Final Approval Granted for $115 Million Settlement in Anthem Data Breach Case
On August 16, 2018, the Honorable Lucy H. Koh in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval to a $115 million settlement – at the time the largest data breach settlement in U.S. history – resulting from a 2015 data breach affecting Anthem, Inc. that compromised the sensitive personal information of 78.8 million individuals.
The complaints alleged that Anthem, one of the nation’s largest for-profit managed health care companies, failed to take adequate and reasonable measures to ensure its data systems were protected, failed to take available steps to prevent and stop the breach from occurring, and failed to disclose to its customers the material facts that it did not have adequate computer systems and security practices to safeguard their personal data.
Stueve Siegel Hanson represented numerous named plaintiffs in the MDL and was tasked by lead counsel to lead plaintiff vetting, selection, and discovery efforts in the litigation. As part of these efforts, Stueve Siegel Hanson led a team of attorneys tasked with preparing an extensive vetting questionnaire, conducting client interviews, selecting more than 100 individuals to serve as class representatives, and drafting the plaintiff allegations for the consolidated complaint.
The extensive vetting efforts proved invaluable when the defendants elected to seek discovery and depose every class representative, whose claims were able to withstand even intense scrutiny in discovery, and the district court largely rejected Anthem’s multiple motions to dismiss the case, relying in large part on the detailed plaintiff allegations set forth in the complaint.
Stueve Siegel Hanson is an industry-leader in data breach and cybersecurity litigation. Stueve Siegel Hanson attorneys have prosecuted cases involving the largest data breaches in U.S. history, securing millions of dollars for affected consumers. For more information about our data breach practice, click here.
