Equifax Suits Face Big Hurdles

More than 70 class actions have been filed since the Equifax breach, but according to an article in USA Today, relatively few contain allegations of sufficient specificity to be certified. According to Kevin Sharp, a former federal judge who is now managing partner of the Sanford Heisler Sharp law firm, there is no consistent standard that all federal court districts use to decide the issue of legal standing in cyberbreach cases, but many have ruled that the theft of personal consumer data is sufficient. Sharp’s firm has sued Equifax. John Coffee of Columbia Law School calls the alleged injuries vague and indefinite, but concedes that given the size of the breach, people will suffer actual harm eventually. One angle that will surely be pursued concerns the expenses involved in monitoring or locking credit records indefinitely. Nevertheless, those who sue will be required to prove causation, a task complicated by the large and growing number of data breaches. Plaintiffs must produce evidence that the harm they suffered was caused by Equifax’s loss of their personal information, not from another company’s.