First Financial Credit Union Data Breach Settlement

The Court authorized the Notice because you had a right to know about the Settlement in this class action lawsuit and about all of your options before the Court decided to give “final approval” to the Settlement. The Notice explains the legal rights and options that you may have exercised before the Court decided to approve the Settlement.

This matter involves the lawsuit styled Briscoe v. First Financial Credit Union, Case No. D-202-CV-2022-02974, pending in the Second Judicial District of the County of Bernalillo, New Mexico. The persons who sued are called the Plaintiffs. First Financial Credit Union is called the Defendant.

The lawsuit claims that FFCU was responsible for the Data Incident and assert claims such as: negligence, negligence per se, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of implied contract, breach of express contract, and violation of the New Mexico Unfair Trade Practices Act. The lawsuit seeks compensation for all persons whose PII was affected in the Data Incident.

FFCU denies all of the Plaintiffs’ claims and maintains it did not do anything wrong.

In a class action, one or more people called “Class Representatives” sue on behalf of all people who have similar claims. All of these people together are the “Class” or “Class members.” In this case, the Class Representatives are Brenda Briscoe and Roberta Keast. One Court will review the Settlement and resolve the issues and potential claims relating to the Data Incident for all Class members, except for those who excluded themselves from the Class.

By agreeing to settle, both sides avoid the cost and risk of a trial, and people who submit valid claims will get compensation or credit monitoring benefits. The Class Representatives and their attorneys believe the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate and, thus, best for the Class and its members. The Settlement does NOT mean that FFCU did anything wrong.

You are included in the Settlement Class if you provided your personal data to FFCU and were notified that your personal data may have been impacted because of the Data Incident occurring between January 17, 2022, and February 6, 2022.

Specifically excluded from the Settlement Class are: FFCU’s officers and directors are excluded from the Settlement Class, as well as (i) all Settlement Class Members who timely and validly request exclusion from the Settlement Class; (ii) the judges assigned to the Litigation and to evaluate the fairness, reasonableness, and adequacy of this settlement; and (iii) any other person found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be guilty under criminal law of perpetrating, aiding or abetting the criminal activity occurrence of the Data Incident or who pleads nolo contendere to any such charge.

If you are not sure whether you are included in the Settlement, you may write with questions to the email address info@FFCUSettlement.com, or by postal mail to:

FFCU Data Incident Claims Administrator
P.O. Box 2258
Portland, OR 97208-2258

Please do not contact the Court with questions.

The Settlement provided Class members with the opportunity to select and make a claim for either:

• Two years of Credit Monitoring and Insurance Services;
• Reimbursement of up to $150 per Class Member for certain documented out-pocket expenses resulting from the Data Incident (“Compensation for Ordinary Losses”);
• Reimbursement of up to 4.5 hours of lost time, at $25 an hour, if at least one-half hour of documented time was spent dealing with the Data Incident (“Compensation for Lost Time”); and
• Reimbursement of up to $5,000 per Class member for extraordinary fraudulent charges or out-of-pocket losses resulting from the Data Incident (“Compensation for Extraordinary Losses”);
  

  OR

• A Cash Payment in an amount to be determined in accordance with the terms of the Settlement (“Cash Compensation”).

You could have submitted a claim for one or more of the above benefits by completing a Claim Form. You must have also provided proof of your class membership in the form of either (1) the unique identifier provided in the notice you received by postcard; or (2) the name and physical address you provided to FFCU in connection with receiving FFCU’s services.

You must have provided documentation with the Claim Form that supports each type of payment sought. Any expense for which you are seeking payment cannot have been reimbursed through any other source.

Finally, as part of the Settlement, FFCU has agreed to implement and/or maintain certain data security measures. More details are provided in the Settlement Agreement.

Credit Monitoring and Insurance Services provide a way to protect yourself from unauthorized use of your personal information. If you already have credit monitoring services, you could have signed up for this additional protection.

Credit Monitoring and Insurance Services include: (1) real time monitoring of the credit file at all three major credit bureaus; (2) identity theft insurance (no deductible) of $1,000,000; and (3) access to fraud resolution agents to help resolve identity thefts.

Class members are each eligible to receive reimbursement of up to $150 (in total, per person) for the following categories of unreimbursed, documented out-pocket expenses resulting from the Data Incident:

• Card replacement fees;
• Late fees;
• Overlimit fees;
• Interest on payday loans taken as a result of the Data Incident;
• Other bank or credit card fees;
• Long distance phone charges, cell phone charges (only if charged by the minute), and data charges (only if charged based on the amount of data used);
• Postage, gasoline for local travel, and other incidental expenses; and
• Fees for credit reports, credit monitoring, or other identity theft insurance product purchased between January 17, 2022, and the date of the close of the Claims Period.

