Sony Agrees to Settle Data Hack Class Action Lawsuit with Employees

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According to court documents filed Wednesday in California federal court, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit that was filed by former employees in the wake of a massive data breach that took place last year. The terms of the proposed settlement were not disclosed.

The former Sony Pictures Entertainment employees filed the class action lawsuit on Dec. 15, 2014, alleging Sony didn’t take adequate measures to prevent the massive data breach.

According to the Sony class action lawsuit, the personal information of about 15,000 employees was compromised due to the cyberattack that took place in November 2014. That cyberattack was linked to North Korea, reportedly in response to Sony’s pending release of “The Interview,” a movie in which James Franco and Seth Rogen team up to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The personal information that was allegedly compromised in the cyberattack included names, addresses, financial and medical information, Social Security numbers and employment files.

Sony offered those affected by the cyberattack one year of credit monitoring, but the class action lawsuit alleged that many employees had already opted to subscribe to a credit monitoring service. The plaintiffs sought damages in addition to five years of monitoring and insurance to protect themselves from the breach.

Sony’s efforts to dismiss the data breach class action lawsuit were denied. Sony had argued that the employees did not suffer any harm due to the data breach and that they did not have standing to sue the company.

A jury trial for the Sony data hack class action lawsuit has been scheduled for Feb. 9, 2016, but the plaintiffs asked the court to push back the upcoming deadlines to allow the parties time to complete the settlement documentation and prepare the necessary court documents.

The court documents indicate that the plaintiffs will file their motion for preliminary approval of the proposed Sony data hack class action settlement by Oct. 19, 2015.

More information about the proposed Sony data hack class action settlement was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The plaintiffs are represented by Matthew J. Preusch, Lynn Lincoln Sarko, Gretchen Freeman Cappio and Cari Campen Laufenberg of Keller Rohrback LLP; Daniel C. Girard, Amanda Steiner and Linh G. Vuong of of Girard Gibbs LLP; and Michael W. Sobol, Roger Heller, RoseMarie Maliekel and Nicholas Diamand of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.

The Sony Data Hack Class Action Lawsuit is Michael Corona, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09600-RGK-E, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: On Feb. 26, 2016, the Sony Pictures cyberattack class action lawsuit settlement is now open! Click here to file a Claim Form or visit http://www.cyberattacksettlement.com.

UPDATE 2: On Aug. 22, 2016, Top Class Actions readers who submitted “preventive measure” claims in the Sony data breach class action settlement started receiving checks worth as much as $475.17!