Preliminary Approval of $1.5M Settlement Granted in One Brooklyn Health Data Breach Class Action

Data Breach at One Brookyln Health

On April 20, 2023, the New York based healthcare system One Brooklyn Health (“OBH”), began notifying individuals that their information was involved in a data breach that exposed individuals’ personally identifying information (“PII”) and private health information (“PHI”).

The company learned that it had experienced a cybersecurity attack on November 19, 2022, and conducted an investigation following the cyberattack. Through its investigation, OBH discovered that an unauthorized party had gained access to the company’s information systems. Through further investigation, OBH discovered that approximately 235,000 individuals’ PII and PHI was impacted. Although the data breach occurred in November 2022, OBH did not alert consumers until April 2023.

Information including full name, date of birth, and address; Social Security numbers; drivers license and state identification numbers financial account information, and medical treatment information may have been acquired by the unauthorized third party.

Preliminary Approval of the One Brooklyn Settlement

On April 26, 2023, Shub & Johns LLC filed a class action lawsuit against One Brookyln Health for the potential impact that the data breach could have or has already had on affected individuals. On December 15, 2023, Plaintiffs in the case filed a consolidated amended complaint after the judge ordered that all matters against OBH be consolidated.

Counsel for both parties engaged in lengthy discussions, and after months of arms-length negotiations  the Parties agreed on a tentative settlement of the class action suit.

On September 5, 2024, Plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary approval of a class action settlement, with a $1.5M settlement fund. On October 23, 2024, Attorneys Benjamin F. Johns and Samantha Holbrook traveled to Kings County, New York in order to attend the Court’s hearing concerning Plaintiff’s motion for settlement. On November 8, 2024, Honorable Judge Carolyn E. Wade issued an order granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Approval of the class action settlement, and appointing Shub & Johns LLC as Co-Lead Class Counsel. Individuals impacted by the breach will be notified and have the chance to submit a claim until March 23, 2025 for participation in the class action settlement. The Court has scheduled a final approval hearing for February 26, 2025. Additional details regarding the Proposed Settlement are still to come.

The case is captioned Kiya Johnson et al. v. One Brooklyn Health System, Inc. (Sup. Ct. NY.). You can read the Preliminary Approval Order here.