As we follow the Americans down the litigation path, lots of Solicitors now ask their clients to exercise SAR or do so on their behalf as fishing expedition to gain access to information that would not be obtainable under normal rules of disclosure of evidence!
Many councils in NE england (and I'm sure elsewhere too) get hundreds of SAR annually in relation to housing files from a handful of (not local) firms that specialise in knocking on tenants' doors asking if they want to claim damages for housing disrepair.
In most cases haven't got a chance of success because they haven't reported the disrepair in the first place, or are under notice to quit, or otherwise fail to meet the criteria for housing pre-action protocol. But the Solicitors don't care, they work on an insurance fee basis so get paid regardless of outcome!
So charge the max £10 because its SAR whether the Solicitor mentions DPA1998 or not, as long as you're satisfied that they are definitely acting on the data subject's behalf. I always insisted on seeing signed consent from the data subject and made sure it matched file copy before releasing any documents.
Kirsty E Gray
Data Protection Officer
National Care Standards Commission
Note: comments for discussion and debate only and do not necessarily reflect the corporate position of NCSC nor constitute legal advice.
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Lane [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 August 2003 21:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Claim for Blame !!!
I have dealt with cases whereby the solicitor has asked the individual to
exercise their right of subject access in order to get at all of the
information. Clearly not 'enforced subject access' because it is in the
data subject's interest. The solicitor is simply making the client aware of
their rights so that they can proceed (quite easily perhaps) with their
claim. £10 max would be the fee.
Peter Lane
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at : -
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/user-manual/summary-user-commands.htm
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|