Milberg Filed Third Most Consumer Suits From 2021 to 2023

Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman (“Milberg”) filed 961 consumer protection lawsuits between 2021 and 2023—the third most of any firm in the country—according to a new report from Lex Machina.

Consumer protection filings remain down compared to a decade ago but were up in 2023 to the third-highest number over the past ten years, the report finds, led by a sharp rise in class actions and data breach disputes.

Lex Machina’s findings align with a review from corporate defense firm Duane Morris that names data breach class actions one of their most significant litigation trends.

Breaking Down the Numbers From Lex Machina

In its 2024 Consumer Protection Litigation Report, Lex Machina presents analytics-based research about consumer protection cases, including data breach cases, class actions, and claims brought under federal consumer protection statutes such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Lex Machina found that:

• There were 14,515 consumer protection cases filed in federal court in 2023—a 7.6% year-over-year increase.
• Consumer class actions jumped 31% in 2023 to 5,455 cases filed—the third most since 2014 and the most since 2017.
• Data breach cases skyrocketed to 2,040 in 2023, almost triple the number filed in 2022 and more than four times higher than in 2021.

The report also found that few firms have been more involved in driving the resurgence of these disputes than Milberg, which in the last three years filed 961 consumer protection lawsuits.

Over the past three years, Milberg has settled an industry-leading more than fifty (50) class actions involving privacy violations in state and federal courts as lead or co-lead counsel. Milberg filed the fifth most class action lawsuits of any firm nationwide from 2021 to 2023.

Milberg ranked third in the number of federal consumer cases filed during the study period and first in the number of districts (77) where it filed these cases. In 2023, no firm filed more consumer protection lawsuits than Milberg.

Milberg is currently involved in some of the largest and most complex class action cases pending across the country and is particularly active in the fields of cybersecurity, privacy, and data breach litigation.

Law 360 writes that Milberg has been “at the center of several notable data breach disputes” in recent years, including cases filed in 2023 against Norton Healthcare Inc. and Rivers Casino.

In January, a Virginia federal judge gave preliminary approval to a settlement in a Five Guys data breach class action brought by Milberg attorneys. And in June, federal judges signed off on a pair of Milberg data breach class action settlements involving Novant Health Inc. ($6.7M – North Carolina) and Wright & Filippis, Inc. ($2.9M – Virginia).

Over the past three years, Milberg, as lead or co-lead counsel, has settled more than fifty class action lawsuits alleging privacy violations in state and federal courts. No other plaintiffs’ consumer protection firm in the country has settled and won court approval of more data breach and data privacy class actions during this period.

Milberg’s Consumer Fraud Practice Group has also been active in filing claims under the FCRA, the FDCPA, and the TCPA.

A Lex Machina report from May 2024 found that Milberg filed the fifth most class action lawsuits from 2021 to 2023, with 892 filings, and had the greatest geographic reach in the three years, filing class actions in 75 districts.

More Insights on the State of Data Breach Litigation

Defense firm Duane Morris LLP in January released its Class Action Review 2024, a comprehensive dive into class action decisions, trends, and significant rulings and settlements from 2023.

2022 and 2023 marked the most extensive set of billion-dollar class action settlements and transfer of wealth in the history of the American court system.

Duane Morris lists data breach class actions among the report’s 10 Key Trends in Class Action Litigation. The report states that data breach class actions are one of the fastest growing areas of class action litigation and makes the following observations:

• There were 1,320 data breach class actions filed in 2023—more than double the 604 filed in 2022 and more than four times the 310 filed in 2021.
• Plaintiffs filed as many data breach class actions in the first half of 2023 as they did in all of 2022.
• Plaintiffs, on average, filed 44.5 data breach class actions per month in the first eight months of 2023.
• Fewer than 25% of class certification decisions issued in data breach cases favored plaintiffs in 2023.

Data security faces unprecedented risks, adds Duane Morris, including the shift to remote work, the rise of cloud-based storage, and the escalation of sophisticated cybercriminal activity. However, these cases are marked by “inconsistent outcomes” due to unique plaintiff-side challenges like standing and uninjured class members.

“While it is well-settled that individuals who have experienced direct economic injury from a breach (such as fraudulent charges) have legal standing, courts have disagreed as to the standing of persons who have not contended that an unauthorized party misused their data,” says Duane Morris.

Data breach class actions collectively produced settlements of $515.75 million in 2023, according to the report. By comparison, consumer fraud class actions resulted in settlements worth $3.29 billion; privacy class actions brought in $1.32 billion in settlements; FCRA class actions settled for a combined $100.15 million; and TCPA class action settlements were worth $103.45 million.

The years 2022 and 2023, says Duane Morris, “marked the most extensive set of billion-dollar class action settlements and transfer of wealth in the history of the American court system.”

Milberg: The Firm That Pioneered Class Action Litigation

Milberg pioneered the use of federal class action litigation nearly 60 years ago and set a new standard for holding corporations accountable. We’ve recovered more than $50 billion for our clients and remain a leader in filing class action lawsuits