Wiretap Lawsuit Settlement Finalized- AT&T pays $1.5 mil

Illegal wiretapping and eavesdropping can result in large law suits and penalties.  Corporations should not take such activity lightly. Even if it was not done by anyone in an official position- perhaps just a disgruntled employee, and even if no critical trade information was lost- perhaps just personal conversation, the resultant law suits could cost millions. Add to that the possibility that someone may really be trying to steal classified information, and you have very good reasons for scheduling professional sweeps of your facilities.

A few rogue employees at AT&T helped LA high profile  private investigator Anthony Pellicano (“P.I. to the Stars”) accomplish his wiretaps over 10 years ago. That activity has resulted in a class action lawsuit against AT&T.  They are now required to pay approximately $4,000 to each of the numerous victims, amounting to a total of almost $1.5 million.

from Hollywood Reporter:

AT&T will shell out about $1.5 million to victims and their lawyers.

AT&T is on the verge of cutting $4,000+ checks to each of the hundreds of victims of P.I. to the stars Anthony Pellicano.

More than a decade after Pellicano’s activities became notorious, a class-action lawsuit filed against AT&T’s Pacific Bell is being wrapped up. Last June, the parties submitted a preliminary settlement over claims that a few rogue employees at the telephone company were colluding with Pellicano, but it took many more months to finalize the terms.

Initially, there was a $2,500 cap on payments to each of the victims. After some objection by many of those victims, the cap was upped to just over $4,000. AT&T was originally scheduled to pay out a maximum of $1.5 million, but under the new arrangement, it gets a break of about $45,000 off of that amount. The victims were able to increase their payouts after cy pres money earmarked for the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology was pulled back.

Five law firms represented the class of plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and they stand to make about $660,000 as their reward.

As for who will be getting money, it will be a number of individuals that journalist Anita Busch is documented to have chatted with during the latter months of 2002, since under California law both parties must consent to a recording. That includes her regular Hollywood sources and some THR employees.