Connecticut M&A Advisor Agrees to Pay $1.5M to Settle Data Breach Class Action

Merritt Healthcare Advisors, a Connecticut mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory firm for healthcare practices, has agreed to a $1.525 million settlement of a class action stemming from a 2022 data breach.

The money will go into a fund to compensate the estimated 88,740 people whose personally identifiable information, private health information, and/or financial information were exposed in the breach.

Merritt discovered the security breach on November 30, 2022, and made it public onn March 14, 2023.

The settlement addresses three class actions filed in 2023 in federal district court for Connecticut that the plaintiffs agreed to consolidate and resolve through mediation.

“The negotiations leading to the settlement were contentious and hard-fought,” says the settlement proposal submitted to the court. “The resulting settlement reflects an agreement reached at arm’s length, in good faith, and free of any collusion.”

The agreement, which must still be reviewed by the court, includes a separate amount of $508,283 for the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Kevin Laukaitis of Laukaitis Law and Laura Grace Van Note of Cole & Van Note.