UPDATED 00:37 EDT / AUGUST 26 2015

NEWS

Ashley Madison’s last great hookup is an orgy of lawyers as multiple class action lawsuits filed

Avid Life Media, Inc., the parent company of hacked extra-marital affairs site Ashley Madison is in more than a spot of bother this week with multiple lawsuits being filed against the company.

According to reports, four federal suits had been filed in the United States as of Monday – two in California, one in Texas and one in Missouri, with all four alleging breach of contract, negligence and violation of various state and federal privacy laws.

Given blame would logically first fall with the hacker who obtained, then leaked the Ashley Madison database, one suit alleges that Avid Life Media did not provide adequate and reasonable measures to secure the data of users from being compromised, and then subsequently failed to notify users in time of the breach.

None of the suits so far have been granted class action status, but are seeking to do so before the court.

Plaintiffs in all four cases are listed as being anonymous with each filing listed under the names John Doe or Jane Doe, and none are currently making specific requests for damages, but instead note that reasonable penalties would exceed $5 million.

“Ordinarily, in a consumer class action involving a data breach, the biggest hurdle consumers have faced is the ability to show harm or damage,” cybersecurity lawyer Behnam Dayanim told ABC News. “Here I think it will be easier for the plaintiffs’ attorneys to establish harm.”

Canada

Avid Life Media’s legal issues following the hack of Ashley Madison do not stop at the United States border with two Canadian law firms, Charney Lawyers and Sutts, Strosberg LLP, joining forces to file a CA$760 million ($573 million) class-action lawsuit on behalf of Canadian users who were impacted by the breach.

So far the firms claim that some 1,000 people have contacted them to participate in the lawsuit, and like their American counterparts, the suit alleges that Ashley Madison failed to protect users’ information, including personal names, emails, home addresses and message history.

Of note, the head office of Avid Life Media is in Toronto.

If any of the suits are successful it is likely to be the end of days for the company given that it only reported revenue of $115.5 million in 2014; the company may have legal liability insurance, but how much that insurance will pay out will depend on multiple things such as how much damages come to, and perhaps more importantly how negligent Ashley Madison is found to have been in allowing the hack to take place to begin with.

If you’re worried that your data has been released, you can search the Ashley Madison hacked/ leaked database online by following the link.

Image credit: gazeronly/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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