Hertz Global Holdings has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit over its electric vehicle plans. Investors who bought the rental company’s stock between January 6, 2023 and April 24, 2024 can file a claim until January 8, 2027. The payout per share is small, and the court has not yet signed off.
Trade dates decide who is in the class
The settlement website defines the class as anyone who purchased or otherwise acquired Hertz Global Holdings common stock from January 6, 2023 through April 24, 2024, both dates inclusive. The measure is when shares were bought, not when they were sold or what they cost.
The suit alleges that Hertz over-invested in electric vehicles and then misrepresented demand for them. Its backdrop is the company’s 2021 announcement of an initial order of 100,000 Tesla vehicles, according to Bloomberg Law’s account of the complaint. The two executives, Stephen M. Scherr and Alexandra Brooks, are named alongside the company.
Specifically, the lawsuit says Hertz and the two executives made misleading statements or left out facts about demand and forecasts for renting out the company’s electric vehicles. The defendants deny all wrongdoing, and the settlement is not a finding against them.
The case reached this point after a court fight over the pleadings. Bloomberg Law reported that on October 10, 2025, U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek in the Middle District of Florida let the investors’ fraud claims proceed on two sets of statements and dismissed others as not materially misleading.
Retirement deadlines, in your inbox: Miss an enrollment or claim deadline and the money can be gone. Join the Retirement Money Brief and we’ll send you our Open Settlements & Refund Tracker as a welcome gift.
Get the Brief + the settlements tracker →
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
How $10 million becomes pennies a share
The settlement amount is $10,000,000 plus interest, less attorneys’ fees, costs and administrative expenses. The site estimates an average recovery of $0.07 per share across roughly 148.4 million shares that were allegedly damaged by the statements at issue.
After the requested deductions, the site puts the average at $0.04 per damaged share. Lawyers are asking for up to one-third of the fund, or $3,333,333, and up to $300,000 in expenses. The lead plaintiff’s award cannot exceed $7,500.
Together, the fee and expense requests come to $3,633,333, or about 36 cents of every dollar in the fund. Fees and expenses are requests at this stage, and the court decides how much to allow when it considers final approval.
Those figures are averages, and the site describes them as estimates. At $0.04 a share, an investor with 1,000 damaged shares would be looking at an average of about $40.
The size of the deductions shows in simple subtraction. If the full fee and expense requests were granted, about $6.37 million of the $10 million would remain before administrative costs and interest. Spread over 148.4 million shares, that is the roughly four cents the site reports.
For someone with a few hundred shares, the recovery may be a few dollars. The amount rises with the number of damaged shares, so a large position matters far more than a small one. Someone who held 10,000 shares would be looking at an average of about $400. Anyone with a small holding is weighing a short online form against a payment of that size, and the site notes the proof of claim is the only way to be paid.
What the January 8 filing needs
The only way to be paid is to submit a Proof of Claim, postmarked or filed online by January 8, 2027, the site says. Claimants do not need to appear in court. The same date applies to requests for exclusion and to objections.
The claim has to list trades, which is where paper records matter. Brokerage statements, trade confirmations and year-end tax documents show purchase and sale dates and share counts. Anyone who has changed brokers since 2023 may need to ask the old firm for statements.
The class turns on when shares were acquired, so a purchase inside the window counts whether or not the shares are still held. A claim built only from today’s account balance would leave out Hertz stock that was bought and later sold.
Questions go to the Claims Administrator at 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or (888) 292-4295, according to the settlement site. Levi & Korsinsky is lead counsel, with Shannon L. Hopkins named on the notice.
When money could actually move
The settlement stipulation is dated May 15, 2026. Bloomberg Law reported that the investor leading the case filed for preliminary approval that day, and the deal requires court approval. A Final Approval Hearing is set for January 29, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
Payments follow only if the court approves the settlement and after any appeals are resolved, the site says. That puts the earliest checks after the January 29 hearing, with no date announced. A claim filed now therefore starts a wait of months.
Claims, exclusions and objections all close on January 8, three weeks before the hearing. A shareholder who wants a payment files the claim by that date, and a shareholder who wants out of the class has the same date to request exclusion.
Which Hertz trades go on the proof of claim?
A securities settlement pays by the share, and the administrator can only credit trades the claimant lists. Buy and sell records that are missing on January 8, 2027 mean a claim that is thin or rejected.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a step-by-step filing walkthrough, and its source vault covers the 12 official places money sits when a claim is not the only route. A claim log and payment tracker keeps the Hertz filing, and the months of waiting after it, on one dated page.
Get the notice-reading rule and Hertz claim tracker in one kit →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 15 Steps to Stop the Scams That Took $7.7 Billion From Seniors
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.