distress compensation

As we said earlier, the concept of data breach distress compensation is a relatively new area of law. Although the Data Protection Act has existed since 1998, it’s only the recent increases in digitalisation that has led to greater numbers of breaches and people making claims.

And this all became more commonplace in recent years. As the threat of the misuse of breached data hangs over the head of the victims, it’s important that something is done.

When your personal information is misused or exposed, it can cause understandable distress. It’s not nice to think that a neighbour working for the NHS has snooped on your medical records. It’s scary to think that some criminals out there may know parts of your credit card number. It’s worrying that you may receive calls or emails from scammers who know your full name, contact information and details of a compromised account.

All this can cause considerable distress, especially when the nature of the information misused or exposed is particularly sensitive. Data breach compensation amounts are generally based on the extent of the distress caused, and you can be entitled to recover losses and expenses on top of this. The distress alone is claimable, and cases can range from a few thousand pounds to tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds. We have represented, and continue to represent, clients in each of these categories.

Our history in this area of law

As more and more firms are now marketing services for data breach distress compensation claims, it’s important to know who to turn to.

We can’t speak for other firms, and we won’t make outlandish or unsupported claims about who we are, which we’re aware other firms increasingly do. We don’t want to mislead people like others are doing. So, to make sure you understand who we are, we’ll keep it simple and tell you about our real experience.

Although our lawyers and legal team have decades of experience in representing people that have been wronged, with millions of pounds in damages recovered for individual claimants as well as in large consumer actions, we first engaged in data privacy breaches way back in 2014. We took forward our first group action case in 2015, the infamous 56 Dean Street Clinic leak (one of the most serious data breaches in the UK ever).

Now, we’re fighting for justice in over 35 different group and multi-party actions, and thousands of innocent victims of breaches, leaks and hacks have come to us for our expertise. We were also appointed to sit on the Steering Committee, by order of the High Court of Justice, in the first GDPR Group Litigation in England and Wales, the British Airways data breach action. This is not our first Steering Committee appointment, and it won’t be our last.

This combination of over five years of proven experience in this complex and niche area of law means that you know we’re a leading law firm upholding the rights of data breach victims. We also believe in acting fast, which means we take action right away – we don’t mess around. We’re not into registering people’s information for potential actions or future casework, we take our clients’ cases forward with No Win, No Fee representation right away when we’re sure of a new case or action.

Acting fast means taking real legal action right away for our clients. This means getting our Protocol Letter of Claim to the Defendant within a few days or weeks of a breach taking place, and building our clients’ cases right away. We’ve taken this kind of rapid action for several of our key cases, such as the BA data breach, the Ticketmaster cyberattack, and the recent Virgin Media exposure.

We’re also in the media a lot as a go-to name to talk about breaches, actions and how we’re helping people.

Free, no-obligation advice

If you want to know more about data breach distress compensation claims and how we can help you, all you need to do is contact the team for advice.

We’re more than happy to speak to you on a completely free and no-obligation basis, and your confidentiality is our priority. We’re normally open until 10pm on most weekdays, and 9am to 5pm on most weekends.

We’re here to help you. And remember, if we can take your case forward, we offer No Win, No Fee representation for your peace of mind.

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