It finally happened: In late June, the Georgia Court of Appeals issued an opinion squarely addressing the issues surrounding damages alleged by consumers after a data breach. But whether the opinion clarifies the arguments or further muddies the waters depends on who you ask.
Collins, et al. v. Athens Orthopedic Clinic was initiated in January 2017 as a putative class action following a large data breach affecting Athens Orthopedic Clinic. The data breach occurred about six months prior to the initiation of the suit when an anonymous hacker known only as the “Dark Overlord” acquired personally identifiable information pertaining to approximately 200,000 current and former AOC patients by using a third-party vendor’s login credentials.
