Waters No Less Rocky After Landmark BIPA Settlement

Waters No Less Rocky After Landmark BIPA Settlement

A year and a half has passed since one of the most remarkable jury verdicts in Illinois history. The Rogers v. BNSF case was the first Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act ("BIPA") case tried to a jury verdict, with the jury finding BNSF liable for thousands of BIPA violations and federal Judge Matthew Kennelly awarding statutory damages of $228,000,000 to the class of plaintiffs. In our prior publication about the Rogers verdict, we noted that the case was tried before the Illinois Supreme Court decided the Tims v. Black Horse Carriers and the Cothron v. White Castle System Inc. cases.

As we discussed, the Tims and Cothron decisions made BIPA an unwieldly monster for Illinois employees. The Illinois Supreme Court in Tims held that a 5 year statute of limitations applies to BIPA claims and, in Cothron, the court held that a BIPA violation accrues with each unauthorized use of a biometric device. BIPA