Published
August 16, 2026
This settlement resolves claims that Just4Veterans LLC charged veterans unlawful fees for help with VA disability claims. If you paid J4V a fee on or after September 20, 2020, you can claim a share of a $750,000 fund by October 5, 2026 — and if you were billed but never paid, the settlement wipes out that bill with no claim form.
Current Status
Claims are open. The deadline to submit a Claim Form online or by mail is October 5, 2026; the notice states the date without a timezone, so file early rather than relying on a cutoff hour. The Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland certified the class on February 13, 2025 and has granted preliminary approval of the settlement. The Final Fairness Hearing is scheduled for October 14, 2026 at 9:00 a.m., and no final approval order has been entered — so no payment date has been announced. Veterans who paid J4V a fee need to file a claim to get money; veterans who were billed but never paid get their fees discharged without filing anything.
Status
Claims Open
Claim Deadline
October 5, 2026
Online or postmarked · no timezone stated in the notice
Estimated Payout
Up to what you paid
Pro rata share of a $750,000 fund, capped at your own payments · no per-person figure published
Proof Required
Yes
Unique ID and Password from your email notice to open the online claim form
What Changed Recently?
The parties signed the Class Action Settlement Agreement in May 2026, and the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland has since granted preliminary approval, which is what put the claim process in motion. RG/2 Claims Administration LLC began sending notice to class members, the settlement website went live, and the claim window now runs through October 5, 2026.The case began on September 20, 2023, when a veteran filed a proposed class action alleging that Just4Veterans LLC and its principal, Frederick Castanos Justo, charged unlawful fees to veterans in connection with claims for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits. An amended complaint filed May 17, 2024 added a second named plaintiff, and on February 13, 2025 the court certified a class of veterans charged a fee by J4V in connection with a VA disability claim. The defendants deny every allegation of wrongdoing, fault, liability and damages, and deny that they violated any law. The court has not decided who is right; the settlement resolves the case without any admission of liability.
Who Qualifies?
The certified class is defined as all veterans who have been charged a fee by Just4Veterans LLC in connection with a VA disability claim. For settlement purposes, the class covers veterans who were charged or who paid such a fee on or after September 20, 2020 — the class period runs from that date through the Effective Date. J4V's rough estimate, stated in the settlement agreement, is that the class includes approximately 2,338 people.The class splits into two groups, and the difference decides what you have to do:
- Veterans who were charged and actually paid one or more fees during the class period. These are the only class members eligible for money, and only if they file a valid Claim Form.
- Veterans who were charged a fee but never paid it. The settlement calls them Non-Paying Participating Class Members. They receive no cash, but their alleged debt to J4V is discharged and they do not have to file anything.
Excluded from the class are J4V's current and former employees, officers, directors, agents and independent contractors, along with its parent companies and any entity in which J4V or its parents hold a controlling interest; anyone who properly and timely excludes themselves; and employees of the court.
How Much Can You Get?
The settlement does not publish a per-person dollar figure, and it cannot: what each claimant receives depends on how much that person paid J4V and how many approved claims come in. The mechanics are set out in the Plan of Allocation attached to the agreement.The defendants are funding a gross settlement fund of $750,000, paid in a $150,000 initial deposit followed by nine monthly installments of $66,666.67. Settlement administration costs are paid separately by the defendants and do not come out of the fund. Deducted from the fund, if the court approves them, are attorneys' fees and expenses — class counsel has said it will request up to 40 percent of the $750,000 plus documented expenses — and service awards of up to $5,000 each for the two class representatives. If the court awarded both at those caps, roughly $440,000 would remain before taxes and tax-related expenses; that is arithmetic from the agreement, not a figure the settlement publishes, and the court can award less.
Whatever remains is the Net Settlement Fund. Each approved claimant's share is calculated by dividing the fees that person paid J4V by the total fees paid by all approved claimants, then applying that fraction to the fund. Two limits matter: no claimant can receive more than the amount actually paid to J4V during the class period, and any money left over because of that cap is redistributed pro rata among claimants who have not hit their own cap. The administrator may also raise very small payments to a minimum threshold — the Plan of Allocation gives $10 as an example — and adjust other payments proportionately.
