Changes regarding privacy and DP claims

The Ministry of Justice has announced that there are going to be some changes to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) from 1 October 2019 as regards privacy and data protection claims.

Court rules dealing with defamation cases (CPR Part 53 and the related pre-action protocol) will be amended so that they will also become applicable to any case that includes a claim for misuse of private information, data protection or harassment by publication, law firm Squire Patton Boggs LLP reports.

“The rule changes also designate the Media and Communications List as a specialist List of the High Court in which any claim for data protection and misuse of private information must be brought and provide rules about what the statements of case must contain and deal with transfers in and out of that List. This means that any High Court claims will have to be issued in the High Court in London and claims issued in courts elsewhere in the country will be transferred to London (potentially increasing costs for both sides). If cases are relatively straightforward and obviously low value then it would still be possible to issue proceedings in the County Court rather than High Court but there could well be scope for procedural battles between Claimants, who want to issue in the High Court to get a better chance at cost recovery, and Defendants, who want to get cases transferred to the County/Small Claims Court to limit costs. These arguments could well lead to an increase in costs and drag out the length of time cases take further.”

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