The Rash Curtis settlement is a $75.6 million class action recovery paid by insurer Indian Harbor to resolve claims that debt collector Rash Curtis & Associates placed more than 534,000 illegal robocalls in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. A jury in the Northern District of California found the company liable for 534,698 violations, and individual payouts to class members range from roughly $87 to nearly $40,000 depending on how many calls a person received. Distributions are currently in a second round, being paid by prepaid Mastercard.
What the Calls Were
Rash Curtis & Associates used automated dialing equipment and prerecorded voice messages to contact people about debts. Many of those people had never given consent to be called, and many had no connection to any debt the company was trying to collect. The numbers came from skip tracing, a practice in which a collector researches phone numbers on its own rather than using numbers a consumer voluntarily provided.
The TCPA bars using autodialers or prerecorded messages to call cell phones without prior express consent. Because Rash Curtis used automated systems to dial skip-traced numbers at scale, the calls violated the statute. One named plaintiff reported receiving 45 calls despite never giving consent.1Top Class Actions. Rash Curtis Wrong Number Calls $75.6M Class Action Settlement The jury eventually found the company liable for 534,698 individual TCPA violations placed between June 17, 2012, and April 2, 2019.2Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit TCPA Litigation
From a $267 Million Verdict to a $75.6 Million Payout
The case, McMillion, et al. v. Rash Curtis & Associates (Case No. 4:16-cv-03396-YGR), went to trial in May 2019 before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The court entered judgment for $267,349,000, calculated at the TCPA’s statutory rate of $500 per call across 534,698 violations.3Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit FAQ Rash Curtis had rejected a settlement demand of just $875,000 at a September 2017 mediation, roughly two years before the verdict.4TCPAWorld. More to the Story: Turns Out TCPA Defendant Hit With $267MM Trial Verdict Rejected an $875K Demand at Mediation
Collecting that judgment from a debt collection company was another matter. Rash Curtis faced likely bankruptcy, so on October 25, 2019, the court approved an assignment: Rash Curtis handed over its legal claims against its insurer, Indian Harbor Insurance Company, to lead plaintiff Ignacio Perez in exchange for Perez agreeing not to execute the $267 million judgment against the company itself.3Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit FAQ
Perez then sued Indian Harbor in Perez v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company (Case No. 4:19-cv-07288-YGR), alleging the insurer had acted in bad faith by refusing to settle within its policy limits. Indian Harbor’s TCPA policy limit was $1 million.5TCPAWorld. Rash Curtis Settlement Motion In August 2021, Indian Harbor agreed to pay $75,600,000 to resolve the case, more than 75 times that cap. The insurer denied liability and called the payment a compromise to avoid further litigation costs.6Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Settlement Agreement and Release
Who Qualified
The court certified four subclasses, all covering calls placed between June 17, 2012, and April 2, 2019:
- Skip-Trace Class 1: people who got a cell phone call from the company’s DAKCS VIC or Global Connect autodialer where their number was obtained through skip tracing.
- Skip-Trace Class 2: people who got a prerecorded message or robocall on a cell phone or landline where their number was obtained through skip tracing.
- Non-Debtor Class 1: same as Skip-Trace Class 1, limited to people who never had a debt collection account in their name with Rash Curtis.
- Non-Debtor Class 2: same as Skip-Trace Class 2, limited to people who never had a debt collection account in their name with Rash Curtis.3Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit FAQ
People who had voluntarily given their cell phone number on a credit application to a creditor that later placed an account with Rash Curtis were excluded, as were the company’s employees and agents.
No claim form was initially required. Because the class was defined by Rash Curtis’s own call logs used at trial, the administrators, Digital Settlement Group and AI Class Solutions, could identify eligible recipients from those records. Class members were asked to visit the settlement website to pick a payment method, but funds could be distributed without a claim submission.3Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit FAQ
How Much Class Members Received
Payments are pro rata, based on the number of calls each class member received according to the trial call logs. The per-call floor works out to $86.82. The average payout topped $700. More than 12,000 class members qualified for payments over $1,000, and hundreds who had been called dozens or hundreds of times were eligible for between $5,000 and $40,000. The single highest payout was calculated at $39,649.47, for a person who received 483 calls.2Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit TCPA Litigation7Top Class Actions. Rash Curtis Class Action Lawsuit Settlement: Class Members Could Claim Thousands
The $75.6 million fund was divided by court order on October 1, 2021: $46,421,474.20 for class distribution, $27,972,000 in attorneys’ fees (37% of the fund) to Bursor & Fisher, P.A., $556,525.80 in litigation expenses to class counsel, and a $25,000 service award to lead plaintiff Ignacio Perez.8Akin Gump. Perez v. Rash Curtis Litigation Funding Attorneys Fees Order
Where the Settlement Stands Now
The claims period closed on August 31, 2024, and no extensions were granted.2Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit TCPA Litigation A second round of distributions issued as of January 31, 2025. Class members whose total payout exceeds $599 must submit a completed Form W-9 to receive the remaining portion, as required for tax reporting.
All second-distribution payments are being sent as virtual or physical prepaid Mastercards, regardless of the payment method a class member originally chose. Virtual cards arrive by email from rashcurtislawsuit@hawkmarketplace.com. Physical cards are mailed to the address on file. Balance and card questions go through myprepaidcenter.com. Case questions can go to the claims administrator at info@rashcurtislawsuit.com or 1-877-506-4886.2Rash Curtis Lawsuit. Rash Curtis Lawsuit TCPA Litigation