PHOENIX - U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia, District of Arizona, was recently selected to handle 13 consolidated lawsuits against LifeLock, a heavily marketed identity theft company that claims to protect consumers through its services, and earlier this week she named Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro (HBSS) and Phoenix-based attorney Rob Carey lead counsel in the case.

In Murguia's order she states, "Hagens Berman has the requisite experience and resources necessary to manage a case of this size and complexity," determining HBSS can best serve the interests of the class.

"We're pleased the court consolidated these 13 cases allowing us to efficiently move claims forward and help correct these wrongful practices," said lead attorney Rob Carey. "This is a first victory for plaintiffs, and the fact that several top-tier firms recognized LifeLock's conduct is deficient indicates we have a strong case - we look forward to preparing for trial."

Cases from around the country make up the 13 suits moving forward, including plaintiffs from Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, West Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Texas, and California.

The suits claim LifeLock, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, uses aggressive advertising to entice consumers to sign up for its $10-a-month service which it describes as "proactive identity theft protection, offer[ing] a proven solution that prevents your identity from being stolen before it happens."

According to the HBSS suit, LifeLock's "proven solution" consists of illegally placing and renewing fraud alerts under consumers' names with credit bureaus. However, under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, corporations such as LifeLock are not allowed to place fraud alerts on a consumers' behalf - in fact, according to the complaint, the law was written so as to specifically bar credit-repair companies from improperly using fraud alerts.

Through the lawsuits plaintiffs also claim LifeLock misstates its legal obligations to customers and what its protection service covers if a loss occurs. In advertisements the company touts a $1 million guarantee, yet a closer examination at the fine print reveals that LifeLock will not pay any losses directly to the consumer and does not cover consequential or incidental damages to identity theft, plaintiffs claim.

The first and original suit filed by HBSS claims LifeLock violated Arizona's Consumer Fraud Act and the Arizona Insurance Code, and seeks to have all members' fees refunded due to the illegality of the contract and LifeLock's misrepresentations about its service.


About Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is based in Seattle with offices in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and New York. Since 1993, it has developed a nationally recognized practice in class-action and complex litigation. Among recent successes, HBSS has negotiated a $300 million settlement in the DRAM memory antitrust litigation, one of the largest anti-trust settlements in history; a $340 million recovery on behalf of Enron employees; a $150 million settlement involving charges of illegally inflated charges for the drug Lupron, and served as co-counsel on the Visa/Mastercard litigation which resulted in a $3 billion settlement, the largest anti-trust settlement to date. HBSS served as counsel in a $850 million Washington Public Power Supply settlement and represented Washington and 12 other states against the tobacco industry that resulted in the largest settlement in history. For a complete listing of HBSS cases, visit www.hbsslaw.com.