How To Sue Equifax
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Original Article | Author: Emily Price
If Equifax’s security incident last week has you thinking about a lawsuit, you’re not alone. From hiring your own lawyer to representing yourself in small claims court or joining a class-action lawsuit, there are a number of ways you can take your frustration about the incident to the courts.
Streamline Suing With a Chatbot
Small-claims court is likely your best bet if you want to sue Equifax personally. If you’re not a lawyer, then filling out all that legal paperwork can be a bit daunting. One startup, Do Not Pay, has revamped its chatbot typically used to argue parking tickets to help filling out small claims forms for suing Equifax.
The idea is a decent one—but some publications have reported that the bot will automatically sue Equifax for you, which just isn’t true. It will help you fill out the paperwork for a suit, but it’s still on you to file that paperwork with your local court (and pay a filing fee).
You’re also going to have to show up in court and argue your case. TechCrunch notes that the form automatically sets a complaint at $10,000. While that might seem like a good amount to you, you’re going to have to prove you’ve had $10,000 worth of damages in small claims court. If you can’t prove your information has been accessed or is being used, then that might be a difficult proposition. If you fail to prove damages, you’ll probably lose your case.
There’s also a chance that Equifax will move to have all the small claims court cases consolidated into a state or federal court. In that case, you’ll be at the mercy of the larger court for this solution.
Get Paid to Sue
Filing a small claims court case isn’t free. A startup called Legalist is offering to pay the fees involved in filing a small claims case against Equifax for anyone that was affected by the incident.
Motherboard reports that if you sign up with them, they’ll mail you a check to cover the cost of filing (typically between $70 and $100). In exchange, the group will give you a pre-filled legal complaint to send to the court. However, if you win, you’ll have to give the company 30% of the judgment. Depending on how much you’re suing for, that cut might be a lot more than the $100 that the company gave you to file the suit.
Many small claims courts don’t allow lawyers. The company’s idea is that by encouraging people to file small claims court cases around the country, they’ll be in a way preventing Equifax from representing itself everywhere since they’ll have to have actual employees in what could be hundreds or thousands of courtrooms at once.
Their logic is that means you might have a good chance of getting a default judgment, but you shouldn’t count on it. As I mentioned before, Equifax could still move all the small claims cases to a larger court. And you could still use this strategy on your own and just file a small claims case without using Legalist’s money. That way you would keep 100% of any judgement.
What About the Class Action Suit?
USA Today reports that there are currently at least 23 different class-action suits filed across the United States against Equifax. All of those 23 suits were filed by individuals who are attempting to have their case certified by the court. Here’s a good rundown on how class action lawsuits work.
When a case is certified by the court, then it will automatically include everyone who was affected by the case. There’s also a chance some of these 23 cases (or all of them) will be consolidated into a single case that will include everyone affected by the incident.
When one of the 23 filed cases is certified, then the person(s) who filed it will become the “Lead Plaintiff” in the case, and represent everyone. To get certified they’ll have to prove that they have a legal claim against Equifax and that there are a large group of people that have been injured in a similar way. Both of those options aren’t that tough, but they’ll also have to prove that they and their attorney have a plan in place to represent everyone involved, and a judge feels that will happen fairly.
Once the lawsuit is certified, then a court will order that everyone that was affected be contacted, something that might happen through the media or the internet, or via direct mailings. You’ll know it’s happening.
If you don’t get notified about one that gets certified, but see information about it in the news, it can be a good idea to contact the attorney involved. The Lead Plaintiff in the case will handle all the court appearances and determine what settlement (if any) the group will take. As an individual, you likely won’t need to participate in anything in order to get part of the settlement, presuming there is one.