No part of the fund reverts to the defendants. If money remains after the first round of payments and a second distribution is not economically feasible, the balance goes, subject to court approval, to one or more non-profit organizations serving veterans.
What Else Does the Settlement Do?
The cash fund is not the whole deal. Two non-monetary terms apply to every class member who does not opt out, and class counsel has described the debt relief as the larger benefit for many veterans in the class.- Fee discharge. On the Effective Date, the defendants fully and permanently discharge, waive and release any claimed right to collect fees or invoices from any class member for VA-related services provided before that date. Purported contracts and invoices are treated as void as to those fees, and J4V agrees not to pursue collection activity, credit reporting or litigation over them. Within twenty business days of the Effective Date, J4V is to update its internal accounting and collection systems to reflect the cancellation.
- Permanent stop on new VA clients. Beginning on the Execution Date, J4V agrees not to enter into new contracts to provide VA-related services and not to solicit or accept new clients for them. The agreement makes this permanent and says it continues after the case is dismissed. It binds Just4Veterans LLC — the Maryland entity named as a defendant — and J4V may still service and collect from people who validly opt out and from clients outside the class period.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
Proof is required to file for money. The online claim form is hosted on the administrator's claim portal and opens only after you enter the Unique ID and Password printed on the email notice you received. Those credentials are unique to each class member, which means a veteran who never got the notice, or who deleted it, cannot simply file online — and under this site's standard, an administrator-issued identifier counts as proof even when no receipts are demanded.Beyond the login, the claim form itself is meant to be straightforward. Under the Plan of Allocation it should arrive pre-populated with your name, contact information and the payment amount shown in the defendants' records. You confirm or update your contact details, confirm, correct or dispute the pre-populated payment amount, choose a check or an electronic payment, and attest under penalty of perjury that the information is true. Receipts are not required unless you dispute the recorded amount, in which case you may submit documentation or an explanation for the administrator to review.
If the administrator finds a claim incomplete or deficient, it must notify you and give you a chance to cure — not less than fifteen business days from the date of that notice under the Plan of Allocation. A claim that is never cured can be rejected, but rejection does not push you out of the class: you remain a class member and still receive any non-monetary relief that applies to you, including the fee discharge.
If you cannot locate your Unique ID and Password, or you believe you are a class member but never received a notice, the notice directs you to ask the administrator to reset your login or mail you a paper claim form. Make that request through the contact page on the official settlement website, and make it early enough that a paper form can be returned before the deadline.
What Are the Deadlines?
- Claim deadline: October 5, 2026. Claim Forms must be submitted online or postmarked by that date. The notice gives the date without a timezone, so do not count on a late-evening cutoff.
- Exclusion (opt-out) deadline: September 3, 2026. A written, signed request for exclusion must be postmarked by then. Opting out means you get nothing from the settlement — no cash and no fee discharge — but you keep the right to sue on your own.
- Objection deadline: September 3, 2026. Objections must be filed with the court and served on counsel for both sides. Anyone who requests exclusion is barred from objecting.
- Final Fairness Hearing: October 14, 2026 at 9:00 a.m., in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County in Rockville, Maryland. You may attend at your own expense, but you may speak only if you objected in writing on time and said you intended to appear.
How Do You File a Claim?
Filing runs through the official settlement website at J4VSettlement.com, which links to the administrator's claim portal. Open the File a Claim page, enter the Unique ID and Password from your email notice, confirm or correct your contact information and the payment amount on file, choose whether you want a paper check or an electronic payment, and submit before October 5, 2026.A paper Claim Form may be requested from the administrator and must be postmarked by the same date. If you were billed by J4V but never paid, there is nothing to file — the discharge reaches you automatically as long as you stay in the class.
One caution worth repeating on any settlement: the only place to file is the official settlement website. A legitimate administrator does not charge a fee to process a settlement payment and does not demand a bank password. If a message about this settlement reaches you out of the blue, go to the official site directly rather than following the link.
