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| | Berkshire Hathaway, Zenith, and Cypress Insurance Companies Accused In Federal Lawsuit Of Illegally Hacking Into Confidential Claimant-Attorney Privileged Files. Suit Filed In Los Angeles On April 19th. By Lonce LaMon - April 27, 2016
A federal lawsuit claiming that three workers' compensation insurance companies in California illegally hacked over 32,000 confidential workers' compensation files, was filed last week on Tuesday, April 19th.
The lawsuit, that expresses claims from a California worker and which seeks class action status, was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against Berkshire Hathaway, Cypress Insurance, The Zenith, HQSU Sign Up Services Inc., and two California private investigators hired by the insurers. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the alleged breach of personal information found in workers' compensation files.
The lawsuit is based on the case of injured worker Adela Gonzalez, who was represented by the Los Angeles-based law firm Reyes & Barsoum L.L.P. She claims her personal information was stolen from her lawyer's databases by private investigators hired by the insurers. She alleges the investigators illegally accessed servers that had her Social Security number, birth date, home address, medical information and other confidential information, according to court documents.
Investigators William Reynolds, hired by Berkshire Hathaway and Oliver Glover, hired by Zenith Insurance, are alleged to have hacked into attorney-client workers compensation files to steal personal information about injured workers, court records say.
The hacking occurred over several years and was apparently directed by the insurers in order to get to thousands of attorney-client privileged documents of claimants and their attorneys so the insurers could allegedly have the advantage in litigation and save money in judgments and settlements.
Investigator William Reynolds admitted to the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board to downloading over 33,000 workers comp files, the complaint reads. Investigator Oliver Glover admitted to downloading workers compensation files in a sworn deposition in a Los Angeles Superior Court case in 2015, according to court filings.
According to the complaint, the unlawful computer hacking was discovered in April 2014 when a separate law firm had a workers compensation attorney-privileged intake packet in their possession during an in-chambers workers compensation hearing with California workers compensation Judge Paige Levy.
The judge asked the lawyer of Oakland, California-based law firm Knox Ricksen L.L.P. where he had obtained the file. The lawyer said from the HQSU website, where personal client data was stored and maintained, the Gonzalez complaint says.
A similar workers compensation hacking lawsuit was previously filed June 2015 in Los Angeles federal court. That case, Hector Casillas v. Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies et al., is still pending.
lonce@adjustercom
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