Judy Harrison reports:
Whether Hannaford Bros. customers may recover damages for the time and trouble it took them to straighten out their bank or credit card accounts after the Scarborough-based firm’s computer system was breached in late 2007 and early 2008 now is up to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
The justices have never considered what constitutes damages for lost time and effort in cases of data theft.
U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby last week sent two specific questions to the state’s high court. In essence, the federal judge wants to know if Maine consumers who have been reimbursed by their banks and credit card companies for losses due to stolen data have the right to seek damages for the time they spent and the effort it took them to straighten out their accounts.
Read more in the Bangor Daily News.