The Ohio law company, Bricker & Eckler LLP, decided to resolve a class action data breach lawsuit filed on behalf of those impacted by a ransomware attack on the company in 2021. Bricker & Eckler is a full-service law company that assists numerous healthcare customers. The breach investigation affirmed the theft of sensitive patient data from its systems, which include names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, medical data, and education-associated data. The attackers accessed its systems between January 14 and January 31, 2021. Bricker & Eckler didn’t confirm the payment of the ransom; however, stated the stolen information was recovered. The breach report was submitted to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights last April 2021 indicating that 420,532 persons were impacted and the law company provided a free membership to an identity theft protection and credit monitoring service for 12 months.
A lawsuit was immediately filed on behalf of those impacted by the ransomware attack that claimed the law company was at fault since it did not enforce reasonable safety measures to make sure the privacy of sensitive information and did not follow known security procedures. The law company didn’t confess to any wrongdoing and didn’t admit responsibility for the data breach nevertheless opted to resolve the lawsuit and has offered a $1.95 million worth of settlement.
As per the conditions of the settlement, class members are eligible to file a claim for repayment of losses that happened because of the data breach as much as $5,000. Claims may be filed for fraudulent expenses to accounts, the cost of having credit monitoring services, other valid expenditures, as much as 4 hours of unrecorded lost time at $20 an hour, and around 8 hours of recorded lost time at $20 an hour.
Persons who would like to refuse the settlement or eliminate themselves from the class should do so on or before November 7, 2022. Class members need to file claims before December 21, 2022. The schedule of the final approval hearing for the settlement is on November 17, 2022.