High Court Overturns Ruling That QOCS Automatically Applied To Claim With PI Element

Brown v Commissioner of Met and Chief Constable of GMP [2018] EWHC 2046

The High Court has ruled that a circuit judge was incorrect in ordering that qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) automatically applied to a claim concerning misuse of data because it also included a personal injury (PI) element.

Applying the guidance in Robert Jeffreys v The Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis [2017] EWHC 1505 on whether QOCS protection applies where a claim encompasses a claim for personal injury along with other elements, the first instance decision was overturned.

Background

This was an appeal against a judgment by HHJ Luba QC in relation to one aspect of the costs of an action brought by Andrea Brown, a former police officer, against the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis ("the First Defendant") and the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police ("the Second Defendant"). She brought four separate causes of action:

Breaches of Data Protection Act 1998 Breaches of the Human Rights Act 1998 Misfeasance in public office The misuse of private information The Defendants conceded on 1 and 2, the Claimant lost on 3, and won 4 at a hearing. The judge also rejected the claimant's claim for aggravated and exemplary damages.

As part of those causes of action, the Claimant advanced a claim for personal injury, alleging she had suffered depression. The Judge held that she had not suffered any personal injury in the form of any recognised psychiatric injury and that the breaches of the DPS did not cause or materially contribute to any such injury she might have...