619-342-8000
Data breaches put the financial health of California consumers at risk. When criminals breach a database maintained by a retailer or a financial institution, their access to credit card or bank account numbers may subject consumers to fraudulent credit card charges or unauthorized withdrawals. Database breaches that expose other identifying information, including social security numbers and dates of birth, place consumers at risk of identity theft.
About two-thirds of data breaches during 2014 and 2015 affected healthcare organizations or health insurers, exposing patients’ confidential medical information. In addition to businesses, government agencies and educational institutions are regular targets of hackers.
According to the FBI, 12.5% of all cyber crime in 2014 occurred in California. The California Department of Justice reports that 1.5 million Californians were the victims of identity theft in 2014.
If your identifying information or account numbers are stolen in a data breach, you may face harassment from debt collectors for charges you did not make. Identity theft can destroy your credit rating and harm your employability. If someone uses your identity during an arrest, you may end up with a criminal record. Undoing the damage is often an expensive, time-consuming task.
When your private information has been compromised, a class action lawsuit may be your best remedy. The Haeggquist and Eck Firm represents individuals who have been victimized by the unauthorized disclosure of data and by the theft of personal information during a data breach. Contact the California data breach attorneys at The Haeggquist and Eck Firm for a free case evaluation if you discover that a data breach or unauthorized disclosure has placed your credit card number, social security number, or personal identifying information at risk of being misused.
How To Receive Data Breach
Compensation in California
Data breaches occur in a variety of ways. Common examples include:
- Hackers break into a database maintained on a company’s servers.
- Someone who has gained unauthorized access to a company’s computer downloads data from the computer to a flash drive.
- A thief steals a laptop that contains sensitive data.
- The sender of a “spoof email” or participants in a phishing scheme use a false identity to persuade someone to respond with confidential data.
- Company employees release passwords to company computers out of spite or in exchange for cash.
Recent examples of data breaches include:
- Identity thieves stole tax and salary data involving hundreds of thousands of individuals from Equifax, a credit reporting bureau.
- Hackers gained access to over 360 million MySpace passwords.
- Hackers stole an unknown number of credit card numbers used by customers of Noodles & Company.
- Hackers breached the computers of two California CPA firms, gaining access to clients’ social security numbers, wage information, and bank account numbers. In one case the hackers also gained payroll information concerning the firm’s employees, including their direct deposit bank account numbers and social security numbers.
- A data breach at BeautifulPeople.com gave hackers access to the addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and private email messages of more than one million members.
- Hackers gained shopping cart information, including names, addresses, and credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes, concerning customers of the LuckyPet website.
- Hackers have twice stolen credit card numbers and associated information from the Trump Hotel chain, resulting in unauthorized credit card charges for hotel guests.
If you were the victim of a data breach, contact our data breach lawyers to learn more about your rights.
Other Illegal Disclosures of Private Information
AND How They Affect You
Unintended disclosures of private information occur when sensitive information is mishandled. It might be mistakenly posted to a website or included in emails that are sent to the wrong party. Although electronic data is more often disclosed, paper records containing personal information kept in files can also be stolen or lost.
Less commonly, someone with inside access to private data will deliberately disclose it. Those actions are usually committed by disgruntled employees or outside contractors. California debt collection laws help protect victims in such circumstances.
Recent examples of unauthorized disclosure include:
- A school district responded to a parent’s email request for information about the parent’s child by sending confidential records pertaining to 700,000 students.
- A vendor that provides benefit management services to Google inadvertently sent personally identifying information concerning Google employees, including their social security numbers, to the benefits manager of another organization.
- Complying with a request for disclosure of the salaries earned by employees of the Berkeley School District, a district employee sent a record that included the employees’ social security numbers.
- An employee who was leaving the FDIC downloaded sensitive information concerning 44,000 bank customers onto a personal flash drive.
If you were the victim of an unauthorized data disclosure, The Haeggquist and Eck Firm can help you understand your rights and remedies.
Data Breach
CLASS Action Lawsuits
A recent analysis found that most class action lawsuits for data breaches are filed against a few companies involved in well-publicized cases. That may be because only a small percentage of data breaches are publicly reported. Some companies never tell consumers that their data has been compromised. Other companies convey that information quietly and urge consumers to keep the breach confidential.
When individuals become aware that they are the victim of a data breach, their rights can often be vindicated in class action lawsuits. The laws upon which the lawsuits will be based depend on the facts of the case. In some cases, the lawsuit is based on a company’s delay in reporting the breach to the consumer, which deprives the consumer of the ability to take prompt protective action. In some cases, the lawsuit is based on the company’s negligence in failing to guard against the breach. Other cases are based on a breach of the contract between the company and the consumer. Lawsuits may also be based upon violations of:
- California laws governing fraud and unfair competition.
- California’s Data Security Breach Reporting Law.
