EDWARDSVILLE - Two days after parties agreed to dismiss a federal lawsuit alleging violations of a biometric privacy act, a new suit by one of the same plaintiffs seeks class action certification and was filed in the local circuit.
But the same plaintiff already filed suit in Madison County Circuit Court earlier this year only for the case to be removed to federal court.
The action is one of a flurry filed in Madison County by the same St. Louis attorney, alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The Madison Record was unable to contact attorney Brandon Wise, of Pfeiffer, Wolf, Carr & Kane of St. Louis, prior to publication.
The filings followed an Illinois Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that found that plaintiffs do not have to show actual harm to be successful in an action.
Different companies with some connection to southern Illinois have been served with notice of a class action, with all alleging similar violations, that the plaintiffs did not give written consent for their fingerprints or handprints to be used for identification, that no written policy was issued, and that the information may have been passed on to a third party.
In the current case, plaintiff Connie Young, on behalf of herself and others, first filed suit in March in Madison County against World Wide Technology, a company based in St. Louis but with facilities in Edwardsville and Granite City. The action was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois in May.
Defendant counsel Lauren Caisman of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner of Chicago then argued in a filing the following month that the damages sought -- $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for an intentional or reckless one --- were "grossly excessive" and, therefore, unconstitutional.
Caisman argued the damages disproportionate, “in light of the absence of any actual injury or harm to plaintiff and the putative class members.”
On Dec. 2 the parties agreed to dismiss the suit in federal court. A new one, on behalf of Young and Christopher Coons, was filed in Madison County Dec. 4.
Madison County Circuit Court Case number 2019-L-1728.