Legal options for unauthorized access to bank account (and how to prove it)

Question

I've run into an unpleasant situation: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/75965/mom-keeps-illegally-monitoring-my-bank-account-what-to-do. I was advised to move this question to legal. Could anyone please advise me on my legal options in this case, and how I can gather evidence to prove the transgressions and legally punish them?

tl;dr:

An employee at a large national bank chain has been accessing and giving out confidential information about my bank account to my mother, with whom he/she is friends. I reported this unauthorized access to the bank's manager directly, who said that he would put an alert on my account to make sure that it does not happen again and that he would get back to me after an internal investigation was carried out. However, he never got back to me and never returned any of my calls again. A few months later, I opened a new bank account at another bank and transferred most of my funds to it. My mother then asked me shortly thereafter why I withdrew most of my money from my original bank account. Hence, the problem was not solved -- my bank account information is still being accessed without my permission and my privacy is being violated. Since I already reported this info to the bank's manager, I do not know what else to do to pursue any legal action towards the rogue employee who has been accessing (and releasing information) about my bank account to my mother. I want to know if I can pursue any legal options against the bank, my mother, or both. I do not want to close my original bank account because this would constitute a major inconvenience (since my wife, kids, and I bank there). I know with 100% certainty that it is coming from an employee friend at the bank, because my mom told me about it directly.

Answer 1

As a general rule, if a business, like a bank, is legally required to keep information confidential, and an employee breeches confidentiality, then your recourse is to sue the business for damages. See for example ch. 35 of Title 12. The bank cannot claim "It's not our fault, an employee did it" (the Latin for this is "respondeat superior", whereby a part is also responsible for the acts of their agents). As far as I know, there is no law against asking for information that can't be given. This does assume, however, that your mother does not have a legal right to the information (which could arise from some form of co-signing). Also, would assume that they have a normal privacy policy, and not one where they say "We will tell your mother if she asks" (they would have informed you of that, so read the privacy policy). This is a question best answered by your own attorney, to whom you would reveal all of the details.