ODW25C12 – Anatomy of a Data Breach Class Action

Description: What happens when millions of people incur the exact same damages from a big box retail store after a data breach allows cybercriminals to steal customers’ protected information? No court can handle a million identical lawsuits all at once, so those individual suits get consolidated into a class action lawsuit. In this session, we will examine the underlying federal statutes that pertain to class action lawsuits and the structure of class action litigation from first filing through case resolution. We will also discuss the ramifications of a data breach, what the most at-risk information is, and how it is protected. The presentation will include a discussion of In re: Target Corporation Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, arising out of a 2013 data breach of retail giant Target that affected an estimated 70 million customers. 

Course Year: 2025

Presenter Biography: Heather Crawford is a paralegal in the Class Action Practice Group at Chestnut Cambronne. She has over 20 years of experience across all areas of civil and commercial litigation, as well as extensive trial experience in federal and state courts. She has spent over a decade as a legal advocate volunteer, working with survivors of domestic violence in the civil court system.