District Court preliminarily approves data breach suit

Courts Privacy, Cyber Risk & Data Security Data Breach Settlement Class Action

On January 9, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico granted preliminary approval of a class action settlement in a data breach suit that allegedly compromised approximately 191,000 individuals’ personally identifiable information (PII). According to the plaintiffs’ motion, the class alleged that their PII and personal health information were compromised when cybercriminals breached the defendant’s systems. If granted final approval, the settlement class would consist of four categories of relief: (i) reimbursement for lost time (up to four hours at $15 per hour) and out-of-pocket expenses up to $500; (ii) reimbursement for extraordinary losses up to $3,500; (iii) two years’ free credit monitoring services; and (iv) equitable relief in the form of security improvements to the defendant’s system.