Data breaches remain a major concern for Americans, who may believe that their information is not secure in any organization. The most recent news story is about the corporation UnitedLex, which suffered a digital hack in March 2023 that severely jeopardized all of its consumers’ personal information.
UnitedLex is a legal data analytics and management firm created in 2006, which makes it even more worrying for its users because it failed to protect both employee and contractor data during the cyberattack.
This is why some of the impacted individuals decided to pursue a class action lawsuit against the corporation to recover some of their losses. But first, define a class action case.
Class action lawsuits are brought on behalf of a bigger group of people who have comparable concerns about a firm or organization. When the litigation becomes a class action, it applies to everyone who has been affected in the same way.
Companies frequently choose to settle these disputes by paying compensation to class members, who subsequently waive their ability to pursue future litigation. These agreements often contain declarations from the firm denying all wrongdoing.
Those who were harmed by the breach can join the case and provide a receipt to receive their money back, as well as some compensation for the time and money spent dealing with the ramifications of the breach. This is feasible because, while the corporation has denied any wrongdoing, it has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle the claims and expedite the process.
What You Need to Claim Your Share of the Unitedlex Lawsuit Data Breach Compensation
To file a claim and receive compensation for your expenses, you must provide proof of your expenses, including a receipt. Account statements, tax records, police complaints, and fraud claims are additional ways to establish costs. Plaintiffs can receive up to $15,000, but the requirements for receiving that amount of money are extremely rigorous. According to the settlement site:
“The Settlement Fund will be used to reimburse Settlement Class Members for out-of-pocket expenses or losses that are reasonably traceable to the Data Breach, up to $15,000.00 per individual.” This could include, but is not limited to:
Out-of-pocket fees, expenses, damages, or other charges incurred as a result of identity theft or fraud, falsified tax returns, or other potential misuse of a Settlement Class Member’s Personal Information;
Out-of-pocket costs spent after the Data Breach was discovered linked with moving accounts or engaging in other mitigating behavior; such costs may include notary, fax, postage, copying, mileage, and long-distance telephone charges;
Out-of-pocket professional expenditures were incurred to resolve the data breach.
Out-of-pocket expenditures of credit monitoring or other mitigation services made after the Data Breach was notified and up to the date the Settlement Class Member’s Claim was submitted.”
Most affected individuals will not receive as much reimbursement; however, they will most likely receive Reimbursement for Lost Time, which is “used to reimburse Settlement Class Members who spent money addressing issues related to the Data Breach for up to twenty (20) hours at twenty-five dollars ($25.00) per hour, totaling $500.00 per individual.”
The deadline for submitting your claim is Tuesday, November 12, 2024.
As a last option, and according to the settlement website, “If there is money remaining after reimbursing Settlement Class Members for out-of-pocket expenses, lost time, and other Settlement-related obligations, the remaining funds will be split pro rata among participating Settlement Class Members.”
Please keep in mind that extra cash rewards are not promised, and the amount will be determined by the number of legitimate claims submitted.”