This settlement resolves claims over a July 2024 cyberattack on Berman & Rabin, P.A., a Kansas law firm whose collections practice meant it held files on consumers who were never its clients — reporting has put the number affected at about 152,000. A $980,000 fund pays a pro rata cash payment or up to $3,500 in documented losses and lost time, plus two years of credit monitoring with $1 million in fraud insurance.
Current Status
Claims are closed. The deadline was August 27, 2026, and the exclusion deadline passed on August 12, 2026. The Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri granted final approval of the settlement on September 11, 2026, the day of the final approval hearing. No payment date had been announced as of October 20, 2026. Class members who did not opt out are bound by the release whether or not they filed.What Changed Recently?
The Court has approved the settlement. On September 11, 2026, after the final approval hearing, Judge Jennifer M. Phillips of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri at Independence signed an order granting final approval of the $980,000 settlement in Burton, et al. v. Berman & Rabin, P.A., Case No. 2616-CV00873; the order was filed on September 14, 2026. It approved $351,666 for attorneys' fees and reimbursement of litigation costs and service awards of $2,000 for each class representative. The opt-out window closed on August 12, 2026, and the claim deadline was August 27, 2026.The settlement was presented to the Missouri state court, which authorized the Notice. The same plaintiffs had earlier sued in federal court in Kansas, where the consolidated case was docketed as In re Berman & Rabin Data Breach Litigation, No. 2:25-cv-02051 (D. Kan.).
Berman & Rabin denies the allegations, and no court has found that the firm did anything wrong. The parties agreed to settle rather than continue litigating.
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What the Case Is About
Berman & Rabin, P.A. is a law firm based in Overland Park, Kansas, whose practice includes creditors' rights and collections work.That business model is the reason this breach reaches so many people who have never heard of the firm. A collections practice holds files on the consumers whose accounts it has been retained to pursue, so the people whose information sits in its systems are largely not its clients — their data arrived with a file they had no say over.
According to the settlement, a cyberattack on the firm's computer system in July 2024 compromised private information. Security trade reporting has put the number of people affected at about 152,000.
The lawsuit alleged that the firm failed to adequately protect the information in its systems. Those are allegations; the Court has made no finding of wrongdoing and the firm denies it.
Who Qualifies?
The Settlement Class covers living individuals residing in the United States whose private information was compromised in the July 2024 cyberattack on Berman & Rabin's computer system, including everyone who received notice of the data incident.The class is nationwide rather than Kansas-only. Membership turns on whether your information was caught up in the attack, not on any relationship with the firm — which is why the notice you were sent is the practical marker of who is in, and why a notice from a law firm you do not recognize is not by itself a red flag here. Verify any message about the settlement against the official settlement website before acting on it.
How Much Can You Get?
The $980,000 fund pays out along these lines:- Reimbursement of up to $3,500 for documented out-of-pocket losses and lost time caused by the breach. Both share that single ceiling rather than having separate allowances.
- A pro rata cash payment for class members without documented losses, calculated by dividing what remains of the fund among the valid claims.
- Two years of CyEx Financial Shield Complete credit monitoring, which the settlement describes as including $1 million in fraud insurance.
The pro rata figure is worth doing the arithmetic on before you decide which route to take. $980,000 spread across roughly 152,000 notified people is about $6.45 a head before a single deduction. Out of that fund come $351,666 in court-approved attorneys' fees and litigation costs, $10,000 in service awards for the class representatives, the cost of notice and administration, every documented-loss claim, and two years of monitoring for everyone who elects it. What is left is what gets divided.
In practice pro rata payments in settlements like this one land well above that per-capita number, because only a small fraction of a class ever files — but the direction of the uncertainty is the point. The documented tier has a fixed $3,500 ceiling that does not shrink because other people filed. Anyone who absorbed a fraudulent charge, paid for monitoring out of pocket after the notice arrived, or spent money replacing identification should assemble that paperwork rather than defaulting to the cash.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
Proof is required to file. The online claim form on the official settlement website opens on a login screen rather than an open form, which means filing online depends on the credentials printed on the notice the administrator sent you. An administrator-issued identifier counts as proof in its own right, because someone who never received the notice cannot supply it — and that holds even for the pro rata cash payment, which requires no receipts of its own.The $3,500 tier requires documentation on top of that, tied to this incident: statements showing the fraudulent activity, invoices for a monitoring service you bought yourself, records of what replacing identification cost. Lost time is normally described rather than receipted, at a stated rate and a capped number of hours, and counts against the same ceiling. Anything already reimbursed by a bank, insurer or employer cannot be claimed again.
