While the privacy world is focused on the Equifax data breach, another development is taking place that could have a more lasting effect on privacy law. In the last month, plaintiffs’ lawyers in Illinois have filed over 20 lawsuits against companies that authenticate their employees or customers with their fingerprints. The lawsuits are based on… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Lawsuits
Subscribe to Lawsuits RSS FeedCourt Applies Work Product Protection to Breach Investigation Reports
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsOne of the most significant questions in data security law is whether reports created by forensic firms investigating data breaches at the direction of counsel are protected from discovery in civil class action lawsuits. They are, at least according to an order issued last week in In re Experian Data Breach Litigation. 15-01592 (C.D. Cal…. Continue Reading
Law Firm Data Security: The First Class Action
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, Law firm data security, Lawsuits, Vendor ManagementEarlier this year, Bloomberg Law reported that Edelson PC, a leading plaintiffs’ firm in privacy and data security law, filed a class action lawsuit against a regional law firm that had vulnerabilities in its information security systems. This week, the identity of the firm and the allegations of the lawsuit were unsealed. The case, Shore v…. Continue Reading
The Target Data Breach Lawsuits: Why Every Company Should Care
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsPlaintiffs’ lawyers were falling over themselves last week in a race to the courthouse to sue Target as a result of its recent data breach. By at least one report, over 40 lawsuits have already been filed against Target, the first of which was filed the day after the breach became public. This post will… Continue Reading
What’s The Next Wave of Privacy Litigation? “Failure to Match”
Posted in Being Proactive, Data Privacy, LawsuitsA client recently asked me to identify the next wave of data privacy litigation. I said that with so much attention on lawsuits arising from data breaches, particularly in light of some recent successes for the plaintiffs in those lawsuits, the way in which companies collect information and disclose what they are collecting is flying… Continue Reading
Yet Another Potential Multimillion-Dollar Data Breach Settlement . . .
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsJust when you thought it might be safe to go back into the water, another significant data breach lawsuit may be settling. Last week, I wrote about the proposed settlement in the AvMed lawsuit. The motion for a preliminary proposed settlement in that case was granted on Friday, and a Final Hearing is set for… Continue Reading
$3,000,000 Settlement Reached in Data Breach Lawsuit
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsHow much of a headache can a couple of stolen laptops cause your organization? How about a $3 million headache?? That is the amount of a settlement proposed in an Unopposed Motion in Support of Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement in Resnick/Curry v. AvMed, Inc., No. 1:10-cv-24513-JLK (S.D. Fla.), a data breach lawsuit pending in the Southern District of… Continue Reading
Data Breach Lawsuits Settling in the Southern District of Florida
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsPlaintiffs in data breach lawsuits around the country have had a difficult time surviving motions to dismiss and for summary judgment. A number of courts have rejected these lawsuits because they failed to allege or demonstrate cognizable injuries, standing, causation, and the requisite elements to withstand an economic loss rule defense. It is dangerous, however,… Continue Reading
Healthcare Organizations Take It On The Chin
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data Privacy, Data Security, FTC, Health Care Industry, LawsuitsIf you have noticed an increasing number of high profile problems for healthcare organizations with respect to privacy and security issues these last few weeks you’re not alone. The issues have ranged from employee misuse of protected health information, web-based breaches, photocopier breaches, and theft of stolen computers that compromised millions of records containing unsecured… Continue Reading
Data Breach Lawsuits – Revisiting the Risks
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data Privacy, Data Security, LawsuitsUntil recently, individuals whose information was compromised as a result of a company suffering a data breach faced an uphill battle when suing the company in a class action lawsuit. Far more often than not, Courts dismissed the lawsuits or entered summary judgment in favor of defendants on grounds that the plaintiffs could not establish… Continue Reading
New U.S. Supreme Court Decision Will Likely Impact Data Breach Litigation
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsThe following Data Security Law Journal post was authored by Becky Schwartz, my law partner at Shook Hardy & Bacon. Becky is an experienced class action litigator who has developed a specialty in privacy litigation. In this post, Becky discusses a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that may make it more difficult for consumers to… Continue Reading
Identity Theft –Who Is A Victim?
Posted in Data Security, LawsuitsAre you a victim of identity theft when your personally identifiable information is stolen? Is the theft alone, and the risk that your information may be misused, sufficient? Does your information have to be misused in some fraudulent manner before you can be considered a victim? A federal appellate court recently weighed in on these… Continue Reading
Where Can You Be Sued For Using A Computer?
Posted in All Things E, Jurisdiction, LawsuitsIt is sometimes easy to forget with the increasing mobility of electronic information and our ability to “work from anywhere” that behind our office laptop, desktop, or tablet computing device is a network of servers that may be located anywhere in the world. When we hit “send”, “save”, or “open”, we use the network to… Continue Reading
The Southern District of Florida Weighs In On Data Breach Lawsuits
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsLate last week, another Federal District Court (the Southern District of Florida) weighed in on the circumstances under which a plaintiff may sue a breached entity civilly for damages when the plaintiff’s personally identifiable information (PII) is inappropriately accessed or acquired. The Court allowed the case to proceed with counts for violation of Florida’s Unfair… Continue Reading
Private Lawsuits Arising From Data Breaches – The Eleventh Circuit Weighs In
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, Health Care Industry, LawsuitsLast week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided Resnick v. AvMed, Inc., No. 11-13694 (11th Cir. Sep. 5, 2012). The Court’s opinion addresses some important issues regarding an individual’s right to bring a private lawsuit when her personally identifiable information or protected health information is compromised. In its decision, the… Continue Reading
Why is the Countrywide data breach lawsuit dismissal important?
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsAnother court has weighed in on the issue of what constitutes a cognizable injury in a data breach case. In a lengthy opinion, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky in Holmes v. Countrywide Financial Corp. dismissed a lawsuit against Countrywide by plaintiffs who claimed that their personal information had been compromised… Continue Reading
Video Interview: Discussing the LinkedIn Data Breach Class Action Suit with LXBN TV
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsFollowing my post on the subject last week, I had the chance to speak with Colin O’Keefe of LXBN regarding the class action suit filed against LinkedIn following their recent high-profile data breach. In the brief interview, I explain the background of the case, what damages the plaintiffs are alleging and why it’s too early… Continue Reading
LinkedIn Sued Over Data Breach
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsWell THAT didn’t take long! Less than 10 days after LinkedIn announced that it suffered a data breach of approximately 6.5 million user passwords, a class action lawsuit was filed against it in California federal court seeking in excess of $5 million. The lawsuit alleges that, contrary to its Privacy Policy, LinkedIn failed to comply… Continue Reading
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