Well Look Who’s Filing a Class-Action Lawsuit against the VA
June 29: The computer stolen from the Veterans Administration has been recovered, and per the FBI, the data was never accessed.
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I’ll have a lot more to say on the Veterans Administration data breach and a number of other alarming developments in the deterioration of financial privacy within a week or so (maybe sooner), but I couldn’t help but call attention to this little tidbit:
Class Action Suit Filed On Behalf Of Veterans
Paul Hackett of Cincinnati and Matthew Page of Walton have filed the suit on behalf of nearly 26 million veterans. The lawsuit requests relief in the form of credit and/or identity theft monitoring, paid for by the VA.
Can’t help but think there might be a little more to this story.
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UPDATE: Obviously I’m not a big thinker. Today’s Enquirer (HT “S.O.B.er” Chuckoblog) takes the spin from Hackett and tells us that he wants $1,000 in damages for each vet plus credit monitoring.
Do the math, people: 26.5 million vets (noted in the Enqurer article) times $1,000 per vet is $26.5 billion. Hackett’s fantasyland 30% standard contingency-fee cut of that would be a measly $7.95 billion. When he settles for “only” $50 per vet, he’ll get a paltry $400 million (rounded), and be set for life. He can BUY a Senate seat at that point. Hope Voinovich is paying attention. See comment 2 below. Hackett is a complainant, according to the Enquirer article (he was not identified as such in the WKRC article I originally posted from), and therefore by law is not to benefit from any settlement any more than anyone else in the “class” of 26.5 million vets.
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Separate Hackett Post: Paul Hackett Defends (But Is Not Representing) Officers in Haditha Deaths: AP
[…] der Hackett
BizzyBlog has caught Paul Hackett sightings in two national stories: filing a class action lawsuit over the VA data loss, and being interviewed in relation to the Haditha events.
[…]
Pingback by Ohio 2nd Blog » Attorney Hackett Not Wasting Any Time — May 31, 2006 @ 9:36 am
Hey genius: Hackett is the CLIENT, not the attorney. If you knew anything about class action law, you’d know that an attorney cannot be a class representative - and cannot collect any attorney fees awarded to the class. Maybe you should do a little research before you go around making baseless allegations. Paul Hackett is representing this class because it’s the right thing to do.
Comment by Get a Clue — June 2, 2006 @ 11:00 pm
#2, you make a very good point.
The original WKRC story I based the post on did not ID Hackett as the client (and in fact implied the opposite), but the later Enquirer story did.
So I stand corrected on that point, have modified the post to reflect it, and appreciate your bringing it to my attention, though you could have been a bit more polite and accomplished just as much.
I’m irritated that the Enquirer didn’t do the math and call it the $26.5 billion lawsuit that it is. And whether trying to get the government to pay out $26 billion to veterans (that would be about $95 for every non-veteran in the country) is “the right thing to do” is at best debatable.
Comment by TBlumer — June 3, 2006 @ 3:29 am
If it gets the government - and private agencies for that matter - to get their heads out of their rear ends about information security, it’s money well spent. Can you imagine if this were IRS data? Or Social Security Administration data? The figure is so big because the breach is so egregious - and it was very preventable. The $1000/per person figure requested is the remedy provided by the federal Privacy Act of 1974 - not just some number pulled out of the sky to make people rich.
Sorry I was snappy before - I imagine that it took some courage for Paul Hackett and this other veteran to come forward on behalf of their fellow veterans. It upsets me to see him called a money grubber when this lawsuit offers little if any monetary gain for him.
Comment by Get a Clue — June 3, 2006 @ 5:25 pm
#4, fair enough.
I’ve been meaning to post on data breaches for a while. I think a comprehensive, consumer-controlled, FREE credit freeze is the answer. I’ll (eventually :–>) get to that.
Comment by TBlumer — June 3, 2006 @ 6:41 pm
#5: If the VA would have given free credit monitoring to begin with, perhaps there would be no need for a lawsuit. But it didn’t - in fact, it hasn’t even given individual notice to these veterans. And new groups of veterans whose information was included seem to be cropping up every day. It’s nothing short of an outrage - the VA was repeatedly told its info security measures were terrible & it did nothing about it. Hopefully this suit will serve as the incentive for government and private agencies to get their collective acts together and start protecting our personal information.
Comment by Get a Clue — June 6, 2006 @ 1:19 pm
#6, I’ll grant you all of that, including how crappy controls are, virtually everywhere. I think I’m clear that I’ve backed off of Hackett, but still expected the WKRC to report the gross amount of the lawsuit and Hackett’s previous candidacy(ies). Omitting the former was a big mistake, and I could overlook omitting the latter, because you could argue it’s not relevant (assuming Hackett wasn’t “encouraged” to file by someone in politics).
That will teach me to take a TV station’s net story posting as the whole thing, but that was all that was available at the original post time.
Comment by TBlumer — June 6, 2006 @ 1:28 pm
Hey guys. Does it not seem a bit too coincidental that all these major identity thefts on people’s laptops are happening now? What do you do about it? The answer and real reasoning is to give a reason for the chip to be installed into the hand and forehead. Look further, see farther.
By the way i got a notice and have not been in the service since 1980. i get no benefits and am not considered a veteran since i was only in the reserves. yet, i received a notice that my info might have been on involved in this
theft. Why? For what reason would it even be on someone’s laptop? As for the lawsuit, if the veterans admin does not even notify who exactly has their info missing, how else do we come by the information?
Comment by Marcia Abernathy — June 21, 2006 @ 11:00 am
Marcie, I think there will be ways of tracking that will be accepted by the populace that shouldn’t be accepted, but the implant isn’t one of them.
In England, cameras are everywhere:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=1471
Between cameras and GPS in phones, there’s almost no need for an implant. Look at what has caught on in Korea:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=726
England is going to enforce GPS systems in all cars too.
As to VA and ID theft, I think a credit freeze is the only answer:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=2394
Comment by TBlumer — June 21, 2006 @ 11:26 am