Home Depot's class action settlement with customers whose personal and confidential financial information was stolen by hackers who penetrated the Atlanta-based home supply chain's data security firewalls will provide an unexpected windfall to the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and Georgia Legal Services.
Lawyers representing Home Depot and those representing the class of as many as 56 million Home Depot customers have agreed to donate $250,000 to each nonprofit organization to enhance their services to the state's low-income and indigent populace, many of whom the organizations' executives told the court have been victimized by thieves and fraudsters trafficking in stolen identities.
The donations come from more than $3.5 million in unclaimed funds, known as cy pres money, remaining after class members received their settlement shares.
King & Spalding partner Phyllis Sumner, who has been defending Home Depot, and former Gov. Roy Barnes and John Bevis, both with the Barnes Law Group in Marietta and representing class members, signed off on the agreement to distribute excess funds after all documented claims were paid and customers with claims initially capped at $10,000 were fully reimbursed.
Leftover settlement funds also will go to three other organizations that combat identity theft the Identity Theft Resource Center, Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco and the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center. Each organization will receive approximately $900,000 to help victims of data breaches.
Home Depot agreed last year to pay $27 million to as many as 56 million Home Depot customers across the nation whose personal and financial information was stolen in 2014 when hackers breached electronic checkout systems across the chain and made the information available to the cyber underworld.