(Jersey City, New Jersey) – Atlas Data Privacy Corporation ("Atlas") today announced the filing of 27 additional enforcement actions against data brokers seeking to compel their compliance with Daniel’s Law, and alleging that some of the new defendants have ignored nondisclosure requests for more than a year. Enacted in 2020 after the tragic death of Judge Esther Salas’ son Daniel Anderl, Daniel’s Law protects the home addresses and unpublished home telephone numbers of judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers, and their families, from unwanted disclosure.
Leading the newly filed enforcement actions are prominent New Jersey law firms Porzio, Bromberg & Newman and Stern, Killcullen & Rufolo. They join five other law firms – Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, PEM Law LLP, Morgan & Morgan, Friedman Kaplan Seiler Adelman & Robbins, LLP, and Bird, Marella, Rhow, Lincenberg, Drooks, & Nessim, LLP – who are currently representing Atlas and individual covered persons in over a hundred active Daniel’s Law actions in federal and state courts.
“Today I am excited to welcome two of New Jersey’s leading law firms and a dozen new trial lawyers and legal staff who are joining the fight to make the protections promised by Daniel’s Law a reality,” said Matt Adkisson, the President of Atlas.
Since the first enforcement actions were filed in February 2024, Atlas has been successful in defending Daniel’s Law in both federal and state courts, despite the defendants having hired some of the most powerful and expensive law firms in the country to protect their profit-driven interests. This includes decisive victories upholding the constitutionality of Daniel’s Law and reaffirming its significant public policy interest and purpose. Despite these efforts, many defendants remain non-compliant, and Atlas intends on continuing to use all injunctive and economic tools available under the law to compel compliance with Daniel’s Law’s important requirements. These matters present one of the first times in U.S. history that this industry is being compelled to face accountability for ignoring a State privacy law – there is ample evidence that the industry has gutted legislation and largely purposefully ignored other State privacy laws for well over a decade.
“The companies we take action against today include websites which appear to be operated from Russia, China, and other foreign jurisdictions, who have refused to comply with the law for more than a year and who continue to disclose information that endangers our public servants and their families,” said Vito A. Gagliardi, Jr. of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, P.C. “Daniel’s Law as written is clear, but without enforcement and compliance, the law cannot protect anyone effectively.”
Mr. Gagliardi is the managing partner of leading New Jersey law firm Porzio, Bromberg & Newman; he represented the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, who successfully advocated as a friend of the court, in defeating a constitutional challenge to Daniel’s Law at the trial court and on appeal in the case known as Kratovil v. City of New Brunswick. The final resolution of that case is pending before the New Jersey Supreme Court.
“The willful non-compliance of these data brokers is unacceptable,” said Robert Ferguson, of Stern Kilcullen & Rufolo, LLC. “Our firm is home to former public servants, and I am appalled that judges and other law enforcement officials face fear and intimidation tactics regularly due to corporations disregarding the law designed to protect them.”
Mr. Ferguson is a partner at Stern Kilcullen & Rufolo, LLC, a powerhouse New Jersey law firm that has recently joined in efforts to pursue justice for those covered by Daniel’s Law .
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About Atlas
Atlas's mission is to protect judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and other public servants and officials by preventing their sensitive personal information from being disclosed online. We help individuals, agencies, and enterprises who are at elevated risk when their information is made public. To learn more visit: www.atlas.net
