Class action administration companies are neutral third-party firms, retained by the lawyers in a class action and approved by the court, that handle the practical mechanics of a settlement: telling potential class members the case exists, processing their claims, and distributing the money. They do not represent individual class members and cannot give legal advice. Their fees come out of the settlement fund itself, so every class member indirectly pays for their work. A small group of firms handles most of the largest settlements in the country, and as of 2026 the industry is under significant legal scrutiny over how it manages the billions of dollars it holds.
What These Firms Actually Do
The work breaks into three main jobs. The first is notice: mailing postcards and letters, sending emails, buying advertising, building a settlement website, and running a toll-free line so class members find out about the case and understand their options. The second is claims handling: receiving submissions, checking them for completeness, flagging fraud, and auditing the pool. The third is payment: calculating each claimant’s share under the formula in the settlement agreement and sending the money by check, electronic transfer, or digital payout. Throughout, the administrator reports to the court on deadlines and on whether the notice plan is reaching people.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 sets the ground rules. For classes certified under Rule 23(b)(3), the court must direct “the best notice that is practicable under the circumstances,” including individual notice to every member who can be identified through reasonable effort. Notice can go by U.S. mail, electronic means, or other appropriate methods. Before a judge approves any settlement, there must be a hearing and a finding that the deal is “fair, reasonable, and adequate,” taking into account whether it was negotiated at arm’s length and whether the relief justifies the costs and risks of going to trial.
The Major Firms
A handful of companies handle most of the large settlements. The clearest scale comparison comes from the Institutional Shareholder Services Securities Class Action Services ranking of administrators involved in the top 100 U.S. class action settlements of all time.
Epiq Global
Epiq is the largest. As of early 2025 it held the top ranking among claims administrators for the seventh year in a row, having administered more than half of the top 100 largest settlements in U.S. history, representing $35.8 billion — more than $13 billion ahead of the next firm. Its portfolio includes one securities settlement valued at $6.2 billion. Once publicly traded on NASDAQ, Epiq was taken private in 2016 for roughly $1 billion by OMERS Private Equity and Harvest Partners at $16.50 per share, and OMERS still owns it. Epiq bought Garden City Group in 2018, combining two of the largest securities settlement administrators, and acquired the Canadian firm Bruneau Group the same year.
Kroll
Kroll’s settlement administration practice has processed over 100 million claims across more than 4,000 managed settlements, distributing more than $30 billion and running over 1,000 court-approved multimedia notice campaigns. The team has more than 50 years of combined legal administration experience. Its practice covers antitrust, consumer, data breach and privacy, environmental and toxic tort, product liability, and securities work. The current entity took its Kroll name in 2022 after Duff & Phelps, which had acquired the Kroll risk management firm in 2018, rebranded.
A.B. Data
A.B. Data has a strong niche in antitrust and securities cases. It was the most widely court-appointed administrator in 2021, handling 31 securities settlements, and again in 2022 with 33 settlements valued at over $800 million. It has been recognized as a top antitrust administrator for eight consecutive years as of 2025. Notable engagements include the BP, Lehman Brothers, Massey Energy, and El Paso Corporation securities cases. The firm uses a proprietary digital payment portal with more than 250 redemption options.
Angeion Group
Founded in 2013 in Philadelphia by Steven Weisbrot and Christopher Chimicles, Angeion built its business around digital-first notice, algorithmic advertising, and behavioral research. Private equity firm Renovus Capital Partners took a majority stake in late 2024, with Weisbrot and senior management retaining significant ownership. Angeion then acquired the bankruptcy administrator Donlin Recano and, in early 2025, merged with the Austin-based case data management company Case Works. The combined firm has managed more than 2,000 class action settlements and distributed over $10 billion.
JND Legal Administration
JND, based in Seattle and led by CEO Jennifer Keough, has handled landmark cases including the BP Deepwater Horizon Settlement, the Visa/Mastercard Antitrust Litigation, and the GM Ignition Switch Litigation. More recently, JND administered the nationwide real estate commission class action, billing more than $36 million between January 2024 and April 2026. In May 2026, U.S. District Judge Stephen Bough ordered JND to stop receiving payments while the court considered appointing a special master to review its billing.
