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
Lawsuits
Court Applies Work Product Protection to Breach Investigation Reports
By Al Saikali on
One 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.…
Law Firm Data Security: The First Class Action
By Al Saikali on
Earlier 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,…
The Target Data Breach Lawsuits: Why Every Company Should Care
By Al Saikali on
Plaintiffs’ 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…
What’s The Next Wave of Privacy Litigation? “Failure to Match”
By Al Saikali on
A 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…
Yet Another Potential Multimillion-Dollar Data Breach Settlement . . .
By Al Saikali on
Just 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…
$3,000,000 Settlement Reached in Data Breach Lawsuit
By Al Saikali on
How 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…
Data Breach Lawsuits Settling in the Southern District of Florida
By Al Saikali on
Plaintiffs 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,…
Healthcare Organizations Take It On The Chin
By Al Saikali on
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data Privacy, Data Security, FTC, Health Care Industry, Lawsuits
If 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…
Data Breach Lawsuits – Revisiting the Risks
By Al Saikali on
Until 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…