First Choice Dental Data Breach Lawsuit Resolved for $1,225,000

First Choice Dental, which manages 12 dental clinics in Madison and Dane counties in Wisconsin, suffered a ransomware attack on October 22, 2023. The dental care provider decided to resolve the litigation due to the data security breach.

First Choice Dental publicized a temporary notice about the breach, informing patients concerning the exposure of their protected health information (PHI). At the time of issuing the breach notices, the investigation of the cyberattack was being conducted. First Choice Dental provided the HHS Office for Civil Rights a temporary notification about the breach that impacted 1,000 people.

First Choice Dental stated that it found unauthorized network activity on October 22, 2023, but was not aware of the number of people affected or the exposed types of information. The healthcare company began sending breach notification letters to the victims on July 12, 2024, after 9 months the attack occurred. The notification stated that the breached data involved names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, government ID numbers, passport numbers, driver’s license numbers, healthcare data, and credit/debit card numbers. The HHS Office for Civil Rights breach portal still listed the data breach as affecting 1,000 people, even if the data breach impacted over 159,000 people.

The first class action lawsuit filed against FCDG Management, LLC, d/b/a First Choice Dental on July 17, 2024 by plaintiff Kelly Gorder was received in the Dane County Circuit Court of the State of Wisconsin. Afterward, the six lawsuits filed in response to the data breach were consolidated as Kelly Gorder, et al., v. FCDG Management, LLC d/b/a First Choice Dental.

The consolidated class action lawsuit alleges that if First Choice Dental had proper safety measures in place and implemented standard data protection guidelines, the data breach could have been averted. The lawsuit claims included breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, negligence per se, unjust enrichment, breach of implied contract, invasion of privacy, and violation of Wisconsin Statute § 146.82.

First Choice Dental doesn’t acknowledge the allegations in the lawsuit and does not admit any wrongdoing or liability. The motion to dismiss submitted by First Choice Dental on January 6, 2025 partially succeeded as the court dropped the privacy violation and unjust enrichment claims. Nevertheless, the other claims continued. Because of the lawsuit’s time and cost requirements as well as the uncertainty of a trial and appeals, the parties to this lawsuit met on July 1, 2025, and agreed to a settlement. The court already approved the final settlement terms.

There were 159,145 settlement class members who received data breach notifications. Those individuals are qualified to claim a 3-year membership to the CyEx Medical Shield Monitoring services, plus an identity theft insurance policy up to $1 million. At the same time, class members can submit a request to reimburse documented, out-of-pocket expenses up to $6,000 per class member or file for a $50 cash payment.

Class members will be paid after deducting the administration costs, service awards, attorneys’ fees and expenditures, and security expenses worth $225,000 from the $1,225,000 settlement fund. Claims filed by class members will be determined pro rata if the total goes over $1,225,000.

Those who wish to file a claim should do so by January 28, 2026. January 12, 2026 is the date of the final fairness hearing. Those who want to argue to or exclude themselves from the settlement must submit on December 29, 2025. Information about this breach incident may be downloaded from the settlement website.