California Superior Court Judge Theresa M. Traber granted preliminary approval last month of a $725,000 class-action settlement for members who sued LA Financial Federal Credit Union over a data breach incident.
In June 2024, the $559 million LA Financial discovered a suspicious security incident that potentially affected nearly 35,000 current and former members. The breach allegedly exposed members' personal information including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, passport and state identification numbers, account, routing and payment card numbers, health insurance information and biometric data, according to court documents.
The credit union did not inform its current and former members of the data breach until September 2024 when the first proposed class action lawsuits were filed in state court. During the first quarter of 2025, LA Financial merged into the $3.9 billion Credit Union of Southern California in Anaheim.
Current and former members of LA Financial are eligible to receive a payment of up to $5,000 if they can provide appropriate documentations for losses "fairly traceable" to the data breach incident, according to the settlement terms.
Members who don't submit documented losses will receive a payment of $50 or more and an additional $100 payment for California residents. Members also will be eligible to receive two years of free credit monitoring services.
The attorneys representing the members who filed the lawsuit will receive $241,666.
LA Financial members Sumner Davenport, Daniel Cohen and William Woodward, who filed the class action lawsuit, will each be paid up to $5,000 for their assistance during the legal proceedings.
Aug. 5 is the deadline for members and non-members to file a claim, which is available at this site.
The credit union has denied the legal claims of the lawsuit and has also denied any wrongdoing or liability. The court has not made any determination of wrongdoing by LA Financial or that any law has been violated. Instead, this settlement was reached to avoid additional risks, costs and time of continuing the legal proceedings, according to court documents.
The class action lawsuit is expected to receive final approval during a court in July.
Peter Strozniak can be reached at peter.strozniak@arc-network.com.
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