The $2,500-Per-Record Federal Claim: Prosecuting and Defending DPPA Class Actions Over DMV-Sourced Data

Austin Whitten, Partner | Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann, P.C

Austin Whitten is a Partner with Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann, P.C., where he focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, including class actions and mass torts, catastrophic personal injury, insurer bad faith and fraud, product liability, and wrongful death cases. He currently prosecutes several class actions across the country, including matters involving data breaches and violations of consumer protection laws. Austin grew up in Florence, Alabama, attended the University of Alabama on a Presidential Scholarship, and has practiced with Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann since completing law school.

• Education & Credentials

Austin earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama with honors, magna cum laude, in 2012, after attending the university on a Presidential Scholarship. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2015. While in law school, he practiced in the school’s Civil Law Clinic and won his first jury trial as a third-year student.

• Recognition & Leadership

Austin’s biography highlights his successful representation of plaintiffs and clients in complex litigation, including class actions, data-privacy matters, consumer-protection cases, insurer bad faith and fraud cases, personal injury matters, environmental contamination cases, and product liability litigation. His representative case results include a $9.75 million consumer-protection class action settlement and several data-privacy class action settlements.

• Professional Involvement

Austin practices with Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann, P.C., where he represents people and small businesses that have been injured or taken advantage of by others. His practice includes prosecuting class actions across the country, including cases involving data breaches and violations of consumer protection laws, as well as handling complex civil litigation, catastrophic personal injury, insurer bad faith and fraud, product liability, and wrongful death cases.

• Experience

Austin has practiced at Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann, P.C. since graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2015. His experience includes representing lead plaintiffs in consumer-protection and data-privacy class actions, as well as securing recoveries in insurer bad faith and fraud, personal injury, environmental contamination, premises liability, and product liability cases. His representative results include settlements and recoveries ranging from $95,000 to $9.75 million.

Logan S. Booth, Of Counsel | Fisher & Phillips LLP

Logan S. Booth, CIPP/US, is a Shareholder at Ogletree Deakins, where he advises clients on data privacy and cybersecurity, complex technology transactions, high-stakes investigations, and crisis management. His experience includes representing organizations in proactive and reactive data privacy matters, leading teams through multi-jurisdictional regulatory investigations, and advising on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and securities offerings. Logan also draws on five years of experience as a management consultant, where he helped businesses navigate issues at the intersection of law, commerce, and public policy. He is admitted to practice in Illinois and New York and is also an officer in the United States Navy Reserve, having served in the intelligence and public affairs communities.

• Education & Credentials

Logan earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2014, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University in 2021, an M.A. from New York University in 2011, and a B.A. from New York University, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in 2010. He is a Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US), is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and is admitted to practice in Illinois and New York. He is also a graduate of the Center for Information Warfare Training and Defense Information School.

• Recognition & Leadership

Logan was named a Chicago Council on Global Affairs Emerging Leaders Fellow in 2025 and an Aspen Strategy Group Rising Leaders Fellow in 2023. In 2023, he also received the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago’s 36-Under-36 Award. His leadership activities include serving as Chair of the Repair the World Chicago Advisory Council and as Young Leadership Division Campaign Chair for the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago.

• Professional Involvement

Logan is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He also serves in the United States Navy Reserve as an officer and has served in both the intelligence and public affairs communities. His professional work encompasses data protection and cybersecurity, technology transactions, and crisis management.

• Experience

Logan has represented organizations in proactive and reactive data privacy and cybersecurity matters and has led teams through multi-jurisdictional regulatory probes. His transactional experience includes domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and securities offerings. He regularly advises on the use, licensing, acquisition, and commercialization of data and technology. His crisis-management experience includes counseling boards and executives through misconduct investigations, reductions in force, WARN Act compliance, unionization initiatives, leadership transitions, Congressional and government investigations, product recalls, clinical trial errors, and environmental disasters. He also served as the principal crisis communications consultant for Norfolk Southern following the East Palestine train derailment.

SESSION 1 – Defending the Downstream-Recipient DPPA Claim: Liability Exposure for Businesses That Use DMV Data | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session will focus on the legal liabilities that arise when businesses are alleged to have used or resold state-originated DMV data without a valid or permissible purpose — and how defense counsel can evaluate, contain, and defeat those claims. The session will cover the essential elements plaintiffs must establish under 18 U.S.C. § 2724 (origin from a motor vehicle record, lack of a permissible use, and knowledge or reasonableness), and where each element is most vulnerable to challenge. Particular attention will be given to the main hurdles plaintiffs face in this litigation — including Article III standing post-TransUnion and the ‘from a motor vehicle record’ tracing requirement — and the permitted-purpose defenses that most often decide parking-company, ALPR, and data-broker class actions, where statutory damages of $2,500 per record can drive class-wide exposure into the millions.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Building the Downstream-Recipient DPPA Claim Against Business That Use DMV Data | 3:40pm – 4:40PM ET

This session examines how plaintiffs’ attorneys can construct and prosecute federal DPPA claims under 18 U.S.C. § 2724 against private businesses that obtain or use DMV-sourced personal information without a permitted purpose, with a focus on downstream-recipient and vendor-chain liability theories. Attendees will learn the statutory elements required to establish a viable claim — including the critical ‘from a motor vehicle record’ tracing requirement, Article III standing pleading post-TransUnion, and the 14 permitted-purpose exceptions most frequently litigated in parking-company and data-broker class actions. Attorneys will leave with a practical framework for complaint drafting, discovery targeting, and damages calculation in cases where statutory minimums of $2,500 per record drive class-wide exposure into the millions.