Complaints | Careful client correspondence

A solicitor specialising in personal injury litigation is busy preparing for a trial just a few days away. Trial bundles have been agreed and copied for witnesses. In an effort to help prepare the client for what lies ahead, the fee earner decides to send a copy of part of the trial bundle, which included witness statements and some medical records, out to the client. It is a lever-arch file of papers and instructions are given to the secretary to “post out to the client”.

The following day, late in the afternoon, an irate client phones the solicitor to tell him that having arrived back home after a day out, all his personal information contained in the lever-arch file is strewn over his front garden for anyone to pick up and see. The postman had been unable to post the large bundle through the letterbox and rather than leaving a note that a parcel too large had been left at the depot for collection, had simply left the parcel on the doorstep only for a stray dog to come along and rip the parcel to shreds. To top it all, having gathered the papers together, the client has noticed that some papers in the bundle relate to a completely different client.

Far fetched you might say? Possibly (with regard to the dog) but it is certainly possible that sensitive personal information could be left on a client’s doorstep by the postman if the bundle was only sent in first class post. It is also a common occurrence that incorrect enclosures are sent out.

A swift apology will be an absolute must here. It will thereafter depend upon whether any papers have gone astray as to whether any further compensation or action might be due. You would, for example, need to consider whether this was an issue to report to the Information Commissioner as a Data Protection breach. You would also need to check whether the other copies of the trial bundles contained other client confidential information and if it did, ensure it is removed. You might also need to notify the client whose confidential information was sent out incorrectly of the problem you have become aware of.

Your policy and procedures on postage would need to be reviewed and the secretaries and fee earners reminded of how important it is to think about the method of posting when sending large bundles outside of the office as well as a careful check of the enclosures being made by the fee earner.
In this scenario, certainly it should have been sent by recorded or special delivery and a phone call made to the client warning him that the bundle is on its way and to check with the client before sending it that they would be at home to receive the parcel.