- California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.
- The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.
- The Stored Communications Act.
- The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.
- Banking regulations involving cybersecurity.
- Federal privacy laws that regulate federal agencies.
How We Help Victims
The Haeggquist and Eck Firm can evaluate your case and advise you about the laws that give you the best chance of obtaining a class action remedy if your private information was disclosed or stolen. Victims can call (619) 342-8000 to obtain a free case evaluation from our experienced data breach lawyers in Orange County.
Haeggquist & Eck, LLP’s class action law attorneys in San Diego offer free case evaluations to help you understand how we can assist you with your claim. Contact us online or call (619) 342-8000 for more information.
What Are the Benefits of
a Class Action?
Class actions are based on the idea that there is strength in numbers. They allow individuals to file lawsuits to challenge unfair, unsafe, or illegal practices. While the prospect of a class action may seem overwhelming to a single person, this type of suit can successfully reform or stop unfair practices more successfully than an individual claim could.
Class actions have been used to promote civil rights, consumer rights, employee rights, the right to fair housing, the right to medical care, and are also used to fight securities fraud and antitrust violations. They have advanced the rights of people injured by defective or harmful products like cigarettes, defective tires, defective vehicles, asbestos, Agent Orange, breast implants, and many others. Often, class actions help the government enforce laws, make business practices safer, keep unfair business practices in check, and compensates consumers or investors for the harm they suffered at the hands of corporations.
How Do I Know If My Claim Is Appropriate for a
Class Action Lawsuit?
Various laws are in place to protect your rights as a consumer or investor to prevent businesses or other entities from injuring you or treating you unfairly. The government, however, clearly does not have the resources to monitor every action every business takes and to enforce all of those laws.
Inadvertently or deliberately, a business or other entity may violate a law or contract or act in a way that it is unfair, illegal, or unsafe for the public. It may be on such a small scale on the individual level that the violation goes unchecked, but the same violation can be constantly taking place and affecting dozens or millions of people. Corporations may not correct a wrong voluntarily where doing so is expensive, unprofitable or embarrassing, which is a classic situation that can lead to a class action lawsuit. If you recognize a situation like this, reach out to our class action law attorneys at Haeggquist & Eck, LLP today for help!
What Does It Cost to Bring a
Class Action?
If you’re bringing a class action lawsuit forward, it won’t cost you anything to do so because such cases are brought by attorneys working on a contingency fee basis. This means that attorneys do not get paid unless the lawsuit is successful. The attorneys advance the money and time needed for the lawsuit on behalf of the representative and the class. If the class action is successful, the attorneys apply to the court for an award of their fees and reimbursement of expenses. It is up to the court to determine the fee, and the attorneys alone risk the possibility of not getting paid.
What Is a Class
Representative?
Only one representative is required to bring a class action. A class representative is typically an individual or a company that believes it has been wronged, realizes that others are being injured similarly, wants the offending practice to end, and wants to be compensated with the other members of the class for monetary damages. A class representative is one of the named or “lead” plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
How Do I Become a
Class Representative?
An individual or entity that feels it has been wronged and realizes that others are likely being injured as well should contact class action law attorneys in San Diego, like ours at Haeggquist & Eck, LLP, who have a lot of experience handling class actions. Our team will meet with that person and then examine the matter to determine the best course of action based on our evaluation of the merits of the case. If we decide to go forward in filing the class action, the individual or group would act as the class representative. We would then bring the lawsuit forward in the person’s name and on behalf of a defined class of similarly situated persons.
What Is Expected of a
Class Representative?
The class representative does not need to pay any money to bring the suit, but they may have to provide paperwork and background information that’s relevant to the case. Over the course of the lawsuit, the representative may have to answer questions about the case, which includes sitting for a deposition. The representative would be guided and assisted in these matters by his or her class action law attorneys in San Diego. During the course of the lawsuit, the representative will be periodically called upon to assist in the suit and help make all major case decisions with the advice of their lawyers. If the suit is successful, the representative generally receives extra compensation (with court approval) for their time and contribution.
What Steps Are Involved in a Class Action
and Does It Take a Long Time?
After the attorneys thoroughly investigate the facts and examine the law that will correct the wrong, a letter may be sent to the alleged wrongdoers to try and obtain the desired relief without litigation. If the law firm decides to proceed with litigation, it will file a lawsuit with the representative as lead plaintiff.
San Diego class action law attorneys will then ask the court to certify the suit as a class action, and if the case meets the legal requirements, the court will certify the case and it will move forward. As appropriate and with the representative’s authorization, the attorneys may negotiate with the opposing counsel to obtain a reasonable compromise or settlement for the class. Although every case is different, it typically takes several years to achieve a successful resolution to a class action lawsuit.
If you think you have a class action claim, contact Haeggquist & Eck, LLP online today or call (619) 342-8000 for help.
