Excellus Data Breach Class Action
Western District of New York
Case No. 15-cv-06569
Class Action Lawsuit
United States Federal District Court Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford, who is presiding over a set of 14 proposed class action lawsuits involving the Excellus data breach, named Hadley L. Matarazzo of the Rochester law firm Faraci Lange and Robin L. Greenwald of Weitz & Luxenberg in New York City as interim co-lead class counsel, citing their experience handling complex class actions.
Faraci Lange and Weitz & Luxenberg, which together represent customers who claim their Excellus data was breached, had proposed a “comprehensive” plan for litigating the suits and had shown that they are able to work expeditiously and cooperatively with other firms representing customers of hacked Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, stated Judge Wolford.
“Furthermore, the Faraci/Weitz group is the only proposed structure with significant involvement from a local law firm, which the court believes is important to effectively represent the class,” Judge Wolford said.
“Robin and I were pleased to see the court’s order appointing us co-lead counsel as well as Eric Gibbs of Girard Gibbs LLP and Lynn A. Toops of Cohen & Malad LLP as the executive committee members.,” Matarazzo stated. “We all look forward to working on behalf everyone who has been affected by this data breach.”
The Excellus class action lawsuit alleges that the companies failed to protect customer information, waited too long to tell customers about the breach and did not give customers adequate information about how to protect themselves in the wake of the breach.
The first case is Fero et al v. Excellus Health Plan Inc. et al., case number 6:15-cv-06569, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.
