Raising a claim for incomplete SAR disclosure. How to punish them?

[jotty]

Done a couple of these recently where companies have failed to send the DSAR info, the first paid me the £75 and sent the info within days and the second one have paid the £100 i claimed but haven’t yet supplied the info so I haven’t cashed the cheque yet and requested judgement based on them not settling fully. They will rogue that the fee charged has been paid by sending me they cheque but i am happy to go to court and make them explain to a judge why i am claiming damages.

[jotty]

They where estimates of the time taken to prepare the requests and then prepare the court papers, much like when they charge me £50 a month in additional admin fees just for pressing send on a keyboard.

 

I could have asked for more but as each company has a cost threshold before they decide to contest I didn't want to incur any further charges by being greedy unlike the companies we have to deal with.

[jotty]

30 minutes ago, craigten said:

Oh I didn’t know that. Any idea what those thresholds are?

Also, what could they contest - the amount you’re claiming for?(as they couldn’t contest that they have infringed GDPR)

The threshold will vary from company to company but I have worked on the estimate of £1000 and less as to instruct a solicitor to defend would cost more than this, but it depends how serious they are and how sure they feel about not giving out info.

 

Its all about putting them on the spot legally to show that their procedures are flawed and how can we be satisfied they are going to adhere to GDPR rules if they cant even supply the info. Not sure how seriously the ICO would take the fact that any company had a ccj based on their non compliance but am certain it would't do any harm to their investigation.

[jotty]

We haven't won anything yet, and sadly a lot of people don't know what to look for when they get the documents from the SAR. That's why we all need people like Bankfodder and dx on here.

 

Very important is not to give up and keep asking rather than letting things go as that's what all these companies want.

[jotty]

3 minutes ago, king12345 said:

I mean this

Not sure what point your making but its all about getting them to comply 

[jotty]

Backfire in what way ? 

[jotty]

29 minutes ago, king12345 said:

Judge considering unreasonable taking a company to court for £25 without giving them a chance to settle out of court.

 

If it ever gets to a judge then every effort would have been made to settle prior to court, all pre application protocols will have been done and before that all evidence of non compliance from properly formulated requests.

 

Not sure you are understanding the process, no one would got straight to court without months of work which is what the claim is for. The £25 fee applies to all cases under a certain amount and its the costs of preparing the months of requests that we claim for. In reality based on what many of these companies charge us, £50 for a letter !, we should be claiming much more but its hard to quantify from an evidential point hence why I keep mine under £100. 

 

If all these so called reputable companies did what they claim they do such as help customers then none of this would be necessary.

[jotty]

Firstly dont under any circumstances go into this as an act of punishment as a judge will pick up on it and most likely rule against you.

 

You are not applying for a CCJ, you are asking for the costs incurred in making the disclosure requests to be reimbursed and if they don't pay and don't defend then you can request judgement. Even then they can ask for it to be stayed so don't go thinking its a done deal.

 

As I have explained, work out your costs, I have kept mine low so that it doesn't suggest to a judge that anything actually costs £50 for a letter for example, as the main purpose is to get it in the system and potentially to a judgement. If they do pay up, and many will, my advice is not to cash the cheque until they send the info from the SAR and then only if your happy. If you don't get it then seek judgement and even if it goes to court you can ask the judge to increase the costs due to the extra work.

 

This will not be a case about GDPR etc as the judge will not make a decision on that, but it is great evidence of non compliance to take to the ICO. 

[jotty]

An award is not case law and doesn’t set a precedent over other courts, it can be used during summing up of a case but any judge can choose to ignore what another had done, look at the bank charge cases from years ago.

[jotty]

54 minutes ago, craigten said:

Thank you, and I'm not doubting you but does this case not have much 'sway' if one was to make a similar claim:

 

The claimant was awarded £750 for distress for what the court held to be a minor breach. 

 

https://www.hempsons.co.uk/news-articles/damages-distress-awarded-breach-data-protection-act/

Of course it can be used in legal argument but it isn’t case law