Class action settlement glossary

Settlement notices are written by lawyers for judges, not for the people who have to read them. These are the terms that decide whether you can claim and how much you get, each answered in a sentence before any of the detail.

• Class action settlement

  A class action settlement is an agreement that ends a lawsuit brought on behalf of a large group of people, where the defendant pays into a fund that group members can claim from without suing individually.

• Settlement administrator

  A settlement administrator is the company the court appoints to run a settlement: it sends the notices, takes in claims, checks them, and pays out the money.

• Proof of purchase

  Proof of purchase is documentation showing you bought the product or used the service, usually a receipt, an order confirmation, a bank statement line, or a photograph of the item.

• Opt out

  Opting out means formally removing yourself from a class action settlement, which gives up your right to any payment but keeps your right to sue the defendant yourself.

• Class period

  The class period is the range of dates during which something had to have happened to you for you to be part of the settlement.

• Preliminary approval

  Preliminary approval is the first sign off by a judge on a proposed settlement, allowing notices to go out and the claim period to be scheduled. It is not final, and claims usually cannot be filed yet.

• Final approval

  Final approval is the decision by a judge, after a fairness hearing, that the settlement is fair and can take effect. Payments follow once any appeals are resolved.

• Claim deadline

  The claim deadline is the last day the administrator will accept your claim form. Miss it and you almost always get nothing, even if you clearly qualified.