According to the Duane Morris Class Action Review 2025, class action lawsuits “broke the $40 billion mark for the third year in a row.” Large companies like Apple, Meta, and Disney each found themselves paying millions in settlements. Whether the payments are big or small, how should you react to a settlement notice?
The notices usually arrive unexpectedly and are rarely written in plain English. For example, one of our readers received an email from “Katz-Lacabe v. Oracle Settlement Administrator,” suggesting that she might be included in Oracle’s settlement. The email ends with the firm’s website and contact information. How can we tell if this is a scam?
First, congratulations on recognizing the situation as a potential scam! Let’s see what we can find out about this alleged settlement and the company.
Instead of visiting the firm’s website – which could be fake – do a search for the company with the words “lawsuit” or “settlement” and the year. In this case, we’d search “Oracle lawsuit 2024”. It happens that the firm’s website is the first result, but the URL is slightly different from the one in the email. I’m not going to click on it. Instead, I’ll look for a news article from a reputable agency. In this case, my options are Reuters, AP News, CBS News, and many others.
I clicked on the AP News article, and it corroborated the email. Plus, the article links to the same website as in the email for making a claim. This gives me the confidence to reach out to the firm. I’m still going to use the link from the AP article just to be safe.
Alternatively, I could also search online for the law firm. In this case, I searched for “Katz-Lacabe” and got a government website confirming the email’s information. You can also look up class action lawsuits and settlements on classaction.org
As of writing, the deadline to submit a claim has passed.
Tips to verify class action lawsuits:
- Search online for “[company name] lawsuit [year]” looking for news articles.
- Look up the settlement on classaction.org
- Search online for the law firm. You might see a government website talking about the settlement.