On September 29, 2017 in Baltimore County Circuit Court, Smith, Gildea & Schmidt, LLC and Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, PA filed the first Maryland-only class action lawsuit against Equifax for its massive data breach that affected up to 143,000,000 accounts and millions of Marylanders.
“We are working on behalf of all Marylanders who have been affected by this incredible breach of security, and we have filed this class action suit in Maryland to ensure that the harms of this data breach are properly addressed by the Maryland Court system,” said Michael Paul Smith, a partner with Smith, Gildea & Schmidt who filed the suit along withTimothy Maloney of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake.
According to Equifax, the breach lasted from mid-May through July, and people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers were compromised. Hackers also stole credit card numbers for about 209,000 people.
“The number of people who have been affected by this breach is astounding,” said Maloney. “We feel that it is imperative to focus our efforts on Maryland residents who are now at risk of identity theft and other harms because of the sensitive personal information that was exposed at Equifax.”
Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies, is facing multiple class action lawsuits nationwide. This lawsuit filed by Smith, Gildea & Schmidt, LLC, with offices in Towson and Baltimore, Md. and Joseph, Greenwald & Laake,PA in Rockville and Greenbelt, Md. is the first to be filed in Maryland State Court for only Maryland residents.
About Smith, Gildea & Schmidt, LLC
Smith, Gildea & Schmidt is a regional law firm with 13 lawyers whose practice areas include complex civil litigation, class action, land use, business law, estates and trusts, governmental affairs, and domestic relations, among others. The firm’s clients range from multinational corporations to individuals with particular legal needs. The land use attorneys have an active practice that encompasses most of the jurisdictions in the state of Maryland. The complex civil litigation section has vast courtroom experience in both the federal and state courts. For more information, go to www.sgs-law.com.