Visiting the dentist can be stressful enough already without concerns about how safe your personal data is. If you feel that your dentist or the surgery has compromised your personal information, this guide will explain how you can make a dentist data breach compensation claim.
Firstly, we define what a personal data breach is and whether a dentist is allowed to disclose personal information about you. You may not be aware of it, but you can take action to seek compensation against third parties if you can prove they did not comply with two main data protection laws called the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and that this caused you harm.
Our guide will also look at how a dentist should try to prevent patient data breaches and how compensation could be awarded should you make a successful data breach claim. We close by explaining how our solicitors can take up eligible cases under a type of No Win No Fee agreement. Potentially allowing you the opportunity to access excellent legal representation without the worry of initial solicitor’s costs.
If a dentist surgery has told you that your data has been breached, or if you discovered the problem yourself, find out if you’re entitled to be compensated.
- Call us today on 0800 073 8801 to speak to one of our advisors.
- Start a claim online here.
- Use the live chat function on this page.
Browse Our Guide
- What Is A Dentist Data Breach?
- Is A Dental Practice Allowed To Disclose Personal Information?
- Can I Claim For A Dentist Data Breach?
- How Should A Dental Practice Prevent Data Breaches?
- How Much Dentist Data Breach Compensation Could I Receive?
- Claim For A Data Breach At A Dental Practice On A No Win No Fee Basis
- More Resources About Claiming For A Data Breach
What Is A Dentist Data Breach?
A typical dentist surgery needs to keep a wide range of information about their patients. This is usually the basic contact information of name, address, date of birth, and email address.
A personal data breach occurs when there is unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, disclosure or access to personal data. This can be from a security breach or a simple human error. Some personal data is more sensitive in nature and has to be handled more carefully; this is called special category data. This includes medical data, and a dental practice would hold some special category data about you.
The data protection laws covered in the introduction apply to both the controllers and the processors of personal data. Controllers determine the reason for data collection and processors will process data on their behalf. So, a dental surgery could have a reason to have your personal data but might work with another company to help them process it.
To have a valid claim for compensation against a dental practice, you need to prove the following:
- The data breach was caused by a failure on the part of the controllers or processors to properly comply with data protection laws (known as wrongful conduct).
- Your personal data was involved in a security incident and breach because of this wrongful conduct.
- This caused you to suffer financial and/or psychological harm as a result.
If you’re unsure about how eligible your dentist data breach claim might be, speak to our advisors. They can offer an immediate assessment of the strength of your dental practice data breach claim.
Is A Dental Practice Allowed To Disclose Personal Information?
Typically, a dentist is not allowed to disclose personal data. In order for any organisation to share or disclose the personal data of a data subject, they must satisfy at one of the six lawful bases as set by the UK GDPR. The six lawful bases are as follows:
- Consent
- Contract
- Legal obligation
- Vital interests
- Public task
- Legitimate interests.
Find out more information on these lawful bases for data processing from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the watchdog for the public’s data protection rights.
If you are concerned that your data was shared incorrectly, please speak to our advisors. They can offer free guidance on what steps are available to you.
Can I Claim For A Dentist Data Breach?
There are various ways that a dentist could compromise your personal data, either through accidental human error or through deliberate actions. Some examples are as follows:
- The dental clinic failed to keep their records up to date and sent personal medical data about you to the wrong postal address.
- The surgery or clinic sent personal data about you to the wrong email address or recipient.
- A medical data breach involving your details occurred because staff at the dentist’s surgery failed to exit a screen on the computer, allowing unauthorised people to access the data.
- The clinic suffered an external hack from cyber criminals caused by poor IT defences.
Call the team to discuss your particular dentist data breach issue.
How Should A Dental Practice Prevent Data Breaches?
There are numerous ways that dental practices can safeguard the personal data of their patients. In addition to doing their best to comply with the DPA and UK GDPR laws, they can:
- Ensure their IT defences are robust and up to date.
- Train staff in their data protection responsibilities.
- Should a breach occur despite the dentist’s best efforts to keep your data safe, they need to tell you as quickly as possible.
- Also, the dentist’s surgery must report serious breaches that impact the freedoms and rights of those involved to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) no later than 72 hours after discovering the issue.
How Much Dentist Data Breach Compensation Could I Receive?
If your dentist data breach compensation claim is successful, you could receive amounts for material and non-material damage.
