Countrywide Financial Corp. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation – Consumer Class Action Settlement

Berger Montague served on the Executive Committee of this multidistrict litigation. In 2008, a senior financial advisor formerly employed by Countrywide stole confidential information of millions of consumers from Countrywide’s records and sold it to a third party. The stolen records included names, Social Security numbers, home and office addresses, telephone numbers, credit and bank account information, employment history information, and other information provided on mortgage applications or other mortgage documents. The plaintiffs alleged that Countrywide did not adequately protect the class members’ confidential personal and financial information.

The parties reached a significant consumer class action settlement including that all class members were eligible to receive reimbursement for identity theft of up to $50,000 per incident, plus eligibility for two years of free credit monitoring. Class members who accepted Countrywide’s prior credit monitoring offer received a $1 million guarantee in addition to the $25,000 identity theft insurance coverage they were already receiving. In addition, class members were eligible for reimbursement of certain out-of-pocket expenses including costs for new checks, credit monitoring services, telephone usage, postage, driver’s license replacements, and lost time spent responding to the data breach. In total, the Settlement Class included 17 million individuals. The case was litigated by Executive Shareholder Sherrie R. Savett and Michael Fantini in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky and was captioned, In Re: Countrywide Financial Corp. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, No. 3:08-md-01998-TBR (W.D. Ky.).

If you have been the victim of consumer fraud or unfair or deceptive business practices, please contact Berger Montague.

About Berger Montague

Berger Montague is a national law firm focusing on complex civil litigation in federal and state courts throughout the United States. For over half a century, Berger Montague has played lead roles in consequential, precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.