Final Approval of $1.5 Billion Settlement in Equifax Class Action Secured by Stueve Siegel Hanson
On January 13, 2020, the settlement of the nationwide class action stemming from credit reporting firm Equifax’s massive 2017 data breach was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The breach exposed sensitive personal information including Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, the driver’s license and credit card numbers of over 147 million consumers.
Chief Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. gave final approval to the settlement reached in July 2019, which provides payment of benefits for cash compensation including time spent dealing with the breach, credit monitoring, and assistance with identity restoration to those affected by the data breach. It also requires Equifax spend at least $1 billion over the next five years to overhaul its data security.
Stueve Siegel Hanson Partner Norman Siegel chaired the Plaintiffs’ settlement committee and was instrumental in engineering the state-of-the-art settlement.
