Provost-Umphrey Law Firm, L.L.P. filed a class action lawsuit on January 29, 2014 in the United States District Court in Minnesota on behalf of CommunityBank of Texas, and other similarly situated banks against Target Corporation. The lawsuit is a response to the Target security breach that occurred between November 27, 2013 and December 15, 2013.

During the security breach, hackers obtained the credit and debit card information of approximately 40 million Target customers, and the personal information of approximately 70 million Target customers. Due to the breach, financial institutions suffered losses including: the expense of creating, issuing and mailing new payment cards to their customers, customer reimbursements for fraudulent charges, administrative expenses and overhead charges associated with monitoring and preventing fraud, and lost customers. While Target is providing one year of free credit monitoring services for those impacted, financial institutions have found themselves responsible for the majority of the costs associated with the security breach.

Walter Umphrey and Michael A. Havard of Provost-Umphrey Law Firm are representing the plaintiffs in the case.  “We feel that CommunityBank is well positioned to represent a nationwide class of banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. It is too early to determine just how much money banks have lost, but early indications are that losses could run in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Havard.

According to the filed lawsuit, the breach was the direct and foreseeable result of Target’s failure to implement and maintain reasonable, industry-standard security measures to protect its customers’ credit card, debit card, and personal information. Additionally, credit card companies require merchants to comply with regulations aimed at safeguarding customer information. These regulations generally prohibit the retention and storage of cardholder information after a transaction has been authorized.

For over forty years, Provost-Umphrey’s mission has remained to seek justice for those most in need – those who have suffered a personal injury or death due to the wrongful conduct of others. Our attorneys fight for our clients nationwide with offices in Beaumont and Houston Texas, Little Rock, Arkansas and Nashville, Tennessee.  Led by Walter Umphrey, Provost«Umphrey continues to be one of the most successful trial law firms in the nation by remaining Hard-Working Lawyers for Hard-Working People.