PHILADELPHIA - A federal judge has given final approval to a $525,000 class action settlement in a lawsuit over a data breach at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Judge Karen Marston last year gave preliminary approval to the agreement, which provides $175,000 for plaintiff lawyers. Among the firms involved are Milberg Coleman in Chicago and Shub & Johns in West Conshohocken.
They spent nearly 300 hours on drafting the complaint, conducting discovery, selecting a settlement administrator and submitting various other filings to the court. They will also spend more time in the future monitoring the settlement fund.
"Here, the settlement is reasonable in light of the best possible recovery and attendant risks of litigation," Marston wrote March 18.
"Plaintiffs face a significant risk in this case because they must prove not only that Defendant owed a duty to Plaintiffs to safeguard their information, but also that their conduct was the proximate cause of that breach."
A $525,000 settlement and improvements to privacy safeguards is reasonable, considering hurdles in getting a class certified and getting past a motion for summary judgment, she added.
Several class actions followed a data breach at the Philadelphia-based newspaper and media company. The plaintiffs alleged that the company failed to adequately secure and safeguard personally identifiable information (PII) collected as part of its regular business practices.
The compromised data included names and Social Security numbers of just more than 25,000 individuals. Suits alleged that the company did not encrypt or redact this sensitive information.
The lawsuit accused the defendant of negligence, recklessness and violation of federal and state statutes for failing to properly safeguard employees’ PII, provide timely notice of the data breach, implement adequate security measures, prevent unauthorized disclosure of data and follow appropriate protocols for data encryption.
Plaintiffs claimed they have suffered invasion of privacy, theft of their PII, lost or diminished value of PII, lost time and opportunity costs associated with mitigating the consequences of the data breach, among other injuries.
The $525,000 settlement includes $1 million worth of identity theft insurance for class members and includes changes to the Inquirer's security measures.
If money remains in the fund after 120 days, class members who selected a pro rata cash payment will get an even amount of what's left. A nonprofit could get some of the money, if what remains is less than $3 per person.