Non-material damage refers to the psychological distress and harm caused by discovering your data was breached. Depending on the severity of the data breach and what consequences it creates for you, you could experience:
- Stress and worry.
- Anxiety, panic attacks and depression.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Feeling suicidal after the data breach.
With medical evidence of a diagnosed mental health problem caused by the data breach, you could receive compensation similar to that shown in the table below.
These amounts come from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This publication is used by those responsible for valuing claims. The figures are not guarantees, only guidelines as each claim varies. Also, the first entry in our table does not come from the JCG:
Compensation Guidelines
| Type of Injury | How Severe? | Award Guideline | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Various types of psychological harm with material damage amounts for significant lost income and counselling. | Severe | Up to £500,000 | This bracket award would reflect multiple degrees of psychological injury plus material damage amounts for lost earnings, financial loss and the cost of counselling fees. |
| General psychological injury | (a) Severe | £66,920 up to £141,240 | Extreme cases of psychological harm that permanently impact ability to function in many areas of life. |
| (b) Moderately Severe | £23,270 up to £66,920 | Still serious harm felt in most areas of life but a more favourable prognosis is indicated. | |
| (c) Moderate | £7,150 up to £23,270 | Similar issues that improve by the time the case may (or may not) be nearing a trial. | |
| (d) Less Severe | £1,880 up to £7,150 | Typically, awards in this bracket are based on the duration of injury. | |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | (a) Severe | £73,050 up to £122,850 | A profound and far-reaching trauma response that is permanent and prevents coping at the same level as before the injury. |
| (b) Moderately Severe | £28,250 up to £73,050 | A severity level similar to above but some improvement is indicated after professional counselling has taken place. | |
| (c) Moderate | £9,980 up to £28,250 | The injured party may experience some continuing effects, but these are not grossly disabling. | |
| (d) Less Severe | £4,820 up to £9,980 | Almost a total recovery is indicated within 12 - 24 months and any remaining issues beyond this are minor. |
Can I Claim For Material Damage Caused By My Health Data Being Exposed?
Material damage reflects the financial losses you suffered due to the dentist data breach. This includes:
- Loss of earnings caused by time off work with stress.
- The expense of replacing devices like smartphones.
- The costs of relocating yourself or your family if the data breach caused severe issues with safety and confidentiality.
It’s therefore important to keep things that can help you prove your losses. This could be credit card statements, receipts, invoices or wage slips. You can reach out to us on the contact options above for free guidance about what evidence could increase the chances of you recovering damages.
Claim For A Data Breach At A Dental Practice On A No Win No Fee Basis
You are perfectly free to start a compensation claim for a data breach independently. But the advantages of seeking expert advice from our solicitors could help you put forward a much stronger claim.
With years of expertise seeking compensation for their clients, it makes sense to see if our solicitors could help you. They will help build a strong case for data breach compensation by:
- Helping you to collect supporting evidence.
- Dealing with the court correspondence that a data breach claim creates.
- Calculating the correct amount of compensation owed to you.
- Explaining legal jargon.
- Handling court correspondence.
Our solicitors also offer these services through a type of No Win No Fee contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Under terms such as these, there are numerous advantages, such as:
- No upfront fees to pay the solicitors to start a claim.
- No fees for the solicitor’s ongoing work on your claim.
- No fee is owed for completed services of your solicitor if the claim is unsuccessful.
- If the claim settles in your favour, a minimal success fee is paid to the solicitor. This amount is taken from the compensation that has been awarded to you.
- The success fee is a percentage subject to a legal limit, thereby ensuring that you, the claimant, benefit the most from the award made.
Why not see if a data breach solicitor could help you after a dental surgery compromised your personal or medical information? Simply:
- Talk about claiming dentist data breach compensation by speaking to advisors on 0800 073 8801
- Or start a claim online for a personal data breach here.
- Use the live function on this page.
More Resources About Claiming For A Data Breach
This guide focused on the dentist data breach claims process, but these other resources explore the topic of data breach more broadly:
- Here, you can read about how to claim for a foster care data breach.
- Learn how to make a data breach claim against your landlord.
- In addition to this, if someone shared your medical information, read more about your options.
Some external help:
- Read tips for staying secure online from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
- Latest cyber security breaches survey from GOV.UK
- Information about what you can expect from your dentist from the General Dental Council.
We greatly appreciate your interest in our guide. If you’d like to access more free information about how to claim compensation for a dentist data breach or any kind of medical data breach, call our advisors about the next step.
