Lieff Cabraser represented identity theft victims in a nationwide class action lawsuit against Intuit for allegedly failing to protect consumers’ data from foreseeable and preventable breaches, and by facilitating the filing of fraudulent tax returns through its TurboTax software program. The complaint alleged that Intuit failed to protect data provided by consumers who purchased TurboTax, used to file an estimated 30 million tax returns for American taxpayers every year, from easy access by hackers and other cybercriminals.

The complaint further alleged that Intuit was aware of the widespread use of TurboTax exclusively for the filing of fraudulent tax returns. Yet, Intuit failed to adopt basic cyber security policies to prevent this misuse of TurboTax. As a result, fraudulent tax returns were filed in the names of the plaintiffs and thousands of other individuals across America, including persons who never purchased TurboTax.

In May 2019, Judge Edward J. Davila of the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval to a settlement that provided all class members who filed a valid claim with free credit monitoring and identity restoration services, and required Intuit to commit to security changes for preventing future misuse of the TurboTax platform.