7 Sony Data Breach Class Action Lawsuits May Be Merged

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The three law firms representing seven groups of current and former Sony employees affected by a massive hacking attack this fall are seeking to consolidate their clients’ data breach class action lawsuits, arguing that the cases are demonstrably similar and would otherwise duplicate efforts.

A decision to consolidate the Sony data breach class action lawsuits would “eliminate duplication of effort and make litigating the case more convenient for” all of the parties, including Sony Pictures Entertainment, who supports the motion.

Each of the Sony data breach class action lawsuits revolves around the notice that the movie giant issued to its employees on Dec. 8, 2014 indicting that a group of hackers had accessed private records and emails, purportedly in response to the pendent release of the movie “The Interview,” where Seth Rogen and James Franco team up to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

However, even as some cybersecurity experts expressed concerns that former and/or current employees could be involved, the plaintiffs allege that the damage has already been done. According to one, the release of names, addresses, financial and medical information was the result of a failure “to maintain reasonable and adequate security measures to protect the employees’ information from access and disclosure.”

Further, by delaying notification of employees, Sony Pictures Entertainment failed to focus on their workers’ identity theft concerns, but instead worried about “securing its intellectual property from pirates” and performing damage control as a result of embarrassing emails leaked to the press on several occurrences, according to the data breach class action lawsuits.

According to the initial Sony data breach class action lawsuit, tens of thousands of employees were affected including numerous former employees whose data was retained in the system, which also included Social Security numbers and employment files. All of the parties were offered a year of third-party credit monitoring, but the Sony data breach class action lawsuit alleged that many employees already opted to subscribe to a service on their own. The first class action lawsuit complaint seeks damages in addition to five years of monitoring and insurance as a result of the breach.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Keller Rohrback LLP, Girard Gibbs LLP and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.

The Sony Data Breach Class Action Lawsuits are Michael Corona, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09600; Joshua Forster, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09646; Michael Levine, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09687; Marcela Bailey, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09755; Steven Shapiro, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-09762; Anastasio Garcia Rodriguez, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:15-cv-00014; and Lawon Exum , et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Case No. 2:15-cv-00011 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!