Ca: Laurentian Data Breach Class Action Approved by Court

The following is a press release. I’ll meet you on the other side: On October 19, 2021 (sic), a certification and settlement approval hearing took place at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in respect of a settlement agreement with Spencer Brydges with respect to the above-noted action. On December 17, 2020 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved a settlement reached between the Plaintiff and Brydges and has certified the proceeding and dismissed the claims against the Defendant Brydges (Order / Endorsement).  The Settlement has no impact on the litigation against Laurentian, which will continue to be litigated. The proposed class action against Laurentian has not been certified to proceed as a class action and the Plaintiff’s claims against Laurentian have not been evaluated on their merits.  Laurentian denies all allegations against it.  The contested certification motion against Laurentian has been scheduled for April 7-8, 2021. Source: McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP The Laurentian incident began in 2017 when a student, Spencer Brydges, decided to test the university’s security and found he could access students’ and professors’ information. He reported it to the university, who instead of saying “thank you,” expelled him and had him prosecuted criminally. In 2019, Brydges was given probation and an order of community service by the court after pleading guilty to mischief.  With respect to a class action lawsuit filed against him and the university by some students: a settlement involving Brydges was reached in 2020. As described on the law firm’s site, the settlement with Brydges did not involve any payment by him.  In exchange for dismissing the Class Action against Brydges, Brydges has agreed to cooperate with the Plaintiff by providing information regarding his role in the alleged data breach.  There is no monetary benefit being paid as part of this settlement. So next up is the attempt to certify a class against the university.  We’ll continue to watch for developments, as lawsuits in Canada are much less frequent than here.DataBreaches.netRead More