Class Action Coffee

I am on a roll with an exciting new income stream – payouts from class action law suits! The cash has been flowing in and I’m rolling in settlement moohlah. Milking the legal system and then some!

The Big One: Blue Cross Blue Shield Subscribers Settlement

My email trail indicates I heard about this lawsuit in April, 2021, from the health insurance I had years before when I lived in Arizona. I was not even sure I fully understood the Blue Cross Blue Shield Settlement

Plaintiffs claim that the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and Settling Individual Blue Plans (collectively, “Settling Defendants”) violated antitrust laws by entering into an agreement not to compete with each other and to limit competition among themselves in selling health insurance and administrative services for health insurance. Settling Defendants deny all claims. The Settling Defendants have asserted that their conduct results in lower healthcare costs and greater access to care for their customers. The Court has not decided who is right.
https://www.bcbssettlement.com/

But it did cover individuals who had Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance between February 7, 2008, through October 16, 2020 which definitely included me. I applied in 2021 and forgot about it. There were a few updates, but the cash note came in May 2026 when I got word I could get my portion as a Visa Prepaid Card. I vaguely recall it was somewhere around US$160, my slice of the pie from:

The Net Settlement Fund is estimated to be approximately $1.9 billion. This is after deducting attorneys’ fees, administration expenses and other costs from the $2.67 billion Settlement Fund.
https://www.bcbssettlement.com/

Yup, the lawyers get the biggest piece of the pie, but I like my slice. I had never used my iPhone for paying with things, but that was the easiest way to use the card, and the first (and most subsequent purchases) were for coffee:

Mmmm Class Action Coffee is a fine brew.

Can You Pay Me Now? Verizon Class Action Settlement

I had completely forgotten about this windfall until I was rummaging in my email to find the information on the other ones. I might have been contacted by email or just heard about this case, but I filled out a form in 2024 for Esposito et al. v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless

Verizon customers claimed in a class action lawsuit that Verizon has charged its post-paid individual consumer wireless service account holders a monthly Administrative Charge and/or Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge (collectively, “Administrative Charge”) that was unfair and not adequately disclosed. Verizon has denied and continues to deny that it did anything wrong and that the lawsuit has any merit.
https://www.verizonadministrativechargesettlement.com

I did have Verizon for me mobile when I lived in Arizona, and it was for some charge for “an Administrative Charge and/or an Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge between January 1, 2016 and November 8, 2023” Click, I’m in there!

Apparently I got the big pile of cash in January 2025 via PayPal., I have no idea where I spent it all.

Hey Zuck, Show Me the Money

Maybe the most satisfying was a payout in June this year for Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation against Facebook.

If you were a Facebook user in the United States between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, inclusive, you may be eligible for a cash payment from a Class Action Settlement.

I quit Facebook first in 2014 but had to go back for something project related in 2015, and stuck the fork in it for good in 2016 but that did mean I was in the window.

I submitted the claim in May 2023 and just got all of the proceeds this past June. Should I buy a new car or a trip to France? What can I do with all of Zuckerburg’s cash that came my way?

This is most satisfying, even if maybe it was one cup of coffee at Tim Hortons. Note on all of these the paying defendants all denied the charges but paid anyhow.

Justice is in my pocket.

That’s it! I have accrued a vast fortune, but now my sources are dried up. What should I do?

Featured Image: Class Action Coffee flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0) on a collage of web sites https://www.bcbssettlement.com/ https://www.facebookuserprivacysettlement.com/ and https://www.verizonadministrativechargesettlement.com/