July 7, 2022
A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit about the data breaches of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) and its security contractor that allegedly compromised personal information of then-current and former federal government employees and contractors, as well as certain applicants for federal employment. The Defendants in the case—OPM and its contractor Peraton Risk Decision Inc. (“Peraton”)—deny that they did anything wrong but have agreed to settle the lawsuit. The Court has not decided who is right.
Who’s in the Settlement? You may be a Class Member. You are a Class Member if your personal information was compromised as a result of the breaches of OPM’s electronic information systems in 2014 and 2015 or the breach of Peraton’s electronic information systems in 2013 and 2014; and if, after May 7, 2014, you suffered an out-of-pocket expense or lost Compensable Time: (1) to purchase a credit monitoring product, credit or identity theft protection product, or other product or service designed to identify or remediate the data breaches at issue in this case; (2) to access, freeze or unfreeze a credit report with a credit reporting agency; or (3) as a result of an identity theft incident or to mitigate an identity theft incident.
What does the Settlement provide? Defendants will pay $63,000,000 into a Settlement Fund, which will be distributed to Class Members who submit Valid Claims. Class Members who submit Valid Claims will receive $700 or the actual amount of the claim—whichever is higher—up to a maximum of $10,000. If the total value of all Valid Claims, plus any incentive awards to Named Plaintiffs, exceeds the Settlement Fund, then the value of those individual claims will be reduced in equal proportion.
What are your options? If you are a Settlement Class Member, you must fill out and submit a Claim Form to qualify for a payment. You can quickly and easily file your claim online here. You can also download a paper Claim Form from the website or get one by calling the Claims Administrator at 1-855-917-3567. The completed Claim Form must be submitted online or by mail postmarked no later than December 23, 2022.
If you are a Class Member and you don’t want benefits from the Settlement, and you want to keep your right to sue Defendants on your own about the legal issues in this case, then you must take steps to get out of the Settlement. This is called excluding yourself from—or “opting out” of—the Class. If you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement, you will remain in the Class and will give up the right to sue Defendants for the claims resolved by the Settlement. Your request for exclusion must be submitted by mail postmarked by September 9, 2022. If you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement, you may object to the Settlement if you do not like any part of it. The deadline to object is September 9, 2022. The Court will hold a Fairness Hearing at 10:00 a.m. on October 14, 2022. At this hearing, the Court will consider whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate. If there are objections, the Court will consider them. The Court will listen to people who have asked to speak at the hearing. You may attend at your own expense, or you may also pay your own lawyer to attend, but it is not necessary.
This notice is a summary. The Settlement Agreement and more information on the lawsuit and your rights are available at www.OPMDataBreach.com or by calling toll-free 1-855-917-3567.