The official settlement website lists a contact route for class members who hold a notice but cannot find the credentials.
What Is the Deadline?
The claim deadline was August 27, 2026, online or by mail.The deadline to exclude yourself passed on August 12, 2026. Anyone who did not opt out by then is in the class and is bound by the release the Court approved on September 11, 2026, whether or not they filed.
How Do You Take Action?
File on the official settlement website, Berman Rabin Settlement, which is the only court-authorized site for this case. Have the notice in front of you for the login credentials, decide between the documented tier and the pro rata cash before you begin, and elect the credit monitoring in the same sitting.If you are claiming documented losses, upload the records with the form. A documented claim filed without documentation is the most common reason this kind of claim pays nothing.
What Happens Next?
The Court granted final approval on September 11, 2026 and approved $351,666 for attorneys' fees and litigation costs and $2,000 service awards for each class representative, all paid from the fund.Approval is not the same as payments being released. Distribution follows once the approval becomes final and any appeals are resolved. No payment date had been announced as of October 20, 2026. We will update this page if a distribution date is published.
Sources and Verification
- Official settlement website — Berman Rabin Settlement, including the court-approved Notice, the FAQ and the Claim Form login.
- Order Granting Final Approval of Class Action Settlement, Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri at Independence, Case No. 2616-CV00873 (signed September 11, 2026; filed September 14, 2026).
- GovInfo — United States Courts record for In re Berman & Rabin Data Breach Litigation, No. 2:25-cv-02051 (D. Kan.), the earlier federal case.
- SecurityWeek — reporting that about 152,000 people were affected by the Berman & Rabin breach.
Questions
Why would a debt collection law firm have my information?
Berman & Rabin, P.A. is a Kansas law firm whose practice includes creditors' rights and collections work. A firm in that line holds files on the consumers whose accounts it is retained to pursue, which is why the people affected by a breach there are largely not the firm's own clients. Most class members never chose to hand the firm anything — their information arrived with a file. That is also why a notice from a law firm you have never heard of is not necessarily a scam, though it is worth verifying against the official settlement website before acting on any message about it.
What will the pro rata cash payment actually be worth?
No fixed figure is attached to it, and the arithmetic is not encouraging. The fund is $980,000, and reporting has put the number of people affected at about 152,000. Out of that fund come $351,666 in court-approved attorneys' fees and litigation costs, $10,000 in service awards, the cost of notice and administration, the documented-loss claims and two years of credit monitoring for everyone who elects it. Whatever is left is divided among the people who claimed cash, so the per-person amount depends entirely on how many file. Anyone with documentable losses should price the documented tier first.
Does the $3,500 cover lost time as well as out-of-pocket costs?
The settlement describes reimbursement of up to $3,500 for documented out-of-pocket losses and lost time, which puts both under the same ceiling rather than giving lost time a separate allowance the way some settlements do. Documented out-of-pocket costs typically include identity theft losses, credit monitoring you paid for yourself, and the cost of replacing identification. Lost time normally has to be described rather than receipted, at a stated hourly rate and a capped number of hours. The Claim Form sets out how the two are counted against the ceiling.
The opt-out deadline has already passed. What does that mean for me?
The deadline to exclude yourself was August 12, 2026. Anyone who did not opt out by then is in the class and is bound by the release the Court approved on September 11, 2026, whether or not they filed a claim. The claim deadline of August 27, 2026 has also passed.
Has the settlement been approved, and when would money go out?
Yes. The Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri held the final approval hearing on September 11, 2026 and signed an order granting final approval that day; the order was filed on September 14, 2026. The Court approved $351,666 for attorneys' fees and reimbursement of litigation costs, and service awards of $2,000 for each class representative. Approval is not payment: no payment date had been announced as of October 20, 2026, and money in settlements of this shape is distributed only after approval becomes final and any appeals are resolved.
