WASHINGTON (9/9/15)--The U.S. District Court District of Minnesota is scheduled to consider tomorrow whether to grant class-action status to financial institution plaintiffs with lawsuits against Target related to its massive data breach during the winter holiday shopping season in 2013.

If the court certifies the class, it would allow financial institutions to join their claims against Target and seek damages as a class of plaintiffs, rather than individually. A "class action" lawsuit allows those parties with alleged losses to consolidate their losses and coordinate the use of attorneys, collection of evidence, requests of witnesses, and most other aspects of the litigation.

Target's data security breach compromised 40 million debit and credit card numbers and the personal information of as many as 70 million customers. CUNA’s 2014 research found that credit unions incurred $30.6 million in costs related to the breach--not including actual fraud costs.

Target negotiated a $67 million settlement with payment network Visa Inc. that offered compensation to financial institutions in exchange for a release of potential legal claims.  Financial institutions were not bound to accept that Alternate Recovery Offer.

 The Target deadline for financial institutions to waive their claims by accepting that offer was Sept. 4.