PTSD in Mass Torts & Multi-Plaintiff Cases. What attorneys need to know.

August 19th, 2022|Categories: Featured On-Demand, Torts-On-Demand-CLE|Tags: , , , , , |

PTSD in mass tort and multi-plaintiff cases. What attorneys need to know. Mass tort claims arise most frequently in man-made and natural disaster catastrophe litigation as well as personal injury, employment, product liability and toxic tort litigation. Frequently, these lawsuits include either primary or secondary allegations of emotional distress. PTSD is one of the most common emotional distress claims alleged within mass tort litigation, as well as allegations of depression and emotional stress (anxiety).  Join an experienced psychiatrist and psychologist who will cover topics relevant to the forensic psychiatric assessment of emotional damages within mass tort and complex litigation.   Agenda Introduction: Defining PTSD. What it is and what it is not. The methodological approach to assessing allegations of emotional distress in mass tort & complex litigation. The importance and the methodology of psychological testing as part of the assessment of emotional distress claims in mass tort litigation. Claimant population screening. Using psychological test instruments to differentiate claimants who require in-depth forensic psychiatric assessment from claimants who do not.  Are all psych tests the same? Types of psychological test instruments we recommend and ones that we do not — and why.   So-called “PTSD Tests.” Do they have a role in forensic psychological assessments? Accuracy and reliability of conclusions derived from psychological test data. Taking a “team approach” to emotional distress claim [...]

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Myriah Jaworski on Arbitration as Defense Against Data Breach Class Actions

March 19th, 2021|Categories: HB Emerging Law Notes, HB Risk Notes, HB Tort Notes, Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation|Tags: , , , , , , |

Myriah Jaworski on Individual Arbitration as a Defense Strategy Against Data Breach Class Actions Abstract Data privacy class actions are proliferating. Defendant companies may find an effective defense strategy is moving to compel individual arbitration. Not all contracts have the appropriate language, however, and, even if they do, they may not succeed. This article, which will appear in the forthcoming issue of the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation, discusses U.S. privacy litigation and case law on compelling arbitration of class claims in the privacy law context, with recommendations for businesses to improve their chances of securing court orders that enforce arbitration language in their agreements. Author Myriah V. Jaworski, Esq. (mjaworski@beckage.com), is a member with the Beckage, a law firm specializing in technology, data security and privacy. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional, United States (CIPP/US) and Certified Information Privacy Professional, Europe (CIPP/E). She leads Beckage’s Privacy Litigation Practice Group where she represents clients in data breach actions, technology vendor disputes, and the defense of consumer class actions and related regulatory investigations. Myriah is also a former Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice. About The Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation is a co-production of HB, Fastcase, and Law Street Media. You can also hear the complementary (and complimentary) Emerging Litigation Podcast wherever podcasts appear. For [...]

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Charlie Kingdollar on Emerging Issues Facing the Property & Casualty Insurance Industry

March 17th, 2021|Categories: HB Emerging Law Notes, HB Tort Notes|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Emerging Issues Facing the Property & Casualty Insurance Industry: What Has, What Is, What Will Be Charlie Kingdollar was Emerging Issues Officer for GenRe where he worked for 40 years, much of which was spent monitoring hundreds of new risks at any given time. In this article, Charlie discusses risks that have long-since emerged but continue today, risks that are starting to reveal themselves, and risks just starting to appear on the horizon. Read or download his article published in the latest issue of the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation.

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Facial Recognition: How It Works and How It Doesn’t

January 14th, 2021|Categories: HB Emerging Law Notes, HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , , , |

Debbie Reynolds Founder, CEO & CDPO Debbie Reynolds Consulting Website Martin T. Tully Founding Partner Actuate Law Website Facial Recognition: Benefits & Risks Editor's Note: Imagine how great technology would be if it weren't for people. Since the beginning of time man has developed remarkable solutions to common problems. But leave it to nefarious, despicable, criminal or just plain dumb people to ruin them for the rest of us. You know, like gun powder, nuclear power, and the internet. Facial recognition programs and collection of biometric data would appear to have more benefits than risks, but those risks are there. As use of the technology proliferates we can expect more litigation as additional states follow Illinois -- the first to enact a state Biometric Information Privacy Act. Martin T. Tully of Actuate Law LLC and Debbie Reynolds of Debbie Reynolds Consulting LLC, outline these risks and how regulation and litigation is responding in their article: Facial Recognition Proliferation: Litigation and Legal Implications of Biometric Technologies. Below are a couple excerpts from their article, published in the January 2021 edition of the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation. --Tom Hagy Some FR technologies use a scanner to identify 4,500 different points of facial geometry to create a map of a person's face. The application doesn’t [...]

