AT&T is one of the oldest and largest companies of its kind in the United States, with a storied history. Unfortunately, a major data breach exposed the personal information of millions of Americans, including those who are not AT&T customers.
Are you one of them? If so, you may be eligible for a class action lawsuit.
AT&T Data Breach
Earlier this year, AT&T announced that a significant data breach had occurred.
“In April, AT&T learned that customer data was illegally downloaded from our workspace on a third-party cloud platform,” the company said in a statement. The company related that “the compromised data includes files containing AT&T records of calls and texts of nearly all of AT&T’s cellular customers, customers of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) using AT&T’s wireless network.”
In other words, even if you are not an AT&T customer, you may be affected if you utilized one of their networks.
The breach also includes AT&T’s landline customers who interacted with those cellular numbers between May 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022.
At issue in the lawsuit is the complaint that the company failed in its duty to protect the sensitive information of network users.
How To Join The Class Action Lawsuit Against AT&T
In its simplest form, a class action lawsuit is when a group of people – plaintiffs – all file a lawsuit together as one group, or when one person files a lawsuit on behalf of a group.
In this case, plaintiffs have brought suit against AT&T for a heightened risk of fraud due to the company’s handling of personal identifying information.
“Plaintiffs now face the possibility that malevolent actors will blackmail them with the information disclosed in this data breach and therefore have sustained emotional distress,” the AT&T class action lawsuit alleges.
Find out if you are eligible here.
How Do Class Action Lawsuits Work?
Class action law has evolved over the last few decades. But there are specific rules binding class actions, known as Rule 23 in the federal rules for civil procedures. The Legal Information Institute lays out what the court must find in order to approve a class action:
- The number of class members renders it impracticable to join them in the action
- The class members’ claims share common questions of law or fact
- The claims or defenses of the proposed class representatives are typical of those for the rest of the class, and
- The proposed class representatives will adequately protect the interests of the entire class.
In short, multiple plaintiffs must all have sufficiently similar claims of damage, such that a ruling would largely have the same affect on all class members. The question is then before the court: have all these plaintiffs indeed suffered similar harm from the defendant?
How Long Do Class Action Lawsuits Take
Again, the answer is: it depends on the case.
In some cases, the answer is 10 minutes! Defendants can try to end the case before it even begins by settling with the plaintiffs – typically this means payments. According to Top Class Actions, settlements can typically take up to nine months or a year.
However, if class actions go to trial, the timeline becomes years long – typically two or three years, according to the Cochran Firm.