U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Allows CareFirst Class Action to Proceed
Class action case against CareFirst for data breach will proceed.
Washington, DC, United States – August 7, 2017 /MarketersMedia/ —
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rules that the lower court’s dismissal of the case against CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, stating that the original ruling was based on too narrow a reading. The class action lawsuit, filed by Paulson & Nace, PLLC, Nidel & Nace PLLC, and The Giatras Law Firm will be allowed to move forward.
“This is a substantial victory for our clients,” said firm partner Christopher T. Nace. “More than a million people were hacked because of CareFirst’s negligence. They are at serious risk of having their identities stolen. This opinion will help ensure that victims can and will continue to seek justice for their injuries in the courts, as is their Constitutional right. The opinion means that CareFirst will have to defend its actions in court. That is all our clients are asking for: their day in court.”
The Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center filed an amicus brief on behalf on the plaintiffs. Ann Butler, senior counsel at EPIC, told Bloomberg BNA “The exposure of personal information, itself, is a legal injury sufficient to confer standing.”
CareFirst has acknowledged that “attackers could have potentially acquired member-created user names created by individuals to access CareFirst’s website, as well as members’ names, birth dates, email addresses and subscriber identification number.” They claim that because users’ passwords and Social Security Numbers were encrypted and stored elsewhere, that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to claim injury or harm, as this information was not accessible via the hack.
However, as the purpose of the hack was, presumably, to obtain the patients’ personal information for nefarious purposes (Remijas v. Neiman Marcus Grp.), the fact that the hackers did not obtain SSNs or passwords is, essentially, besides the point. Furthermore, as the complaint alleged that the claimants faced substantial risk, as opposed to “speculative” risk (Spokeo Inc. v. Robins), the case should be allowed to proceed.
“Your digital information does hold value,” said Mr. Nace. “To say otherwise is wrong. CareFirst should have been more vigilant; instead, their carelessness put more than a million patients at risk of having their private information disseminated, and of having their identities stolen. We believe CareFirst should be held accountable for this, and that they need to put the proper precautions in places to ensure that their policyholders are protected – now, and in the future.”
Paulson & Nace, PLLC, is a premier trial law firm serving clients in the Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan area and throughout West Virginia. The firm routinely handles cases involving:
• Medical malpractice
• Defective products
• Birth injuries
• Catastrophic injuries
• Consumer protection
Contact Info:
Name: Christopher Nace
Organization: Paulson & Nace, PLLC
Address: 1615 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202-463-1999
For more information, please visit https://www.paulsonandnace.com
Source: MarketersMedia
Release ID: 226238
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