This would be a theft and casualty loss.

The tax treatment of personal casualty losses and thefts is changed under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Pursuant to the TCJA, the itemized deduction for personal casualty and theft losses is temporarily limited in tax years 2018 through 2025 solely to losses attributable to federally-declared disasters.

Your loss is no longer deductible under this provision.

We had a similar issue happen to us. This was a situation where we took the Real Estate Broker and Title company that were hacked and gave out personal information regarding a real estate closing transaction. We were able to deduct the amount because it happened in a previous year.  Now we are told any settlement we recieve from a lawsuit would be taxable even as it is much less net because most of the settlement will go to paying lawyers and court fees. This means we will actually have to pay at our current rate and would virtually take an additional loss because lawyer fees, court fees, expert fees and our personal travel expenses are greater than the settlement once taxes are added on, we will be in the negative. Any advice you can give us on how to report this would be appreciated. I understand we might get a 1099-Misc from the insurance carrier that will write a check to our lawyers who will deposit in a trust and take their cut and pay the balance of expert witness payments. This means the 1099 will be for entire amount of the settlement and we will pay taxes on the lawyers and experts fees, and they will probably pay taxes on them as well?