Quick solicitor question GDPR

[octobersunshine]

Can anyone advise me on this.

My ex's solicitor has written to me and I have responded via email to her. She has forwarded the contents of my email in its entirety. This is including email address and contact phone number - which he didn't know and I didn't want him to know. Even though I'm not their client, does this constitute a breach of GDPR?

Thanks

She should have had your permission to forward all that on. I'm not sure about GDPR as that pertains more to data storage (I think), but yes, she's certainly breached confidentiality. Have you told her what she's done and why you're not happy?

Christ! Yes!

I’m not a solicitor, but a not dissimilar profession and I work with solicitors often.

That’s bad. On a scale of zero - very fucking, i’d say that’s coming in at a rating of pretty fucking.

Yes. That is your personal information. The solicitor should have been transparent about how it will be stored, used and if forwarded to a third party, before you gave her the details.

You have no grounds for complaint. Ex’s solicitor is their representative. They are entitled to sight of everything on their own file. Ex is the one entitled to confidentiality in relation to the contents of their file. Not you. You should expect that everything you send to the solicitor will be shared with their client.

It beggars belief that anyone would think otherwise.

Thanks for your replies.

Collaborate, surely they can't disclose my contact telephone number and email address irrespective of who the client is? I'm no expert, but the law applies anyway surely?

If you don't want your ex to know something don't tell his solicitor, they are working for him, not you.

But responding to their solicitor is effectively responding to them.

I don't understand what you expected to happen- the solicitor to send on the info redacting contact info? If they sent your details on to a third party, even if their own marketing team started using the details they'd be in breach. But communicating your response to their clients is literally their job. They contacted you on their behalf, your response similarly was passed on.

I suppose that's what I'm asking. Does employing a solicitor mean that as they are acting for you, you're essentially one entity - therefore personal information I send to them is effectively sent to him? Or do laws on disclosing personal information still apply? I'm quite aware that she will send on the contents of my email. Whether I'm silly or not is besides the point. What I want to know is what the law says about disclosing personal contact details.

I’m afraid babywirry has it right

Does employing a solicitor mean that as they are acting for you, you're essentially one entity - therefore personal information I send to them is effectively sent to him

In essence, yes.

Yes, barring court orders etc to the contrary

Fuck me, the stupid is strong in here.

Hi Bert.

It's not that stupid. I used to work in research for MPs who were routinely asked by constituents to make representations on their behalf to various agencies, departments and individuals. Whilst the MP could clearly relay what was said about their case, they would never divulge the personal information of the sender to the constituent. I'm not a solicitor, I think it's reasonable to ask whether data protection obligations in relation to personal information apply irrespective of client.

I didn't mean you op. I meant the series of posters turning up to pronounce their opinion on a thread in Legal when they clearly have not the foggiest idea what they are talking about, but present it as fact. Why do that?

This is a thread in legal asking for legal advice. Rocking up and pronouncing on what you think the law might be is supremely unhelpful.

OP your exes solicitor is his representative. Anything that goes to them, goes to him.

@octobersunshine You've got things the wrong way round. MPs are acting for their constituents, so must keep their private details confidential. The proper analogy is that if the MPs get a response from the various agencies and government departments they are dealing with your logic is that they aren't allowed to send a copy of that to their constituent merely because it contains someone's name.

That would be absurd.

Collaborate, I worked for MPs for a period of six years. They would routinely make enquiries on behalf of constituents to government officials, council staff etc. It their contact details were not publicly available, the responses would be copied and pasted into a letter or email rather than simply forwarding the whole of the email chain, which would contain office numbers, email addresses etc. Constituents don't have a right to know that information, only the response about their circumstances. Moreover, MPs have special hotline numbers to ministers' private offices which are not allowed to be publicly disclosed.

Actually so glad Bert has come along.

If you lurk around Legal, you’ll know Bert is worth listening to.

@octobersunshine Just because they're an MP doesn't mean to say they're doing things properly.

As a general rule the solicitor's file belongs to the client and the client is entitled to see anything on it. An exception would be if a court orders otherwise - for example to prevent commercially sensitive data being seen by a competitor in litigation but to permit it to be seen by solicitors and experts. If you didn't want your details to be passed on, you shouldn't have given them to the solicitor.