The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that the state Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that (pdf) “banks can’t release a person’s account information without a court order. Affirming a lower court decision, the justices agreed Bank of America was ‘negligent’ for giving out bank documents for Suzanne Hirl of Egg Harbor Township after her ex-husband requested them.”

The state Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling “awarding compensatory damages of $450 and $2,000 in damages for her embarrassment and humiliation.  The judge also awarded attorneys’ fees in the amount of $3,420.” The court noted, “At a bench trial, Hirl testified that she felt ‘violated’ by the release of” her bank records and those of her daughter to her former spouse.

Hirl’s lawyer, Edward Thompson, told the Star-Ledger that the decision “goes a long way to help the privacy rights of account holders.”

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 and is filed under Children, Identification, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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