.. that don't understand the law...

Well, I'm sure they'll have clients flocking to them now!

The fact that lawyers don't think the law applies to them comes as no surprise.

If the 500 quit fine will not be quite enough to bring them down, then the GBP15.- "surcharge" will surely do them in...

That whole amount would cover what, 1 - 2 hours of client chargeable time. Mr Bentley would loose more if he'd just decide to take it easy one afternoon and go to a pub...

Wooweee 815 pounds? I will keeping an eye on the London Gazette to see when both those Solicitor firms go into receivership then! Might get some cheap kit when they have to liquidate all their assets!

Seriously though, no wonder everyone thinks ICO is a joke, this is bloody ridiculous.

"That whole amount would cover what, 1 - 2 hours of client chargeable time. Mr Bentley would loose more if he'd just decide to take it easy one afternoon and go to a pub..."

For a Lawer in London? Only if it was work for a friend...

We are talking about solicitors going through the mill.

You'll be expecting politicians to co-operate with the police in their enquires next.

Who polices the legal profession? Those who are responsible for the law of course. All of it!

From the weasel who hangs on to the cash from your house till the last minute, to the world leaders who wrote the laws they break.

To the celebrity who doesn't have a clue what the word "law" means but has a "get out of gaol free card" anyway.

So, there I am wondering if my company should have a registered data controller, I pop over to the ICO website and it's got a .NET Server Error on every page. Great.

the only time that the ICO seems willing to take any action is to get people to register. Once they are registered the ICO becomes impotent and.or cannot be arsed to do anything except jump up and down at worst. The ICO is a waste of time and you can pretty much assume that you have no REAL protection under the DPA 1998 only a lot of meaningless wo0rds enshrined in a document called the DPA. Look at the Government who lost 23 million peoples data. Now what could be worse than that. What has the ICO done about it ?. NOTHING !!

What a stupid, flimsy, meaningless, arsingly ridiculous, pointless, poxy, non-punitive, bollox, vestigial levy to fine those bloodsucking leeches. Any fine for professions of that ilk ought to start with a one and four zeros - anything less and they won't notice or care.

Solicitors already acclaim to knowing everything in a godly fashion, and so what good is the Data Protection Act?

My biggest fear is for the UK economy for this fine will send it reeling, might even bring on a larger recession as practices start to go out of business.

I work with Solicitors and their data every day, and the highest software deployment rates go to systems and processes that have no control over data, and are further screwed up by maverick bosses specifying, but knowing nothing of the value of good data design, integrity and security. Yes you muppet software vendors using Progress you know who you are!

Mines the see through jacket with 'Don't Look I'm Being Secure' on the back.

My heart goes out those poor those victims of a merciless system the aim of which is clearly to brutalise and torment the great and the good. What about their families and staff, but worse is the effect it will have on the recipients of their charitable donations. A child in Africa will go hungry tonight, somewhere in Asia malaria will claim another victim all because of man's inhumanity to man.

Oh wait it's two fucking parasites getting the mildest of wristslaps to a susurrus of chuckles from their legal chums in the cape club. Smash their hands with hammers like in Casino.

What is the maximum fine that anyone could face if they breached data protection act.The example without going into too much detail is an employee putting a stupid joke note on a customers account. The joke is not directed at the customer and could not really cause offense but it does not comply 100% with data protection act laws where you are only supposed to note actual facts.

If anyone could provide web links to actual cases or information regarding the procedure of how the cust would get the notes from his account then the procedure if he wished to pursue if further. What is the maximum fine the company would be subject to and what action would be put on the employee who wrote the joke note. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated

Simon