Class action lawsuits within a wide range of industries, products and services are a large and growing source of unclaimed funds. Every year, hundreds of companies are involved in class action litigation. These fall into a number of broad categories including: Securities fraud (insider trading and mismanagement)
- Consumer Protection (fraudulent marketing)
- Public Health (tobacco)
- Antitrust (unfair trade practices and price fixing)
- Human Rights (unfair practices and discrimination)
- Environmental pollution)
- Product Liability (defective products causing or involving personal injury)
Recent class action settlements have exceeded $11 billion ($5 billion in 2006 alone), yet more than half of those entitled to the payment do not file a claim.
Current and former customers and shareholders of more than 2,000 companies are entitled to receive unclaimed class action settlement payments. Legal notice of class action claim eligibility is often buried deep in newspaper classified ads. If you have moved, physically have stock certificates or have street name shares, and change brokers, you may not be notified.
Even if a product was used years ago or shares were sold a long time ago, Class Members may be eligible to receive cash, credits, shares, or distributions in companies such as AOL, AT&T, Ford, GM, Dow Corning, Coca Cola, NASDAQ, Publishers Clearing House, Bank of America, MCI, Merrill Lynch, Schwab, Wal-Mart, and hundreds of others.
If you are a current or former customer or shareholder of a company named in a class action lawsuit, you must file a claim to receive your share. Because many class action lawsuits are filed in federal court, settlement payments to class members will not show up in a state Unclaimed Property Division search and, unlike most other unclaimed funds, there is a time limit in which the settlement must be claimed.
