Latest news with #FrantzLawGroup
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
MSCS files suit against software company after data breach leaked info to hackers
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of Memphis Shelby County Schools against PowerSchool, a K-12 software provider the school district was using, after a data breach leaked 'highly sensitive' student information. In December 2024, hackers stole student and teacher data from PowerSchool, the company confirms. PowerSchool says it became aware of the breach Dec. 28. School districts were not notified of the breach until nearly two weeks later, according to the lawsuit. Hackers claimed to have obtained information like names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers from over 60 million students, parents, and faculty members worldwide. MSCS says in the lawsuit it has verified that nearly 24,000 of the records are from schools in the district. A news release from Frants Law Group states that PowerSchool paid a ransom to the hackers, 'but it is possible that personal information about students and parents has or will be sold on the dark web.' Local grandmother contradicts MSCS statement about release of students' names They say there have been recent reports of hackers doing exactly this — extorting school districts who are PowerSchool users. Frantz Law Group filed the lawsuit on behalf of MSCS. They say the district has paid PowerSchool more than $21 million over the last 12 years for its services, which promised to keep their data safe. The lawsuit includes accusations of negligence, breach of contract, and false advertising. 'The education community reasonably relied on PowerSchool's claims of privacy and security, but the software provider breached numerous contractual and legal duties it owed Memphis-Shelby schools and other districts across the country,' said William Shinoff, trial attorney with Frantz Law Group. Gun pulled during fight at J. Alexander's restaurant: police PowerSchool recently released a statement May 7 saying that a 'threat actor' has reached out to multiple school district customers trying to extort them using data from the December 2024 breach. They believe this is connected to the same incident. 'We sincerely regret these developments – it pains us that our customers are being threatened and re-victimized by bad actors,' said PowerSchool. The company also noted its decision to pay the hackers a ransom after the initial incident last year, saying they felt it was the best option to prevent the data from being made public. 'We made the decision to pay a ransom because we believed it to be in the best interest of our customers and the students and communities we serve. It was a difficult decision, and one which our leadership team did not make lightly,' said PowerSchol. 'But we thought it was the best option for preventing the data from being made public, and we felt it was our duty to take that action.' 📡 for Memphis and the Mid-South. 📧 and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox. Through the lawsuit, MSCS is requesting actual and compensable damages caused by PowerSchool's negligence, including expenses associated with handling the concerns of students and staff who suffered the theft of their personal information, along with the lost time and money used to mitigate the effects of the data breach. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press
12-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Frantz Law Group Files Lawsuit Against Schools Software Provider over Data Breach
Hackers accessed personal information of students and teachers nationwide SAN DIEGO, May 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Memphis-Shelby County Schools against PowerSchool, a software provider popular at K-12 schools. The suit, filed by Frantz Law Group in federal court, includes allegations of negligence, breach of contract and false advertising in connection with a major hacking incident in December 2024. The plaintiff is a Tennessee public school district serving more than 110,000 students at 222 schools spanning pre-kindergarten through high school. The defendant is PowerSchool Holdings Inc., which collects and maintains highly sensitive personal identifiable information for more than 60 million students, parents, and school faculty worldwide. Hackers stole student and teacher data from PowerSchool in late December, but school districts were not notified of the data breach for nearly two weeks. PowerSchool has acknowledged it paid a ransom to the hackers, but it is possible that personal information about students and parents has or will be sold on the dark web. There have been recent reports of hackers directly extorting school districts who are PowerSchool users. Memphis-Shelby County Schools has paid more than $21 million to PowerSchool over the last 12 years for its services, relying on its promises to keep their data secure. 'PowerSchool failed to uphold its end of the bargain to safeguard and protect students' personal information,' said William Shinoff, trial attorney, Frantz Law Group. 'The education community reasonably relied on PowerSchool's claims of privacy and security, but the software provider breached numerous contractual and legal duties it owed Memphis-Shelby schools and other districts across the country,' said Shinoff, whose Law Group is representing numerous districts nationwide in this litigation. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers were among the information hackers obtained from PowerSchool. The lawsuit claims that the software provider failed to implement basic cybersecurity measures that could have prevented the data breach. Actual and compensable damages caused by PowerSchool's negligence include expenses associated with handling the concerns of students and staff who suffered the theft of their personal information, and the lost time and money incurred to mitigate and remediate the effects of the data breach. The suit against PowerSchool Holdings was filed in U.S. District Court Southern California. PowerSchool is headquartered in Folsom, California. About Frantz Law Group Frantz Law Group is an award-winning personal injury, wrongful death, catastrophic injury, trucking litigation, mass tort, and class action law firm that has been serving clients for over 45 years. The firm has secured over 300 multimillion-dollar individual settlements and jury verdicts and has worked with other law firms to secure several multibillion-dollar settlements that benefited thousands of clients. Frantz Law Group has been ranked Tier 1 in U.S. News – Best Lawyers® 'Best Law Firms' from 2010-2023 for mass tort litigation/class actions - plaintiffs. James P. Frantz is a fellow and associate of the American Board of Trial Advocates, is AV® rated by Martindale-Hubbell®, is a 20-year Special Master appointed by the State Bar of California and a 20-year Master in The Enright Chapter, American Inns of Court. For more information, please visit Media Contact: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Frantz Law Group
Los Angeles Times
10-02-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Dave Fox and James P. Frantz on Navigating Recovery: Legal Insights for Rebuilding Southern California
A Conversation with the Experts: Legal Strategies for Rebuilding After Disaster. Produced by LA Times Studios in partnership with Fox Law APC and Frantz Law Group. In the wake of January's devastating fires, Southern California faces the immense challenge of rebuilding its homes, businesses and communities. To help those affected navigate this complex process, we turned to two legal experts to discuss several critical considerations for those working to make themselves whole again, from insurance claims and contract negotiations to zoning regulations and government aid. Whether you're a homeowner, business owner or investor, the following information can provide essential guidance on securing fair settlements, avoiding legal pitfalls and ensuring a smooth path to recovery. Join us for this series of insightful discussions on need-to-know legal advice that can help rebuild and strengthen our city. Q: How can people recover from the emotional impact of the fires? James P. Frantz, Trial Attorney and CEO, Frantz Law Group: Losing your home in a fire causes a great deal of emotional distress. Not only have you lost your home, but often your community as well. With these recent fires in particular, entire communities were destroyed including schools, churches, synagogues and community centers. You should not underestimate the impact of evacuation, relocation and rebuilding after a fire - it is important to seek professional help if you are experiencing trauma as a result. As a law firm, we work to secure compensation for our clients for the economic damages they have suffered including losing their homes while also seeking compensation for the emotional impact on their family so they have the resources to get the help they need. Q: What are law firms and accounting firms doing to help businesses and individuals in need? Dave Fox, Founder, Fox Law APC: Lawyers can play a critical role after a wildfire. They can assist those needing help with insurance issues, can help provide information on how to access critical government funds, and seasoned wildfire litigators can help individuals recover the major underinsured and uninsured losses that always arise after a fire. This particularly occurs in construction costs as they spike extremely high. We expect that to be the case in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, given the thousands of homes that need to be rebuilt. Once the dust settles from the immediate aftermath of a fire, experienced wildfire litigators also represent clients in court proceedings against third parties (typically utility companies) in order to assist communities in recovering money for the underinsured and uninsured losses they have incurred. For those who lost homes, this underinsured range can be from hundreds of thousands of dollars to several million dollars. Litigation against utility companies is quite technical and something our firm, Fox Law, has specialized in for more than a decade. We've helped more than 3,500 clients recover collectively more than $1.2 billion from utility company defendants. Frantz: Frantz Law Group has extensive experience in assisting with wildfire recovery. We hire liability experts to determine where the fires originated and who caused the fires. Unfortunately, we often find that utilities who failed to maintain their equipment are at fault. When that happens, we go to battle to hold the utilities accountable for the people whose lives have been destroyed through negligence. We have helped more than 7,800 fire victims obtain the necessary compensation to rebuild their homes and their lives. We offer free consultations and guidance through the recovery process. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning we do not bill you for our time and you do not owe us anything out-of-pocket. Our fee is only from any recovery we obtain for you. We do not take a fee on funds you receive from your insurance company. We often find that residents and businesses do not have adequate insurance coverage to cover their losses; so, we seek to recover that shortfall from those responsible for the fire. Q: Why would an insured homeowner need a lawyer? Isn't insurance supposed to cover their losses? Fox: Even if someone has homeowner's insurance, it's near universal that insurance is inadequate to fully compensate for losses after a wildfire. First, the price to rebuild the home skyrockets after a major wildfire as the normal supply and demand drastically alters. Sadly, we have seen that nearly everyone who lost homes will need, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands of dollars more to rebuild than what their insurance will provide. Moreover, many policies exclude or place significant limits on personal property coverage. They also severely restrict recovery for replacing landscaping, trees, shrubs and irrigation systems, among other things. Insurers can provide inadequate coverage for additional living expenses (ALE) or loss of use (LOU). Perhaps most importantly, insurance policies do not cover the pain and suffering fire victims endure while evacuating and the trauma associated with losing a home. These uninsured/underinsured losses are all recoverable in litigation and can be quite sizable in most cases. These are the types of damages that our firm, Fox Law, pursues from the utility on behalf of our clients. Q: How can liability issues be addressed for utilities and developers in wildfire-prone areas? Frantz: It is critical that utilities create and implement wildfire mitigation plans. Unfortunately, we see the same utilities start fires over and over. Some utilities, such as San Diego Gas & Electric, have implemented a comprehensive wildfire risk mitigation program which includes replacing wood poles with fire-resistant steel poles, building a sophisticated weather monitoring network and fire and weather forecast models, and strategic undergrounding. However, utilities continue to start fires damaging thousands of California residents. Our law firm seeks to hold these utilities accountable and ensure that they provide appropriate compensation to allow people to recover and to hopefully better maintain their systems so that no future fires occur. Fox: There are systemic liability issues that arise in cases of utility-caused wildfires. We have seen, time and again, utility failure to properly maintain equipment and infrastructure. These issues are addressed on a per-fire basis through litigation, which can and (in some cases) do result in changes that positively impact a utility's fire mitigation strategy. One example of this was when SDG&E made significant changes to its systems after the 2007 San Diego wildfires and subsequent litigation. There has not been another major fire event in San Diego since then like those we have seen in Los Angeles and Northern California. On the other hand, litigation is limited. Real change must be driven by legislators, regulators, and frankly, willing utility participants. We are currently working hand-in-hand with a member of Congress to try and address some of the larger underlying issues that litigation alone cannot tackle. Q: What do I do if I am underinsured? Frantz: Most homeowners who lose their homes to a fire find that they are underinsured. Many California wildfires are caused by utilities whose equipment came into contact with dry brush or was otherwise not well maintained. A firm that specializes in wildfire litigation will have retained experts who investigate the origin and cause of a wildfire to explore whether a utility is responsible for the fire. If a utility is found to be responsible, a lawsuit can help you recover the additional compensation necessary to recover and rebuild your life. Make sure you confirm that any law firm you are considering has the necessary experience to maximize your recovery. Q: What are the legal and financial implications of selling your property, rather than rebuilding, after a utility-caused wildfire? Fox: What to do with your property after a wildfire is a highly personal decision, but one that should be made with legal implications in mind, if possible. Choosing to sell your property vs. rebuilding can significantly decrease a recovery through litigation. There are two ways of calculating fire damages to real property: 1) The diminution in fair market value (DIV), or 2) the cost to cure or repair the property. The DIV is the difference between what a neutral third party would pay to buy the property the day before the fire versus immediately after the fire. The cost to cure/repair is the amount it would cost to repair the fire damage and restore your property to its pre-fire condition (e.g., cost to rebuild, repair damage to structures, remediate erosion, and/or replace trees and landscaping). In nearly all cases, the DIV is substantially less than the cost to cure. If you have specific questions about the legal implications of your case, you should discuss those in a privileged conversation with your lawyer. We are happy to do that at Fox Law. Q: What are the critical factors in selecting a law firm to assist with fire recovery? Frantz: The most important consideration is that the law firm has experience with wildfire litigation. Wildfire damages are a nuanced area of law and an inexperienced firm will not be able to maximize the compensation you are entitled to receive. There have been thousands of homes destroyed by utility-caused wildfires in California over the last decade. There are lots of firms, such as ours, who have decades of experience helping clients recover from wildfires. Make certain that whoever you decide to work with gives you confidence in their experience, meets you with compassion and empathy to support your recovery and takes the time to answer all of your questions.