Class members could have also claimed up to 4.5 hours of unreimbursed attested lost time (at $25 per hour) spent monitoring accounts, reversing fraudulent charges, or otherwise dealing with the Data Incident (only if at least one-half hour was spent and the Class member provided a description of the activities performed during the time claimed as reflected in the Claim Form).

Class members who had other extraordinary unreimbursed fraudulent charges or out-of-pocket losses and/or lost time incurred as a result of, or in resolving issues and losses caused by, the Data Incident are eligible to make a claim for reimbursement of up to $5,000 per Class member. As part of the claim, the Class member must provide documentation plausibly supporting that:

1. they have incurred an actual, documented, and unreimbursed monetary loss;
2. the loss was more likely than not the result of the Data Incident;
3. the loss is not already covered by one or more of the categories in FAQ 9 or reimbursed through any other source; and
4. a reasonable effort was made to avoid or seek reimbursement for the loss (including exhaustion of all available credit monitoring insurance and identity theft insurance).

More details are provided in the Settlement Agreement.

In the alternative to Credit Monitoring and Insurance Services Compensation for Ordinary and Extraordinary Losses, and Lost Time, you could have instead elected to receive a cash payment. This is called “Cash Compensation.” The amount of the Cash Compensation will vary depending on the number of valid claims that are submitted. To receive Cash Compensation, you must have submitted a completed Claim Form electing to receive Cash Compensation.

You were not required to provide Reasonable Documentation with your Claim Form to receive Cash Compensation. The amount of individual Cash Compensation may be reduced or increased pro rata (equal share) depending on the number of Class Members that participate in the Settlement and the amount of money that remains in the Settlement Fund after payments of other Settlement benefits.

The deadline to file a claim was May 2, 2024.

The Claims Administrator, a neutral third party who has been hired to review and decide whether to approve the claims submitted in response to the Settlement, will decide in their professional judgment whether the information provided on a Claim Form is complete and valid. The Claims Administrator may require additional information from any Class member. If the required information is not provided timely, the claim will be considered invalid and will not be paid.

You did not have to do anything to remain in the Settlement, but if you wanted a payment, you must have submitted a Claim Form postmarked by May 2, 2024.

By staying in the Settlement, you gave up your right to sue for the claims being resolved by this Settlement. The specific claims you are giving up are described in Paragraphs 87-91 of the Settlement Agreement. You will be “releasing” FFCU, and all related people or entities as described in Section II, Paragraph 10.ee of the Settlement Agreement.

The Settlement Agreement describes the released claims with specific details, so read it carefully. If you have any questions, you can talk to the law firms listed in FAQ 20 for free or you can, of course, talk to your own lawyer at your own expense.

No. If you excluded yourself, you are not entitled to any benefits of the Settlement, but you are not bound by any judgment in this case.

No. Unless you excluded yourself, you gave up any right to sue for the claims that the Settlement resolves. You must have excluded yourself from the Settlement Class to start your own lawsuit or to be part of any different lawsuit alleging claims released by the Settlement or otherwise relating to the Data Incident. If you excluded yourself, do not submit a Claim Form to ask for payment or credit monitoring.

The deadline to exclude yourself from the Settlement was April 2, 2024.

Yes. The Court appointed the following lawyers as “Class Counsel”: Ben Barnow and Anthony Parkhill of Barnow and Associates, 205 West Randolph St., Ste. 1630, Chicago, IL 60606, 312-621-2000; and Andrew W. Ferich of Ahdoot & Wolfson, PC, 201 King of Prussia Rd., Ste 650, Radnor, PA 19087, 310-474-9111.

You will not be charged for these lawyers. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your own expense.

Class Counsel separately requested the Court’s approval of an award for attorneys’ fees not to exceed $533,333.33 and reasonable costs and expenses incurred in prosecuting the litigation. Class Counsel also requested approval of a service award of $2,000 for each of the Class Representatives. As approved by the Court, these payments will be made from the $1.6 million Settlement Fund.

The deadline to object to the Settlement was April 2, 2024.

Objecting is telling the Court that you do not like the Settlement and why you do not think it should be approved. You could have objected only if you did not exclude yourself from the Class. Excluding yourself is telling the Court that you do not want to be part of the Class. If you excluded yourself, you had no basis to object because the case no longer affected you.

The Court held a Fairness Hearing on April 25, 2024, and decided to grant final approval to the Settlement.

If you did nothing, you will get no benefits from this Settlement. Unless you excluded yourself, you will not be able to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against FFCU about the legal claims released by the Settlement ever again.

This website and the Notice summarize the Settlement. More details are in the Settlement Agreement. You can get a copy of the Settlement Agreement in the Documents section of this website. You may also write with questions to FFCU Claims Administrator at the address listed below. You can also download a copy of the Claim Form from the Documents section of this website, or by calling the toll-free number, 1-888-568-2137.

FFCU Data Incident Claims Administrator
P.O. Box 2258
Portland, OR 97208-2258