Judicial Panel Now Weighing 15 T-Mobile Data Breach Cases for Transfer

Alston & Bird counsel for T-Mobile filed notice Monday with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (docket MDL 3073) of three more related cases stemming from the carrier’s Jan. 19 disclosure of the data breach in which bad actors gained access to the account information of 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customers (see 2301250045). The additions bring to 15 the number of cases the JPML will consider for transfer and pretrial consolidation under a single district judge, with the Western District of Washington and the Western District of Missouri front-runners as a likely transferee venue. The three cases are: (1) Lopez v. T-Mobile (1:23-cv-01263), removed March 1 to U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago; (2) Polhill v. T-Mobile (1:23-cv-00489) filed Feb. 1 in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta; and (3) Smith v. T-Mobile (2:23-cv-00188) filed Feb. 8 in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle. Responses are due March 16 at the JPML on the motion to transfer the cases to the Seattle court. The parties in virtually all the related cases have asked their courts to stay their proceedings, pending the JPML's action to transfer and consolidate.