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Law Firm Bricker & Eckler: Data Breach $1.9M Class Action Settlement

September 21, 2022

Top Class Actions reported on September 15 that law firm Bricker & Eckler has agreed to pay $1.95 million to resolve claims that its 2021 data breach compromised health system patient information.

The settlement will benefit individuals whose personal, medical or financial information was potentially exposed in the Bricker data breach between Jan. 14 and Jan. 31, 2021.

Bricker & Eckler is an Ohio law firm that provides legal services to several healthcare systems in the state. In January 2021, the firm was the victim of a ransomware attack which accessed and stole client and patient information of over 420,000 individuals. The law firm announced this data breach in April 2021 and offered affected patients one year of free identity theft protection through Experian IdentityWorks.

Consumers took legal action against the law firm, arguing that their information was exposed to hackers due to poor cybersecurity. Plaintiffs said that the data breach could have been avoided or minimized through reasonable security policies. By failing to properly protect sensitive information from healthcare clients, Bricker & Eckler allegedly caused the data breach through negligence.

Bricker & Eckler has admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to resolve these allegations with a $1.95 million class action settlement.

Under the terms of the settlement, Class Members can receive a cash payment based on their losses resulting from the data breach. Each Class Member can claim up to $5,000 in reimbursement for out of pocket losses such as identity theft protection services, credit monitoring, fraudulent charges and more.

Class Members can also receive payments for lost time resulting from the data breach. Class Members can claim up to four hours of undocumented lost time at a rate of $20 per hour for a maximum payment of $80. Class Members can claim an additional eight hours of documented lost time at the same rate of $20 per hour for an additional payment of up to $160. Claiming the maximum allowed documented and undocumented lost time will result in payments of up to $240.

The deadline for exclusion and objection is Nov. 7, 2022. The final approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for Nov. 17, 2022.

To receive settlement benefits, Class Members must submit a valid claim form by Dec. 21, 2022.

Hat tip to Dave Ries.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225, Fairfax, VA 22030
Email:   Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
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