What Happens Next?
The next milestone is the Final Fairness Hearing on October 14, 2026, where the court will decide whether to approve the settlement as fair, reasonable and adequate, whether to approve the Plan of Allocation, and how much to award in attorneys' fees, expenses and service awards. It will also hear any timely objections.Approval is not the end of the timeline. Under the agreement, the Effective Date arrives only after the court enters a final approval order and the time to appeal runs out with no appeal filed — or, if an appeal is filed, after the order is affirmed in full and is no longer subject to review. Payments are calculated and issued after that. Checks are to stay valid for at least ninety days, and if enough money is left over from uncashed checks the administrator may run a second distribution, limited to claimants who cashed or received their first payment.
We will update this page when the court rules or a payment schedule is announced.
Sources and Verification
- Official settlement website — J4VSettlement.com, including its home, File a Claim and Court Documents pages.
- Notice of Class Action Settlement and Final Fairness Hearing, authorized by the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland (embedded below).
- Class Action Settlement Agreement in Gallagher, et al. v. Just4Veterans LLC, et al., Case No. C-15-CV-23-003578, together with Exhibit A (Plan of Allocation), Exhibit B (Notice), Exhibit C (proposed Preliminary Approval Order) and Exhibit D (proposed Final Approval Order).
- The administrator's online claim portal, which is what establishes that a Unique ID and Password are required to file.
Questions
What happens if Just4Veterans billed me but I never paid?
You do not have to file anything. The settlement calls these class members Non-Paying Participating Class Members, and their benefit is a full discharge of any alleged obligation to pay J4V for VA-related services provided before the Effective Date. Under the agreement, J4V waives and releases any claimed right to collect those fees and may not pursue collections or litigation over them. This benefit applies automatically as long as you do not exclude yourself, but it takes effect only if the court grants final approval and the settlement becomes effective.
Can I still file if I lost the Unique ID and Password from my notice?
The online claim form is opened with the Unique ID and Password printed on the email notice, so you cannot file online without them. If you never received a notice or cannot locate the credentials, the notice directs class members to ask the settlement administrator to reset the login or to mail a paper claim form. Use the contact page on the official settlement website to make that request, and do it well before the October 5, 2026 deadline so a paper form has time to arrive and be returned.
Does the settlement stop Just4Veterans from taking new clients?
The agreement says that beginning on the Execution Date, J4V will not enter into any new contracts to provide VA-related services and will not solicit or accept new clients for those services, and that this obligation is permanent and continues after the case is dismissed. It applies only to Just4Veterans LLC, the Maryland entity named as a defendant. J4V may continue to service and collect fees from people who validly exclude themselves from the settlement and from clients whose engagements fall outside the class period.
Why will my payment be smaller than the fees I paid Just4Veterans?
The $750,000 is a gross fund. Class counsel has said it will ask the court to approve attorneys' fees of up to 40 percent of that amount plus documented expenses, along with service awards of up to $5,000 each for the two class representatives, and those approved amounts come out of the fund before anything is distributed. What remains is divided among approved claimants in proportion to what each one paid, so no claimant receives more than the fees that person actually paid J4V, and most will receive less. Settlement administration costs are paid separately by the defendants and do not reduce the fund.
What if the amount on my claim form does not match what I paid?
The claim form is meant to arrive pre-populated with the payment amount shown in the defendants' records, and the Plan of Allocation lets you confirm, correct or dispute that figure. If you dispute it, you may submit documentation or an explanation to the settlement administrator by the deadline stated in the notice. The administrator reviews the submission, may confer with counsel for both sides, and makes a good-faith determination that is final and binding, subject to the court's oversight.
Official Settlement Notice
For more class actions keep scrolling below.
Settlement Amount
$750,000
Case Title
Gallagher, et al. v. Just4Veterans LLC, et al.
Case Number
C-15-CV-23-003578
Court
Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland
Final Approval Hearing
October 14, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Rockville, Maryland
Administrator
RG/2 Claims Administration LLC
Official Website
J4V Settlement.com
