Is it possible to complain about Ex's solicitors?

[OhdearOhdearOhdear]

I'm trying to find some information about whether it is possible to complain about DH's ex's solicitors.

The situation is that all communication between DH and his ex is via her solicitors. They have sent him a letter dealing with some current issues and attached a copy of a report relating to his DC. However the attached document doesn't relate to his DC but is about another one of their clients and that client's DC. The information contained in that document is highly sensitive and obviously confidential and is in no way meant for DH.

What we are really concerned about is that the information that DH was meant to be sent is also highly sensitive and confidential and there is no way of knowing whether this has accidentally been sent to another third party.

I don't know what the rules are about this that solicitors have to work to but it seems to be a serious breach of confidentiality.

Is there anyone who can advise on whether a complaint can be made about the ex's solicitors given the breach of confidentiality?

Is the solicitor in England or Scotland?

Sorry, they are in England.

I did try looking on the website for the Solicitors Regulation Authority but I'm having trouble making sense of it all.

www.legalcomplaints.org.uk/home.page Try these, there's different laws in Scotland which is why I asked. They should be able to help.
I'd be tempted to complain to www.ico.gov.uk these aswell as it is a blatent breach of confidentiality.

I would complain both to the solicitor regulation authority (the body that regulates solicitors for advice) www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/solicitors.page and to the information commissioner as this is clearly a callous breach of both confidential information and data protection www.ico.gov.uk/

www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page Ah, here you go. This is the right bit.

great minds think alike belle!

www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

Thanks for the response, I'm still trying to get my head round them making such a big mistake.

I had looked at the legal complaints webpage but it wasn't clear to me whether they accepted complaints about solicitors from someone who isn't the client IYSWIM. I'll get DH to have a look and he can decide what he wants to do next. It hadn't occurred to me to complain to the ICO as well so that's really helpful too.

You can tell what I did in my past life can't you!

Mistakes happen, no one's perfect. They should have checked though. The sra.org and the ico.gov pages are the one's you need, click on the links and have a look.

Oops I'm typing too slow! Thanks for all the responses and links.

... and me in my current life belle. I agree that mistakes happen but honestly when you are a solicitor dealing with sensitive material, you should know better! That is why you are paid after all

There were no jobs here after I finished my degree so I ended up in the NHS (not in law sadly, would be helpful if I could find a PI job though)

I hope it goes well Ohdear.

Thank you both for your help, it's really useful info. I understand that people are only human (obviously! ) and mistakes do happen but the information that was being dealt with really warranted somebody double checking everything. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Thanks Belle.

Complain, it's the only way that they will put measures in place to prevent it happening again.

This is the sort of thing that gives me nightmares (as a family lawyer).

Most of my stuff goes out without my seeing it as I leave at 2.30 before most of my post is typed so I rely on my secretary doing her job carefully and another fee earner checking, but I can see how it went wrong in your dh's case. It only takes two files to be open on the secretary's desk for her to pick up the wrong report and put it in the envelope.

That said, obviously they've messed up. It's not so much that it's a massive error in itself but the effect of the error is of course massive (iyswim)

of mumblechums working hours. How did you manage that?

I've always been lucky enough to work pt, from 1992, (lots of different companies), and even though ds now almost 16 have no desire whatsoever to go back to full time, in fact I've recently cut back to 18 hours to give me more time to do voluntary work mumsnet . I do obviously have to put in a full day if I have an all day hearing or a panic on.