Other Firms
Verita was formed in 2024 by combining three previously independent administrators: KCC, Gilardi & Co., and RicePoint. Gilardi on its own handled the highest dollar value of settlements in 2021 at $1.76 billion and had administered 22 of the historical top 100 U.S. class action settlements. Strategic Claims Services, founded in 1999, was the second most active administrator in 2021 with 27 settlements and has handled over 500 matters. Simpluris, founded in 2007 and acquired by data breach response provider CyEx in 2024, has managed more than 9,000 matters and distributed over $9 billion. RG/2 Claims Administration, led by co-founders Grant Rawdin and Michael Gillen, focuses on antitrust, securities, and consumer cases using its proprietary CLEVerPay system.
How Administrators Get Chosen
Class counsel usually recommends an administrator, but the court has to approve. Increasingly, courts want to see competitive bidding. The Northern District of California’s procedural guidance, updated in September 2024, expects the parties to solicit multiple bids and to disclose in their preliminary approval papers how many proposals came in, what selection process was used, and the history of engagements between lead class counsel and the chosen administrator over the previous two years.
Courts also weigh proposed costs against the settlement’s value, review the administrator’s data security protocols (technical controls, retention policies, and crisis response plans), and consider experience with comparable cases. The administrator must offer an estimated claims rate based on prior similar settlements. Final administrative costs are not locked in until the court reviews a post-distribution accounting after payments go out.
Why Most Class Members Never Get Paid
The persistent criticism of class action settlements is that most eligible people never file a claim. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reported a weighted average claims rate of just 4%. Some cases have done far worse: a payment-card processor settlement drew only 11 claims from 100 million eligible cardholders, and a video game case produced 2,676 claims from 10 million purchasers. One administrator has acknowledged that settlements relying on publication notice without direct mail “almost always” produce claims rates below 1%.
Courts have pushed back in some cases. The Seventh Circuit rejected the Subway “Footlong” settlement as “utterly worthless” because it delivered no meaningful relief to consumers while class counsel collected over $500,000 in fees. The Third Circuit vacated a $35.5 million settlement in a toy and baby products antitrust case after only $3 million was actually claimed, with $18.5 million redirected to charity. In a Conair hair dryer case, the court found the notice plan “woefully insufficient” and the claims process excessively burdensome, requiring serial numbers and mail-in forms with no online option, while counsel took $1.1 million.
Part of the reason is structural. Attorney fees are typically calculated on the total settlement fund, not on the amount actually paid to class members, so lawyers have limited financial incentive to push administrators for simpler claims procedures or more aggressive notice.
The Kickback Lawsuits
The biggest legal challenge facing the industry alleges that major administrators steered settlement deposits to specific banks in exchange for a share of the interest and investment income those banks earned on the funds. The lawsuits say those undisclosed payments should have gone to class members or reduced administration costs.
At least five suits were filed in 2025 in federal courts in California, New York, and Florida, naming Epiq Systems, Angeion Group, and JND Legal Administration as defendants alongside Huntington National Bank and Western Alliance Bank. Additional defendants include the digital payment providers Tremendous LLC, Blackhawk Network Holdings, and Digital Settlement Technologies, accused of sharing “breakage” revenue from unredeemed prepaid cards with administrators. The complaints allege federal antitrust violations, claims under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and common-law causes of action. Plaintiffs are represented by David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner.
In December 2025, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the cases into MDL No. 3162 before U.S. District Judge John Bates in the District of Columbia. JND has called the allegations “baseless.” In a separate smaller matter, a data breach settlement against Clay Platte Family Medicine, Angeion agreed in May 2026 to forgo rebates and financial incentives from vendors and banks, and Judge Bough ordered public disclosure of the administrator’s fees. That case has been described as a potential template for addressing these practices more broadly.
Private Equity and Consolidation
Private equity investment has reshaped the market. Epiq’s $1 billion take-private deal with OMERS and Harvest Partners in 2016 was an early marker. In 2023, GCP Capital Partners led the acquisition of KCC, which then folded Gilardi & Co. and RicePoint into the new Verita brand. In 2024, Renovus Capital Partners took a majority stake in Angeion, calling the company “one of the most differentiated and fastest growing players in class action services,” and backed the Donlin Recano acquisition and the Case Works merger. CyEx acquired Simpluris the same year.
The pattern is consistent: private equity buyers treat settlement administration as a tech-enabled legal services sector suited to platform-building through serial acquisitions. Renovus Managing Director Lee Minkoff said the firm has a “track record of identifying unique tech-enabled legal services companies” and called the Angeion-Case Works deal a “game changing merger for the group litigation support industry.” Whether that consolidation benefits the class members whose settlement funds pay the bills is a question the ongoing MDL may help answer.