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The first case to be filed in Richmond federal court was submitted Sept. 21 with Henrico resident John Ogburn as lead plaintiff.
Purporting to be filed on behalf of Ogborn and "all others similarly situated" – the go-to wording in such class action cases – the suit alleges violations of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Virginia Consumer Protection Act, the Virginia Personal Information Breach Notification Act, as well as negligence and unjust enrichment against Equifax Inc. and subsidiary Equifax Information Services LLC.
The suit says Equifax should have known its cybersecurity systems were inadequate and invested more to ensure security, given its business relies on maintaining records of consumers that include names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and other information.
The suit cites admissions by the company that it discovered the breach earlier this year, but didn’t disclose it publicly until Sept. 7. It also cites news reports of Equifax executives selling stock in the days following the internal discovery of the breach, but before it was announced publicly.
Ogborn signed on to be represented by Washington, D.C. law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp and its attorneys Grant Morris and Andrew Melzer. The firm said it has filed similar cases against Equifax in 25 states and Washington, D.C., since Sept. 7 and it will be filing in more states in coming weeks.
"This case involves one of the largest betrayals of consumer trust and confidence in history," The firm said in an email statement. "Hundreds or thousands of individuals across the country have stepped forward to hold Equifax accountable for its conduct and to achieve redress on behalf of the victims and the public. We represent many of those individuals in lawsuits across the country."
The second suit filed in Richmond came Sept. 22, with 10 plaintiffs signed on. That group includes residents of Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, Charlottesville, Afton and Newport News, some of whom had been part of previous class action against Equifax, the settlement of which included the reward of the company’s top-tier fraud protection services.
The suit emphasizes the scope of Equifax’s reach.
"The standard duty of care for Equifax was significant," the suit states. "It possessed – for profit and resale – the very private personal identifiers and financial information on nearly every consumer in the nation."
It also highlights the avenue the hackers used to enter Equifax’s system.
"Ironically, the identity thieves entered Equifax’s systems through the internet portal it uses to receive consumer disputes of identity theft and other credit inaccuracies."
That suit is being handled by attorney Leonard Bennett, whose Newport News-based firm Consumer Litigation Associates focuses on the big three credit agencies.
Bennett said last week the Richmond division of the U.S. District Court is likely to see more of the Equifax data breach suits.
"Richmond division is home to more Fair Credit Act and credit bureau class actions than anywhere in the country," Bennett said. "Richmond is ground zero for this stuff. Our judges are not sympathetic (to the bureaus). It’s an efficient docket so that cases don’t linger for years."
Bennett warned of the prevalence of "class action mills," class action-hungry law firms compared by some as the white-collar equivalent of "ambulance chaser" personal injury firms.
"There are scores of different law firms filing these cases just because they can, but without any real expertise," Bennett said.
Ultimately, Bennett said, all of the hundreds, if not thousands, of cases will be consolidated and centralized into one massive case overseen by a panel of judges, in a process called multi-district litigation. The Volkswagen emissions scandal is a recent example of that process.
Bennett said the Equifax breach may have further-reaching implications than a massive class action settlement.
"It just does lasting damage to the reliability of credit reports generally, not just at Equifax," he said.
An Equifax spokesperson said in an email the company does not comment on pending litigation, "but we remain focused on helping consumers navigate this situation."