1,610,626 Claims Were Filed in the Bell & Howell PFAS Cookware Settlement. Only 38,433 Were Valid — and the Class Gets $456,930 While Lawyers Ask for $650,000. The Judge Rules After a November 2 Hearing.

If you filed a claim in the Howell PFAS cookware settlement this summer, the odds that it counted are now on the record, and they are not good. James R. Prutsman, founder of the administrator Fidexis, told the court in his declaration of October 9, 2026: “As of the date of this Declaration, Fidexis has received a total of 1,610,626 Claim Forms.” And then: “Of those claims, 38,433 were determined to be valid, and the remaining 1,572,193 claims were determined to be invalid or fraudulent.” By our arithmetic, that is 97.6 percent rejected and 2.4 percent accepted.

The administrator says it saw it coming during the claim period: “Fidexis observed a significant volume of potentially fraudulent or otherwise invalid claims,” and it added enhanced fraud screening. The declaration names three patterns — “bots and automated scripts that are submitting fake forms en masse,” filers “using fake or synthetic identities,” and “duplicate claims” filed “under slight variations of the same name or address by people attempting to game the system.” The scale is easier to see next to the notice numbers: Fidexis emailed 13,354 notices to buyers in the company’s records (13,022 delivered) and ran a digital campaign that delivered 6,193,091 impressions. That works out to roughly 120 claim forms for every notice email sent, by our arithmetic.

What is the lawsuit against Gotham Steel cookware? This one. E. Mishan & Sons sells Gotham Steel, Granite Stone and Bell & Howell cookware. The plaintiffs allege the products with stainless steel components were marketed as “Healthy, Non-Toxic Ceramic Cookware & Bakeware,” “Toxin Free” and “PFOA Free” “despite the undisclosed presence of chromium, iron, nickel, lead, cadmium, PFOA, PFAS, PTFE, or PFOS.” The settlement site is explicit that “This lawsuit does not allege that the Products caused any physical or personal injury to anyone. Defendant denies the allegations.” It is a labeling case, filed September 8, 2025, and nothing has been proven.

The payment is fixed: $6.00 per product, at most two products per household, so $12.00 tops. Of the 38,433 valid claims, “711 claims were for one Product unit ($6.00), and 37,722 claims were for 2 Product units ($12.00). The total value of the valid claims is $456,930.” In other words, 98 percent of the approved claimants took the maximum. There is no common fund to divide, so the number of rejected claims did not shrink anyone’s payment — and the court notice says “Any attorneys’ fees or service awards will not reduce the cash payments available to Settlement Class Members.”

Nobody has been paid. The FAQ says payments go out “after the Court grants ‘final approval’ of the Settlement, and after the time for appeals has ended and any appeals have been resolved.” The settlement agreement sets the clock: “Claim payments shall be made by the Settlement Administrator within twenty-one (21) calendar days of the Effective Date,” and the Effective Date is the later of the judgment or the end of the appeal period. No date can be given before the court rules. The claim form offered PayPal, Venmo or a mailed check. Under the proposed final order, checks come in envelopes marked “YOUR CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT CHECK IS ENCLOSED” and stay valid for 90 calendar days, with a reminder postcard at 60 days.

The other benefit is a label. Within 180 days after the Effective Date, the company must print “This product contains: iron, chromium, and nickel” on product labels and online product pages, with a web address and QR code; the duty lapses after at most three years.

Very little, by design. The claim deadline was September 25, 2026; so was the deadline to opt out or object. Fidexis reports “no requests for exclusion” and “no objections,” and “did not receive any untimely submissions following the Claims Deadline.” Anyone in the class who did not opt out is bound by the release whether or not their claim was approved.

If you filed and are unsure whether you were one of the 38,433, the claim form promised: “If your claim is rejected for any reason, the Settlement Administrator will notify you of the rejection.” The October 9 declaration does not say when those notices go out. Remember the eligibility limits: the purchase had to be made in California or Colorado, not for resale, between September 8, 2021 and July 6, 2026, and only one claim per household counts. The agreement also requires the administrator to reject every claim filed “through any third-party claims filing service.”

The final approval hearing is set for November 2, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. in Department 1 of the Riverside County Superior Court, 4050 Main Street, Riverside, CA 92501, before Judge Harold W. Hopp. The FAQ notes that, even if the judge approves, “there may be appeals.” Questions go to the administrator at 1 (888) 915-6921, info@stainless-steelcookwaresettlement.com, or Stainless Steel Cookware Settlement Administrator, 1060 Broadway, Suite 301, Albany, NY 12204.

The only official website is Stainless-SteelCookwareSettlement.com, run by Fidexis. Its documents page now carries the final approval motion, the fee motion and the supplemental declarations quoted here. Fidexis did send real emails: 13,354 notices, plus 13,321 reminders, to buyers whose addresses came from the company’s online purchase and warranty records. If you got one of those, it was genuine.

Treat with suspicion any message now asking you to “confirm” a claim, pay a fee or enter bank details: the claim deadline has passed, and payments only start after final approval and any appeals. The agreement offered three payment routes — PayPal, Venmo or a mailed check — chosen on the claim form. A post offering to “add you” to the settlement cannot do it; claims are closed. If in doubt, call the number on the official site rather than any number in a message.

Class counsel, Clarkson Law Firm, asked on September 11, 2026 for “reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs, and litigation expenses totaling $650,000.” A supplemental declaration of October 6 puts the firm’s lodestar at $590,151.50 for 702.40 hours and costs at $2,900.35, making the fee $647,099.65, a 1.10 multiplier. That request is about 1.42 times what the class will receive, by our arithmetic. Fidexis says its billing is complete at $136,916.64, and each of the two class representatives asks for a $2,500 service award — one declares, “I expect to receive $12.00 as a class member.” All of it is paid by the company on top of the claims. Add it up and the company’s outlay is about $1.25 million, a little more than a third of it reaching class members. The judge is scheduled to take up the fee request at the November 2 hearing; the ruling itself may come later.

Is it safe to use cookware with PFAS? This case does not answer that, and it alleges no injury. The FDA says nonstick coatings are one of four authorized PFAS food-contact uses and that, for nonstick pans, “Studies show negligible amounts of PFAS in this coating can migrate to food.” Of the four uses, the agency says only paper and paperboard grease-proofers raised a potential safety concern.

What is the PFAS lawsuit against military bases? A different matter entirely. The firefighting-foam cases — In re Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2873, before Judge Richard M. Gergel in the District of South Carolina — allege that foams containing PFOA or PFOS “contaminated groundwater near various military bases, airports, and other industrial sites.” This cookware settlement has nothing to do with those claims; people affected by foam contamination should look to that court.