A class action suit rarely leads to windfall amounts of money for more people, but in at least one case for me, it did.
You’re probably familiar with the emails: they look official, but also kind of look like spam. They’ll have a subject line like “Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement”.
If you’re not totally on top of your email (and you’d be forgiven for not being so), you may either miss the email or just delete it.
And most of the time, that’s just about fine. Following through on what the email is asking for you to do typically results in very little benefit, if any benefit at all.
But not always.
And this is why I generally suggest that you take a few minutes to fill these things out. Because you just might make a fair amount of money.
After years, that finally happened to me.
Class action suit recap
A class action suit is a lawsuit on behalf of a large number of plaintiffs. It simplifies the legal process for everyone involved, and when the single case is settled, everyone who signed on gets a portion of the settlement.
I wrote about class action lawsuits a few years back. In it, I wrote:
Class action suits fall under the twin categories of “free money” and “picking up dollar bills on the street”. I probably wouldn’t stop to pick up a penny these days (not worth it), but I’ll take $32 for 5 minutes of my time.
What I usually do
When I get an email like the above, I first make sure that it’s not a scam. I never click any of the links in the email, and instead search online for the website for the class action suit. The information you’re sent usually includes a claim code, which you will need to enter on the website anyway.
(Always be safe, and never click any links in emails that you don’t recognize. Also, while I’m at it, you should never pay to be involved in one of these. If you’re asked to submit payment, it’s a scam.)
I then fill out the form, which basically waives my rights to sue the company. As I usually have no vested interest in the suit, this is an easy choice for me, but you want to make sure that’s you too.
I submit the form, make sure that I receive a confirmation email, and that’s it. The whole process only takes a few minutes.
I don’t track these things either. I’ll either hear from the settlement or I won’t. I’ll either get some money, or I won’t. It’s not a big deal.
All of the settlement checks I’ve received over the years to my memory have been somewhere between $5 and $100. Not nothing, but nothing to get too excited about.
Until now.
Class action windfall
I don’t remember signing up for this one, but that isn’t a surprise. Apparently, I got sent an email about it first in September 2024 as a notification, and then in May 2025 with instructions on how to be a part of the settlement.
As usual, I must have filled out the form, and then promptly forgot about it.
Then, a little over one year later, I received an envelope with a brief note, and a check attached.
The note started by saying: “The enclosed check represents your total approved reimbursement by the Settlement Claim Administrator…”
But to be honest, I didn’t read the rest, because at the bottom of the page, I saw that the check was made out to me in the amount of: $1,026.46.
That’s right; I made over a grand being part of this class action suit.
And it was real, too. I deposited the check, almost expecting it to be fraudulent, but it cleared with no problems. The money was mine.
And, again, all for 5 minutes of work.
Lesson in this story
I’m mindful of not making too much of this happy event for me. I don’t want to be like a lottery winner saying, “don’t give up, as I’m proof that this can happen to you!”
But this isn’t the lottery, which I’ve said for years is a terrible deal for basically everyone. You’re not putting in money to a class action suit; you’re putting in a few minutes of your time.
And even if you get $10 out of each class action suit, you really haven’t lost anything; in fact, you probably gained a little bit. But if there’s a chance that you might get in on a settlement worth real money like I did, I think it’s worth it over the long term.
So don’t ignore those emails that come in about proposed class action settlements. You’ll probably get nothing, but there’s at least a possibility that you could come out seriously ahead.
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