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26.08.16

IPSO launches new arbitration scheme for claims against the press

Earlier this month the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) announced that it was starting a year-long arbitration pilot scheme for resolving disputes against the press. The scheme officially started on 26 July 2016 and will be run by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). Organisations that have signed up voluntarily to the scheme include…

14.08.16

Asylum seekers awarded privacy damages following data leak

In the case of TLT and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Home Secretary was ordered to pay a total of £39,500 to six asylum seekers whose confidential information was accidentally published on the Home Office website.  The information remained on the website for two weeks before being taken down.  Mr…

11.08.16

Police pay out £75,000 in privacy damages after using 999 call for training

Greater Manchester Police have agreed to pay a victim of domestic violence £75,000 in compensation after using a recording of her distressed 999 call together with other information that identified her and her medical history in training exercises.  The claimant had consented to the 999 tape being used for training purposes, but only on an anonymous basis. The claimant brought a…

30.06.16

Sir Cliff Richard investigation highlights issues with pre-charge bail

Sir Cliff Richard is one of many famous faces to have been investigated for allegations of historic sex abuse, with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service ultimately taking no further action.  Although Sir Cliff was never arrested or charged, his ordeal brings into question tactics that are being deployed by police and the necessity for reform regarding…

22.05.16

Data protection: NHS Trust fined £180,000 for HIV data leak in breach of medical confidence case

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been fined £180,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a result of a serious data breach by the 56 Dean Street sexual health clinic in which hundreds of patients’ HIV status were inadvertently disclosed in an emailed newsletter. A number of patients signed up to receive…

19.05.16

Claims for revenge porn: Iain Wilson interviewed by The Mirror

An interview with Brett Wilson LLP partner Iain Wilson features in today’s Mirror. A copy of the article can be found here.   Click here to find out how we can help you if you have been a victim of revenge porn.

Supreme Court rules celebrity threesome privacy injunction to stay in force

In the long-running saga of PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2016] UKSC 26 the Supreme Court has ruled by 4-1 in favour of maintaining a privacy injunction through until trial.  The injunction was originally granted by the Court of Appeal on 22 January 2016.  It prevents the publication of a story concerning an anonymous…

12.04.16

Court of Appeal grants "celebrity threesome" privacy injunction and then discharges it

The Supreme Court is currently considering an appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal to discharge a non-disclosure injunction it granted itself earlier this year.  Until the Supreme Court has reached its decision the injunction in PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd – the “celebrity threesome gagging order” – will remain in force. As with most privacy…

27.03.16

Burrell v Clifford: Costs and proportionality in low value privacy law cases

Last month PR guru Max Clifford was ordered to pay the former Royal Butler Paul Burrell £5,000 compensation for the unauthorised disclosure of private information contained within a letter Mr Burrell had sent him.  The judgment on liability and quantum (Burrell v Clifford [2016] EWHC 294 (Ch)) can be found here, although Mr Justice Mann’s earlier…

24.01.16

Breach of Privacy: Court of Appeal upholds damages award for breach of children’s privacy

On 20 November 2015 in Weller and others v Associated Newspapers Limited [2015] EWCA Civ 1176 the Court of Appeal upheld a decision of the High Court and found that Associated Newspapers (the publishers of MailOnline) had infringed the privacy of three of the musician Paul Weller’s children by publishing un-pixelated photographs of them out shopping in…