Equifax Asks Judge To Dismiss More Lawsuits
Equifax Inc. is seen, Saturday, July 21, 2012, in Atlanta. Equifax Inc. is a consumer credit reporting agency in the United States.
Mike Stewart / Associated Press
Equifax Inc. is asking a federal judge to dismiss more of the lawsuits brought against it after the Atlanta credit reporting agency suffered a cyberattack last year.
In the wake of the data breach, Equifax has been hit with two types of class action lawsuits: those brought by consumers and those brought by banks and financial institutions.
Equifax had already asked Atlanta Judge Thomas Thrash to dismiss the lawsuits brought by consumers. Now it is asking him to dismiss those from the financial institutions.
“Equifax is saying their claim, the banks and financial institutions, their claim is speculative,” Page Pate, an Atlanta trial lawyer and WABE’s legal analyst, said. “And that’s just not good enough for a class-action lawsuit in federal court.”
Pate said Equifax’s argument might work since it’s harder for financial institutions to prove how they were affected. To him, the claims by consumers, though, are a different matter.
“They have had to incur real damages: credit monitoring, some of them have been victims of identity theft which they may be able to tie at least in some way to this data breach,” he said. “Equifax has a much better argument against the claims brought by the banks and financial institutions than they do against the individuals.”
The judge now has to hear rebuttals from the plaintiffs.
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