Accountant Data Breach Claim

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After an accountant data breach claim, you might suffer from financial harm or a psychological injury.

Whether or not an accountant has accidentally or deliberately compromised your personal data, you could still possibly claim.

In this guide, you’ll find out what you can do after a data breach in the UK and how you could get data breach compensation.

Additionally, you might wonder, ‘how much is a data breach claim worth?’ We’ll answer that question plus you’ll find out how you could benefit from the services of our panel of No Win No Fee data breach solicitors.

However, before we begin, we want to make you aware of key legislation that protects your data privacy. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) sets out the framework that organisations should follow when handling personal data. The principles of UK GDPR are implemented by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).

If you are someone who is seeking compensation following an accountant data breach, you must be able to show that an organisation’s wrongful conduct caused the breach. You will have also suffered from mental harm and financial loss. Likewise, you may have suffered either. Our advisors are available 24/7 to help you with any queries. To get in touch with us, you may:

Call the number above
Use our live chat feature
Use our make a claim form now

Choose A Section

Guidance On Claiming Compensation After A Data Breach Involving Accountants
What Is An Accountant Data Breach?
Examples Of Data Breaches Involving Accountants
How Much Could I Get For An Accountant Data Breach?
What Are No Win No Fee Lawyers?
Further Information About An Accountant Data Breach

Guidance On Claiming Compensation After A Data Breach Involving Accountants

A personal data breach involves a security incident in which your personal information is accidentally, or unlawfully, destroyed, disclosed, altered, lost or stolen. Personal information is data that identifies you. For example:

Your name
National Insurance Number
Salary information
Information held on P60s

If your accountant fails to protect your personal data, you could suffer harm as a result. You might not be sure who is to blame for your data breach. However, our advisors offer a free consultation with no obligation for you to proceed with the services of our panel.

What Is An Accountant Data Breach?

An independent body called the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for enforcing data protection law and may investigate or issue penalties to organisations found not complying with the ‘7 core principles’, which are:

Personal data should be lawfully collected and the reasons why should be clear
Personal data must be used for specific reasons
Keep personal data to a minimum
Ensure that any personal information collected is accurate
Don’t keep personal data for any longer than is necessary
Securely store personal data
Be ready to be held accountable for the above points in relation to the processing of personal data

Data controllers and data processors should follow the above principles. The data controller, which would generally be your accountant, decides why and how your personal data is used. On the contrary, a data processor is responsible for processing your data on behalf of the data controller. They aren’t always used by accountants and many process the personal data themselves.

If your accountant is found to have failed to protect your personal data through their own wrongdoing resulting in a data breach that causes you harm or suffering, you may have grounds for a valid claim. Speak to an advisor using our live chat to find out how we could help you.

Examples Of Data Breaches Involving Accountants

While the causes of an accountant data breach may be down to cyber criminals, such as phishing scams or ransomware threats, it may also occur due to human error. In this section, we’ll discuss different scenarios that could result in an accidental data breach. For example:

Your accountant may post your financial statement to the wrong address, despite having the correct one on file
An accountant might not secure a device that holds your personal information, meaning if the device is lost, your personal data may be accessed
If your accountant discusses your personal data with you over the phone, but they are not in a private room, unauthorised persons may hear the details of your conversation

Data Breach Statistics

The latest data security incident trends reported by the ICO revealed the finance, insurance and credit sector to be the fifth most affected by data breaches. There were 173 incidents reported in Q4 of 2021/22, out of which 124 incidents were non-cyber. Some of the most common incident types included:

Data emailed to the wrong recipient (35)
Data posted or faxed to the wrong address (29)
Phishing (23)
Ransomware (15)

Our advisors can go through any data breach questions with you. Additionally, if you have a valid data breach claim, they may be able to connect you to a solicitor from our panel and take you one step closer to getting the compensation you might be owed.

How Much Could I Get For An Accountant Data Breach

A Court of Appeal case changed how much you may get for an accountant data breach. In Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc (2015), the Court decided that data breach victims may be compensated for a psychological injury even if they haven’t suffered financial harm. Before this case, if you wanted to seek compensation for mental harm after a data breach, you’d need to show you suffered financial loss too. Now, you can claim for both or either damage.

Additionally, following Gulati & Others V MGN Ltd (2015), it is now possible for a psychological injury from a data breach to be valued in the same way as it would for a personal injury.

As a result, we have taken compensation brackets from the 16th edition of the Judicial College Guidelines, produced in April 2022, to help you work out non-material damage. This head of claim refers to psychological injuries, like post-traumatic stress disorder. However, please note that the compensation ranges are estimates based on previously settled court cases. Our advisors can value your claim for free.

Injury	Compensation Range	Notes
Severe Psychiatric Damage	£54,830 to £115,730	All aspects of your life are detrimentally affected.
Moderately Severe Psychiatric Damage	£19,070 to £54,830	You may be unable to work and may suffer from nightmares.
Moderate Psychiatric Damage	£5,860 to £19,070	The prognosis is much more optimistic than above.
Less Severe Psychiatric Damage	£1,540 to £5,860	You may struggle to sleep but the prognosis is a lot more optimistic.
Severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	£59,860 to £100,670	Symptoms render you unable to work.
Moderately Severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	£23,150 to £59,860	A better prognosis is expected despite symptoms persisting.
Moderate Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	£8,180 to £23,150	A recovery is expected but symptoms may continue.
Less Severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	£3,950 to £8,180	You will have largely recovered within two years.

Meaning Of Material Damage

While non-material damage covers any psychological harm inflicted by a data breach, material damage refers to financial losses you have incurred.

Since accountants have access to your financial data, you could suffer major financial harm if you suffer an accountant data breach. For example, cybercriminals could use your financial data to make fraudulent purchases under your name.

We would advise that you keep hold of any receipts and bank statements to prove your financial losses caused by a data breach. However, we understand that it may be harder to prove financial losses that may occur in the future, therefore we advise you speak to a solicitor from our panel. They could help you cover all bases of a data breach claim.

What Are No Win No Fee Lawyers?

An accountant data breach may have a devastating impact on your finances. Subsequently, you might think that funding legal representation is out of reach. However, with No Win No Fee lawyers, it doesn’t have to be.

A lawyer that processes claims on a No Win No Fee basis requires no upfront fee. Furthermore, they don’t require ongoing payments of their fee either.

Additionally, if you don’t win compensation, you won’t pay a success fee to your lawyer. If your claim is successful, a legally capped fee is deducted from your compensation to pay your lawyer. Our panel of data breach claim solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis to give you the best chance of getting compensation.

Ask About Making An Accountant Data Breach Claim

You might now feel ready to make an accountant data breach claim. Alternatively, you could just have a question. Whatever we can help you with, we are more than happy to do so. Our advisors work around the clock and can answer your queries by:

Calling the number at the top of this page
Using our live chat function
Why not see if you can make a claim now?

Further Information About An Accountant Data Breach

Before we conclude our guide on making an accountant data breach claim, we want to share some additional resources that could help you.

National Cyber Strategy 2022 – Find out how the government is encouraging cyber security.
Action we’ve taken – The ICO reveals what organisations have been penalised for breaching data protection laws.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – Here’s how the NHS could help you if you have PTSD following a data breach.

You could get more information by reading our other guides:

If you have any more questions on making an accountant data breach claim, feel free to get in touch.

Writer Lewis Jaques

Publisher Ruth Voss