Case Study
Truck driver Richard Rogers brought a class action alleging that BNSF Railway violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act when fingerprint information was registered and used through identity-verification systems at Illinois rail facilities.
The matter required analysis of records associated with the biometric registration system and the population reflected in those records. The case became the first BIPA class action to reach a jury trial.
Global Digital Forensics was retained by plaintiffs’ counsel to serve as database, data-analysis, and computer-forensics experts in the matter.
GDF’s work included restoring and analyzing database records associated with the identity-verification system, normalizing and deduplicating data, and reporting findings relevant to the biometric information stored by the system and the individuals reflected in those records.
GDF’s expert analysis was a key component of plaintiffs’ trial proof. It gave counsel a reconstructed, normalized, and defensible account of the biometric-system data at issue.
GDF’s expert database and computer-forensics work helped plaintiffs’ counsel secure a jury finding that BNSF recklessly or intentionally committed 45,600 BIPA violations. The district court entered judgment for $228 million. The court later vacated the damages award and ordered a new trial limited to damages while preserving the jury’s liability finding.
The parties ultimately resolved the litigation through a $75 million settlement fund. The final settlement is distinct from the earlier $228 million judgment.
Related
Confidentiality
This case history is limited to the public litigation record and a high-level, client-authorized description of GDF’s role. It distinguishes the jury’s $228 million judgment from the later $75 million settlement.
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