Connecticut Business Litigation Blog : Connecticut Business Lawyer & Attorney : N. Kane Bennett : Aeton Law Partners LLP : Hartford, Middletown, Glastonbury

As many of us know, the Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, is stepping down and running for Chris Dodd's U.S. Senate seat. Several candidates have stepped forward indicating that they are going to run for Attorney General.   The Connecticut Attorney General has a significant impact on businesses in this state.  For one thing, the Attorney General often brings lawsuits to protect businesses and consumers related to unfair trade practices.  For example, within the last few days,  Attorney General Blumenthal filed a lawsuit on behalf of over 400,000 Connecticut residents related to the Health Net data breach.  The old saying in legal circles is that the Attorney General runs the largest law firm in the state. 

Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz is one of the candidates running for Attorney General.  Ryan McKeen, at A Connecticut Law Blog, has a very interesting post today about whether Susan Bysiewicz has the legal resume to meet the statutory qualifications to be elected Attorney General based on needing 10 years in "active" law practice.  The media has jumped on his blog post and there are several reports on it already in the news.     The Bysiewicz campaign has responded and claims that she is qualified despite only six years of practice in the state based on her years of "supervising" attorneys at the Secretary of State's office.   Now that the issue has been joined, everyone is waiting for Ryan to respond, including me. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued a scathing press release related to Health Net's recent data loss and security breach.  Blumenthal called Health Net's story on it "sanitized" and its six month delay in reporting "unconscionable."  Blumenthal called for a federal investigation and intensified state efforts because of the sensitive financial and health information at risk for exposure.

Health Net is based in Shelton, Connecticut and is one of the largest health plans in the Northeast serving approximately 580,000 members.  A report by Lucas Mearian of Computerworld stated that the information stolen was a portable hard drive that had not been encrypted.  Proper encryption could have prevented access of the information.

Connecticut consumers have been affected by the data loss and more than a million people had social security numbers and financial and medical information exposed. Consumers in Arizona, New Jersey, and New York also had sensitive information exposed.  Thus far, there has been no report of identity theft or misuse of the information.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

On November 17, a superior court jury in Stamford returned a 15 million dollar verdict in favor of the Auto Body Association of Connecticut (and three other auto body repair shops) arising out of claims againt the Hartford for unfair trade practices. The case docket goes back to 2003 and was filed based on claims that the Hartford was supressing auto body labor rates by steering customers to preferred appraisers and auto body shops.

The website search-autoparts.com provided some insights into the case stating that the claims were supported by "extensive documentation including internal memoranda detailing company policies, as well as several depositions by company employees."  In addition to the 15 million dollar verdict, the Association is now looking to obtain injunctive relief, and potentially punitive damages according to a article in the Hartford Courant by Kenneth Gosselin.  According to an article by Rob Varnon on newstimes.com  the problem started when the Association believed that customers with damaged cars were being steered to preferred shops with lower rates according to terms of the insurance company, not the customer.

The Auto Body Association of Connecticut has taken issue with the practices of appraisals and auto body repair rates for years now.  At one time, even before this current case, I represented one of several independent appraisal companies sued by the Association seeking discovery of documents related to the same set of issues.  Our group of defendants was successful in defending the discovery lawsuit, but it was clear then that the Association intended to bring additional claims.  The Attorney General is also getting into the dispute now seeking federal intervention after having sided with the Association in the past. 

The Hartford intends to continue defending its appraisal and repair program on appeal and with post trial motions.  The Hartford stated "we are disappointed with the verdict and plan to appeal.  We remain confident that our auto-body repair program is fully consistent with Connecticut law . . ." 

This litigation seems far from over.   Only time will which side will eventually prevail.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link