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Does Data Sharing and Zoombombing Cause Actual Harm?

January 14th, 2021|Categories: Cyber Risk, Cyber Risk Litigation, HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , |

Legal Writer Law Street Media FTC Settles Health Data Sharing and Privacy Suit With Fertility App Flo Health Nothing in this life is free. Or cheap. Free and low-cost apps. Free internet searches. Free email. Free iPhones. Yeah. We're paying for it one way or the other. In this case, once again, it's private health information some folks are paying with.  Here is an excerpt of a post shared with the permission of Fastcase and Law Street Media. --Tom Hagy, HB Litigation Conferences WASHINGTON, DC -- Jan. 13, 2021 -- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)  announced that that it has reached a  proposed settlement with Flo Health, Inc., the “developer of a period and fertility-tracking app used by more than 100 million consumers,” over claims that the company shared user health information with third-party data analytics providers despite promising that this information would remain private. In the complaint, the FTC alleged that Flo promised users that it would keep their health data, which includes menstrual cycle tracking and a PMS symptom log, as well as ovulation, fertility, and pregnancy information, private because it would only use this information to provide the app’s services to users. However, the FTC averred that Flo disclosed millions of users’ health data from its Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker app to third-parties “that provided [...]

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Does Data Sharing and Zoombombing Cause Actual Harm?

December 22nd, 2020|Categories: Cyber Risk, Cyber Risk Litigation, HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , |

Legal Writer Law Street Media Zoom Says Data Sharing, Zoombombing Doesn't Cause Personal Harm Zoom is a good name for this company. It seems to have come out of nowhere to become the new verb for web meetings, robbing that distinction from many more established competitors like WebEx and GoToMeeting, maybe because they don't have cool web-sounding names, although people don't seem to be saying "let's Skype later," as much as they used to. Sure, we still "Facetime," but Zoom really shot to the top when it comes to name recognition. According to CNBC's Ari Levy, Zoom reported fiscal third-quarter revenue growth of more than 300% after seeing 355% expansion in the prior period. The company's stock was up almost seven-fold this year but "pulled back in November on positive news surrounding a coronavirus vaccine," Levy reported. And with success comes risk, especially when dealing with private data.  Here is an excerpt of a post shared with the permission of Fastcase and Law Street Media. --Tom Hagy, HB Litigation Conferences Dec. 4, 2020 (San Francisco) -- On Wednesday [Dec. 2], in the Northern District of California, Zoom Video Communications filed a motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ first amended consolidated class action complaint (FAC) on the grounds that the FAC failed to state a claim for which relief may be [...]

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Cryptocurrency Article and Webinar

September 23rd, 2020|Categories: HB Emerging Law Notes, HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Cryptocurrency: The Good, The Bad, and the Tricky According to a recent Visual Capitalist article, there are now more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation, fueling an exploding $200 billion industry. Clearly it is a boom time for virtual asset service providers, or VASPs, like cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers. Despite its notoriety, mystique still surrounds cryptocurrency, from its use of blockchain technology, to the benefits and weaknesses of trading decentralized money, to national security implications. With crypto’s rise comes global implications. Its use often makes its way into headlines about criminal activity, such as the recent arrest of a 19-year-old and his friends for their alleged roles in a highly publicized Twitter hack. Forensic tools are in a constant state of development. For example, blockchain analysis tools assisted investigators in quickly identifying the young Twitter hackers, according to a post on the CipherTrace blog. Two Sides of the Digital Coin. There are many upsides to cryptocurrency. Transactions are secure without bank oversight. They can be processed at any time, not just during business hours. It has purchase power anywhere. Finally, cryptocurrency may provide greater benefit to developing countries where the local currency may swing due to exchange rate instability. In such countries, and where many citizens may be unbanked, supplanting traditional coinage with cryptocurrency could stabilize finance and open its doors to many. With crypto’s rise comes global implications. Shortcomings [...]

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Facial Recognition Update July 2020

July 17th, 2020|Categories: Emerging Litigation & Risk, HB Emerging Law Notes|Tags: , , |

Facial Recognition Technology -- Emerging After Decades of Development -- Draws Lawsuits and Proposed Bans  We sometimes forget that not all of the technical wizards who transformed our world were young “geniuses” jacked up on Starbucks, their shirttails hanging out in the ping-pong section of their open concept offices. Woody Bledsoe was born 99 years ago. As a young son of a sharecropper he demonstrated exceptional mathematical capabilities. Early in his career he had a dream: A machine that could think like a human, converse like one, and even recognize faces. This was as far back as the 1950s. This mathematician and computer scientist would go on to teach for decades at the University of Austin where he worked to advance automated reasoning and artificial intelligence. But what was his role in the development of the technology exactly? Did he perform work for a CIA front? And why, in his old age and suffering from the cruelty of ALS that would ultimately kill him in 1995, did he ask his son to set fire to a stack of old papers? Take a look at “The Secret History of Facial Recognition” written by Shaun Raviv for Wired Magazine, which explores why, among other things, “the record of [Blesdoe’s] role all but vanished.” If there isn’t a movie script in the works there probably will be soon.   Today facial recognition is used in such innocent and handy ways as pointing out [...]

