For a time-clock class under BIPA, Illinois' fingerprint-privacy law, a court approves only reasonable attorney fees. It approves the deal only if fair, reasonable, and adequate, and it may add a modest incentive award for the named plaintiff.
For workers, the test controls the net check. Fees and the service award leave the common fund, the settlement pot, before it is divided. A settlement notice shows that math and how to object.
Table of Contents
- What did the Speedway time-clock settlement show?
- How does the court test fees and the settlement?
- What can the named plaintiff receive?
- What limits your individual payout?
What did the Speedway time-clock settlement show?
Duane Morris explains in its weekly wire on the Speedway approval that Illinois law requires written notice and a written release before collecting fingerprints. In that case, a worker alleged Speedway required about 7,700 employees to scan to clock in and out without informed consent. After eight years, a Chicago federal court approved a $12.1 million settlement. The same Duane Morris report says the court approved $4.5 million in fees as reasonable for a complex, long case.
Members received equal shares only after fees, administration costs, and the representative award, the payment to the named plaintiff, were deducted. Expect the same order in your notice. The gross fund, the total before deductions, is not your payout. Your share is the net after court-approved deductions.
How does the court test fees and the settlement?
Cornell Legal Information Institute reproduces the text of Federal Rule 23 permitting only reasonable fees and costs in a certified class action. Certification means the case may proceed for the group. The request must come by motion, with notice to the class and a chance to object. The same rule requires the judge to find the settlement fair, reasonable, and adequate.
When you get a fee notice, check three items. Focus on the net, not the gross. Use this quick scan: An objection must state reasons and meet the deadline. The judge weighs objections before final approval. If you do nothing, you accept the net share if the deal passes.
- How the lawyers justify time, risk, and length of the case.
- What percent the fee takes from the gross fund.
- The objection deadline and where to send it.
What can the named plaintiff receive?
Inside Class Actions (Covington) reports in its report on the Scott decision that incentive awards compensate named plaintiffs for costs above ordinary membership. The same analysis says the Seventh Circuit in Scott v. Dart refused to follow the Eleventh Circuit ban.
Illinois federal courts may still approve modest service awards alongside fees. The award comes off the top like fees. It does not reflect a larger injury. It pays for representative work beyond what members do.
What limits your individual payout?
American Bar Association Business Law Today explains in its analysis of the retroactivity ruling that the one-recovery cap applies retroactively to pending cases. A time-clock worker who scans several times daily is limited to one $1,000 or $5,000 recovery. That replaces per-scan math that could have reached millions across a class.
Read your notice for single-recovery language. Do not estimate your claim by counting scans. File the claim form by the deadline to receive the prorated net share.
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