The Law Society has apologised after a staff member accidentally sent confidential information about a sexual harassment allegation to the wrong person.
An email containing confidential information to the Law Society was sent to the wrong person. Photo: 123rf
The email contained a complaint to the Law Society by a legal practitioner, who was self-reporting his own conduct, which is alleged to amount to sexual harassment or bullying.
Court orders prevent any publication of details.
The human error was created by an auto fill response in the email.
The name of the intended recipient, who was a Law Society employee, was similar to the name of the person who ultimately received the information, it said.
Law Society president Kathryn Beck said it was an unacceptable and preventable mistake.
"This error has caused additional and unnecessary stress for those whose information was disclosed," she said.
"The Law Society was entrusted with information that it should have been able to properly protect and we fell short of our internal standards. We are profoundly sorry for this unacceptable mistake."
The Law Society has asked the recipient to delete the information. The recipient did not initially respond to repeated attempts at contact. All those involved were told about the breach as well as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
To protect the privacy of the people involved, the Law Society has sought a court order preventing the publication of the details of the email.
The Law Society said it accepted the incident raised questions about how it handled confidential information.
"Any breach of privacy undermines the integrity of an organisation. This comes at a time where questions are being asked about our organisation's systems and processes. We must provide the highest standard of care in regard to private information. We did not do that on this occasion."
The Law Society has reviewed its processes to test that they are as resilient as possible and all staff have also been instructed again on the need to follow the procedures at all times.