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National Geographic Disclosed Customer Info, Class Action Says — Top Class Actions Blog

April 14th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , , |

"The National Geographic class action states that prior to and at the time that he subscribed to the magazine, the company did not notify him that it discloses the personal reading information of its customers. "Markham also claims that he wasn’t provided with any written notice that National Geographic makes a practice of renting, exchanging, or otherwise disclosing personal reading information to third parties, and provides no means of opting out. "However, the National Geographic information disclosure class action lawsuit says that since subscribing to National Geographic and between Mach 26, 2016 andJuly 30, 2016, National Geographic disclosed Markham’s personal reading information to data aggregators, data appenders, and/or data cooperatives." Read the complete post by Top Class Actions Editor Emily Sortor here.

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South Korea, EU Having ‘Adequacy’ Discussions

January 30th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , , , , |

Because of its robust network connectedness, its advanced use of mobile devices and its rich collection of intellectual property, South Korea is a leading target for hackers. Discussions are under way between the EU and South Korea to determine, as a non-EU country, whether its data protections are adequate. Also, South Korea has joined the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules system. Significant caselaw is developing regarding this country’s 2011 data protection statute as well as its sector-specific laws. Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz have selected Professor Haksoo Ko from the Law School at Seoul National University to speak at the International #PrivacySecurity Forum April 3-5, 2019. Ko will co-present to provide an up-to-date account of developments in South Korea and analyze the most important compliance hurdles. Learn more: http://bit.ly/IPSF-2019  

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Financial Institutions Struggle to Keep Up with ‘Changing Business Needs’ Such as Social Mobile Apps, and Getting Risk Data Quickly, Deloitte Report Suggests

January 27th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Deloitte's report is based on a survey of 94 financial institutions around the world that operate in a range of financial sectors and with aggregate assets of $29.1 trillion. Deloitte's Edward Hida  -- financial risk community of practice global leader and a partner in Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory -- posted his executive summary the latest Global Risk Management Survey which is the organization's eleventh. The report is a detailed one and Deloitte draws quite a few conclusions around the continued focus on cyber security, engagement of boards of directors, increase attention to non-financial risks, the potential of digital risk management, enterprise risk management, the proliferation of Chief Risk Officers, an increased reliance on stress testing and more. A couple figures jumped out at me which show at least two challenges to financial institutions. Hear this Deloitte professional at ICRMC in Toronto April 15-16! Respondents are finding "extremely challenging" the need to keep up with changing business operational needs, such as deployment of social mobile applications, data analytics and cloud-based risks. Also in the "extremely challenging" category, not surprisingly, are threats from "sophisticated actors," like foreign governments and crackerjack hacktivists. Other issues categorized as "extremely high priority "revolve around getting quality risk data quickly. Given the average length of time other studies show that a hacker can poke around in your network before you [...]

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Financial Services Cyber Risk Information Sharing

September 26th, 2018|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Why We Need to be More Like Apes, Less Like Seagulls By Tom Hagy Featuring Craigg Ballance, Director of Canadian Member Services, FS-ISAC Even before we can walk we are encouraged to share. We’re told to share our things even when we barely have any. Even some wild animals share food and resources – even when those resources are scarce. Some creatures are better at it than others, of course. Apes and lions? Absolutely. Seagulls? All you have to do next time you’re on the beach is toss what’s left of your ham sandwich into the air and see how generous gulls are. People fall into sharing -- and not-fond-of-sharing -- groups, too. Sharing is particularly critical in the financial sector where, while privacy and security regulations command a tight lid on data, global financial institutions are successfully sharing data about cyber risk, says Craigg Ballance, Director of Canadian Member Services for FS-ISAC in Toronto. But, he says, sharing has to take place across a broad landscape. “Information analysis sharing has to cut across the various subsets of the financial sector,” says Ballance. “While banks share local data, they are trying more and more to share globally, but,” he says, “banks need to share with other institutions, like insurers, investment funds, pension funds, and other types of financial institutions, for this cooperation [...]

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