People who received a notice about the February 2025 data breach at Communications Data Group have until Nov. 10 to file a claim. The settlement pays a flat $45, or reimburses up to $5,000 in documented losses, and it covers customers of Home Wireless and two other telephone and cellular companies named in the case. A separate deadline for opting out or objecting arrives first, on Oct. 26.
The case is Pierce v. Communications Data Group, filed in Champaign County, Illinois, as No. 2026CH000032. Four companies are defendants: Communications Data Group, Duo County Telephone Cooperative, Cumberland Cellular and Home Wireless. They deny wrongdoing, and the settlement website says the deal is not an admission of fault.
Anyone who got a letter about the incident is in the class. Notices began going out Sept. 11, and the site says about 137,059 people were affected. A claim form is the only way to be paid, so a person holding the letter now has to decide between the flat payment and a loss claim that needs paperwork.
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What the claim form pays
Class members pick one cash option. The alternative payment is a one-time $45 with no documents. The documented-loss option reimburses up to $5,000, and it requires supporting records plus a declaration under penalty of perjury.
The long notice lists the costs that count: fraud or identity theft expenses, credit freeze costs and certain professional or miscellaneous fees, so long as nobody else reimbursed them. Bills, receipts and bank statements are the records to gather. The $45 option exists for people who have no such paper.
Credit monitoring is a separate benefit. The settlement offers three years through CyEx covering one major credit bureau, with identity theft insurance up to $1 million and no deductible. Someone claiming documented losses can take the monitoring as well, while the $45 payment is offered in place of monitoring or loss reimbursement.
What was exposed in the February 2025 breach
The settlement notice says an unauthorized third party got into the network of Communications Data Group, and the company discovered it in February 2025. The data that may have been exposed includes names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license information, bank account information and Social Security numbers. Bank and Social Security numbers are the kind of data that can lead to the losses the $5,000 tier covers.
The class counts about 137,059 people, including customers of the other named companies. The notice calls Communications Data Group the company whose network was breached, and it does not describe what each defendant does as a business. The website does not publish a total for the fund.
Communications Data Group pays the fees, service awards and the cost of notice and administration. Class counsel, led by Strauss Borrelli, Milberg and Federman & Sherwood lawyers, will ask the judge for up to $500,000 in fees and expenses and up to $2,500 for each of seven named plaintiffs, according to the long-form notice. The defendants agreed not to object to those amounts, and the judge can award less.
Deadlines before and after Nov. 10
The earliest date is Oct. 26, five days from now. People who want out of the settlement, which keeps the right to sue separately but forfeits any payment, must postmark a signed letter by then. Objections to the deal must be received by the same day.
The claim deadline is Nov. 10, and a claim can be submitted online through the site’s claim form or sent on a downloaded paper form postmarked by that date. The toll-free line is (866) 601-3534. People who do nothing receive no payment and give up the right to sue over the incident.
Mailed claims and letters go to Communications Data Group Settlement, c/o Settlement Administrator, PO Box 25226, Santa Ana, CA 92799-9958. Questions about the case go to the administrator, not the court, and the notice says not to contact the court directly. Anyone filing a written objection must include the details the notice requires and may ask to speak at the hearing.
Judge Jason B. Bohm of the 6th Judicial Circuit will hold the final approval hearing Nov. 16 in Urbana, Courtroom C, and the notice says it may be held remotely if the court orders. Class counsel’s motion for final approval is due Nov. 2. No class member has to attend for a claim to count.
Each choice has a trade. Opting out preserves the right to sue the companies separately, but the person gets none of the settlement benefits. Staying in without filing a claim also yields nothing, and it gives up the right to sue over the data incident.
When any money could arrive
Payments are made only if the court grants final approval and any appeals are resolved. The notice warns that appeals can take more than a year, and claim processing takes additional time after that. The site gives no payment date.
The long notice does not say how payments would be reduced if claims run higher than the money available. That leaves the $5,000 figure as a ceiling for a single claimant, not a promise. Each person gets one choice on the form.
For some people that choice is simple. Credit freeze fees and fraud costs already paid may add up to more than $45, and those can be claimed with records. For anyone with nothing documented, the $45 claim takes minutes and still has to be in by Nov. 10.
Holding a Communications Data Group letter?
The $5,000 tier pays only for losses a claimant can document, and the Nov. 10 deadline is a hard stop. Someone who spent money on a credit freeze or chased fraud after the breach and files late, or files without receipts, is left with a $45 option or nothing.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a step-by-step filing walkthrough, the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a claim log and payment tracker. Its Part 5 covers claiming when the receipts are gone, which is the situation for many people who paid for fraud fixes in cash or by phone.
Get the claim tracker and filing walkthrough before Nov. 10 →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
