“Human error accounts for 74% of data breaches.”
That’s from IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report. The real threat isn’t always hackers.
Sometimes, it’s a missed update. A bad password. Or storing data in unsecured systems.
If that negligence causes your private information to get exposed, you may have legal grounds to act. And if you’re wondering whether it’s worth the fight, it is. Data breach lawsuits are growing fast across the country. Legal liability is often at the center of these claims.
Let’s break down how negligence shapes these lawsuits and how it can impact your rights, your recovery, and your next steps.
Legal Definition of Negligence
Negligence is a legal concept used to hold individuals or entities accountable when their failure to act responsibly causes harm. In simple terms, negligence occurs when:
- Someone had a legal duty to act a certain way
- They failed to meet that duty
- That failure caused harm or damage
- The harm was foreseeable and avoidable
In the context of data breaches, the "duty" typically involves protecting sensitive data like Social Security numbers, medical records, or financial information. If a company fails to do that, they may be found negligent.
How Negligence Applies to Data Breaches
Negligence in a data breach context means a company didn’t take reasonable steps to secure user or consumer data. That can include:
- Not installing firewalls or antivirus software
- Ignoring known security vulnerabilities
- Failing to encrypt sensitive information
- Lack of employee cybersecurity training
- Not complying with federal or state data security regulations
If a breach happens and the cause traces back to these failures, negligence may be at the center of the lawsuit.
Proving Negligence in Court
To succeed in a data breach lawsuit based on negligence, the legal argument has to satisfy four specific elements. Each must be backed by credible evidence and legal reasoning:
Duty of care
The company must have had a legal obligation to protect your data. This is often tied to the nature of the relationship, such as an employer, healthcare provider, financial institution, or service provider. Courts usually find this duty exists when you're a patient, customer, or user.
Breach of duty
This means the company failed to follow reasonable security practices. Courts often use industry standards like NIST, HIPAA, or PCI DSS as benchmarks to measure what “reasonable” means. A failure to encrypt data, apply security patches, or train employees can all be used to show a breach of duty.
Causation
You must show that the company’s failure directly led to the breach. This usually requires technical evidence, such as forensic reports, timeline analysis, or logs showing how attackers gained access. Without a clear link, the case may fall apart.
Damages
Lastly, you have to prove you were harmed. This doesn’t always mean financial loss. Courts may consider loss of privacy, identity theft, emotional distress, or the time and cost of recovering from the breach. Some states require proof of actual harm. Others accept the risk of future harm as enough.
Evidence matters. Your attorney may use internal emails, whistleblower tips, public breach reports, expert testimony, or even records from government investigations. The stronger your documentation, the stronger your case.
Impact on Compensation and Settlements
How much you recover in a data breach lawsuit often comes down to how clearly the company was negligent. Courts and settlement negotiators consider:
- The scale of the breach. Millions of compromised records may lead to more pressure for higher payouts
- Type of data exposed. Health records and Social Security numbers are considered more sensitive than email addresses
- Steps taken before and after the breach. Delays in disclosure, weak response plans, or failure to notify victims can increase liability
- Whether the breach was preventable. If the vulnerability was known but ignored, courts may be more willing to impose higher damages
Victims may receive:
- Cash compensation for identity theft-related expenses
- Reimbursement for time spent on credit freezes, fraud alerts, or dispute resolution
- Free credit monitoring and identity protection services
- Emotional distress damages in some cases
- Punitive damages, when the company’s actions showed gross negligence or willful disregard
For example, if a healthcare provider stores unencrypted patient files on a server it knows is outdated and exposed to the internet, and never fixes it, any resulting breach could trigger enhanced damages. The court may view this as more than a simple mistake.
Settlements also vary based on whether the case is brought individually or as part of a class action. Class actions may result in broad, lower-value payouts per person but offer faster resolution for larger groups.
Case Examples Illustrating Negligence
To see how negligence plays out in real-world data breach litigation, here are several high-profile cases where companies failed to meet basic security obligations and paid the price.
Target (2013)
In 2013, Target experienced a data breach that compromised over 40 million credit and debit card records, along with personal information from approximately 70 million customers. The breach was facilitated through a third-party HVAC vendor's compromised credentials, allowing attackers to infiltrate Target's network. In 2017, Target agreed to an $18.5 million multistate settlement, marking the largest such settlement at that time.
Equifax (2017)
Equifax's 2017 data breach exposed the personal information of approximately 147 million individuals. The breach resulted from Equifax's failure to patch a known vulnerability in the Apache Struts framework, despite the availability of a fix months prior.
In 2019, Equifax agreed to a settlement of up to $700 million with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 50 U.S. states and territories. The company faced broad legal liability for its failure to address a preventable risk.
T-Mobile (2021)
In August 2021, T-Mobile disclosed a data breach affecting over 76 million U.S. residents. The breach exposed sensitive personal information, including names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and driver's license details. Subsequent lawsuits alleged that T-Mobile failed to implement adequate data security measures. In 2022, T-Mobile agreed to a $350 million settlement to resolve the class-action lawsuits related to the breach.
What Damages Can You Claim from a Data Breach?
Depending on the case, you could recover:
- Out-of-pocket costs for identity theft recovery
- Time spent dealing with fraud
- Emotional distress
- Loss of income if the breach disrupted work
- Credit monitoring services
- Compensation for the misuse of your data
- Possibly punitive damages if negligence was especially egregious
You don’t need to prove massive financial loss to bring a claim. You only need to show your data was exposed due to negligent practices and that you were harmed. That harm could be the basis for legal liability and a successful lawsuit.
What To Do If You’re a Victim of Data Breach
If your data was exposed, act quickly:
- Get your credit report and monitor accounts
- Freeze your credit with all three major bureaus
- Keep documentation of breach notifications or suspicious activity
- Contact a data breach attorney to evaluate your legal options
- Watch for class action notices. You may be eligible to join
Even if no fraudulent activity has occurred yet, the exposure itself may be grounds for legal action.
Let Cory Watson Attorneys Help You Win This Case!
Proving negligence in a data breach case is not simple. It takes investigative work, technical knowledge, and strong legal strategy. But you don’t have to do it alone.
Cory Watson Attorneys has the experience and resources to hold corporations accountable for putting your personal information at risk. If you’ve been affected by a breach, we want to hear your story.
Call Cory Watson Attorneys today to schedule a free case consultation. There’s no obligation, and no fee unless we win.