Biometric Litigation
Illinois Supreme Court Clarifies BIPA Violation Accruals, Opening the Door for “Annihilative” Damage
This Am Law 50 senior counsel cements his authority through two appellate analytics blogs - Legally Contented Podcast
On June 10, 2025, Judge Georgia N. Alexakis of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order allowing the defendant in an Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) action to immediately...more
On Jan. 24, the Illinois Supreme Court, in Petta v. Christie Business Holdings Company, PC, affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action following an alleged data breach because the named plaintiff failed to allege any...more
On January 24, 2025, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in Petta v. Christie Business Holding Co., P.C., 2025 IL 130337, that a patient who alleged an increased risk of harm arising from a data breach at a medical clinic did...more
Courts routinely refuse to certify consumer class actions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) based on the need for an individualized showing of the reliance element of a fraud or deceptive trade practices claim....more
Illinois employers will no longer face astronomical damages — into the millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars at issue in recent class action lawsuits — for violations of the Biometric Information Protection Act...more
The long-awaited amendment provides immediate relief to corporate defendants from business-destroying liability - On August 2, 2024, Senate Bill 2979 went into effect limiting available damages under Illinois’ Biometric...more
In light of the continuing barrage of lawsuits brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), companies should be able to rely on their general liability (GL) insurers to defend and indemnify them from...more
In a significant legislative development, the Illinois House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved Senate Bill 2979, with a vote of 81 to 30, which amends the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) to...more
The fingerprints of the federal courts are all over Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) jurisprudence, and Illinois state courts may want to change that. A recent Illinois Appellate Court decision disagreed with a...more
2023 was another eventful year for class action litigation under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The Illinois Supreme Court issued two long-awaited decisions, holding that BIPA claims are subject to a...more
Recently, the Illinois General Assembly have restarted efforts to amend the Biometric Information Privacy Act of 2008 (“the Act”). On January 31, 2024, Senator Bill Cunningham introduced S.B. 2979 ostensibly to answer the...more
Throughout much of 2023, businesses found themselves in a challenging position as they continued to grapple with defending against Illinois Biometric Information Privacy (BIPA) class action lawsuits. The year began on a...more
This post is part of a series of articles we are doing on 2023 data protection litigation trends. Since its enactment in 2008, Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) has produced a wave of privacy-related...more
Healthcare workers’ alleged biometric information “collected, used, and stored to access medications and medical supplies for patient health care treatment” is excluded from coverage under section 10 of Illinois’ Biometric...more
Class action lawsuits accusing companies of violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) have more than doubled following a February 2023 ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court, which found, based on a...more
The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the exclusivity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act do not bar a claim for statutory damages under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). In so doing, the Court...more
On July 18, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court denied a rehearing on the issue of Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) accrual. The request for rehearing derived from an opinion by the 7th Circuit, Cothron v. White Castle...more
The Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA) provides that a prevailing party “may” recover liquidated damages for a violation of the statute. Addressing the potential for “annihilative liability” in White Castle, the Illinois...more
The Illinois Supreme Court recently held in Cothron v. White Castle System, Inc., No. 128004 that a violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (the “Act” or “BIPA”) occurs and accrues every time a scan of a...more
In a rare win for employers, on March 23, 2023 the Illinois Supreme Court issued its decision in Walton v. Roosevelt University, affirming dismissal of claims brought under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by a...more
The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision that a separate claim under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) accrues each time an entity scans or transmits an individual’s biometric identifier or biometric information...more
For several years, companies that collect, use, and store the biometric information of Illinois residents have lived in fear of violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), due to a tidal wave of class action...more
The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), enacted in 2008, was one of the first state laws to address commercial collection of biometric data. Biometric data includes an iris scan, a fingerprint, a voiceprint,...more
On February 17, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a split decision holding that under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), claims accrue “with every scan or transmission of biometric identifiers or biometric...more
A separate claim under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) accrues each time an entity scans or transmits an individual’s biometric identifier or biometric information, a divided Illinois Supreme Court has...more