Did you receive the email about PowerSchool data breach litigation and have questions about what it meant and whether it was something for your school to consider? Us, too.
The email most clients received is specific to a “mass action” (not “class action”) that has been consolidated in the Southern District of California. Within that litigation, the school plaintiffs are alleging that PowerSchool breached its contractual obligations to keep data secure and caused administrators to spend time and effort responding to the breach, among other claims.
KSB contacted school attorneys we know in California who are directly involved in the PowerSchool litigation. Specifically, we spoke with Shiva Stein and Mark Williams from the F3 Law firm, who are partnering with the Frantz Law Group—the firm that sent you the initial email. They provided us with a case status update and shared practical details, including the administrative steps for schools that join, how to get started, and the prospects for recovery or settlement.
Shiva and Mark have offered to jump on a zoom to share this information directly with you and answer questions from any schools that may be interested. The zoom webinar will be held on Wednesday, August 27th at 12:00 CT. If you’re interested in listening in to this discussion, sign up here. We’ll also record the zoom so you can access it later if you can’t attend live. You can also take a look at an explanatory letter about the litigation by clicking here and a litigation FAQ document by clicking here. Both were prepared by the F3 Law team.
Here are our initial thoughts. We know you’ve had opportunities to join similar lawsuits—opioids, vaping, and social media, to name a few. The PowerSchool case is different because it involves individual claims from each school rather than a class action. In our view, it’s worth gathering more information for you and your board to consider. With multiple lawsuits already underway against PowerSchool, you may soon face a join-or-opt-out decision anyway. We think the Frantz Law Group/F3 approach offers more control over the process and potential recovery. As we understand it, they are offering to represent schools on a contingency basis, meaning you shouldn’t have attorney costs unless your district recovers money from the litigation.
If you’d like to talk with one of us about the litigation first, we’re happy to do so. Give us a call or shoot an email to ksb@ksbschoollaw.com. Otherwise, consider joining in the Zoom discussion and let us know if you’d like to talk it through after.
**Even though you are already a KSB client and/or elected to receive blog posts from us, it’s possible this blog post is technically considered an attorney solicitation or advertising material. KSB is not joining in the litigation or giving legal advice to you or those who are involved on the merits of the claims. We are trying to get the schools we serve information to help them make decisions.**