The $5.75 Million Laguna Honda Settlement Offers Residents $1,000 Plus a Share Based on Days Lived, or $750 After a Privacy Notice — November 10, 2026 Is the Deadline to Choose Cash or a Special Needs Trust, and Doing Nothing Means Cash

If you or a family member lived at Laguna Honda at any time between April 14, 2022 and August 16, 2023, you are very likely in this settlement. That is the “Patients’ Rights Class,” certified by the court on July 26, 2024: “All patients of Laguna Honda Hospital from April 14, 2022 through August 16, 2023.” The second group, the “Confidentiality Class,” is narrower. It covers patients from March 23, 2017 to February 17, 2026 — “or their responsible party” — to whom the Department of Public Health “sent written notice that their private medical and health information was acquired and disseminated by Defendants to persons not privileged to receive it without the patient’s consent.” A person can be in both classes. The February 17, 2026 end date is simply the day the city handed the class list to plaintiffs’ counsel, according to the amended settlement agreement.

You do not apply to get in. The class list comes from the city’s own records, and the court-approved notice says: “If you (or someone for whom you are responsible) received this Notice from the Notice Administrator (CPT Group), Defendant’s records indicate you are a member of the Patients’ Rights and/or Confidentiality Class.” Notices went by first-class mail and email to class members and to their family members or legal representatives on file. Under the amended agreement, the classes hold 518 people in total, though an earlier stipulation referred to 735 (more on that below). If you believe you or a relative belongs but received nothing, call CPT Group at 1-888-261-1713.

Two groups are carved out: people who already sued the city in five separate San Francisco Superior Court cases listed in the agreement, and anyone who opts out. The settlement is not final. Judge Ross will decide at the January 29, 2027 hearing whether to approve it; the notice is explicit that “Payments will only be made if the Court approves the settlement.”

The Laguna Honda settlement fund is $5,750,000. Before anything reaches residents, class counsel will ask for up to $1,437,500 in attorneys’ fees (25 percent), up to $150,000 in expenses and a $5,000 service award for the class representative; start-up administration costs come out as well. The notice estimates what is left at “approximately $3,907,500.” By our arithmetic, fees, expenses and the service award at their caps leave $4,157,500, so the estimate sets aside roughly $250,000 more, which the notice does not itemize.

The money is split in a fixed order. First, each Confidentiality Class member gets $750. Second, each Patients’ Rights Class member gets a $1,000 base payment. Third, whatever remains — the “adjusted” fund — is divided among Patients’ Rights members by residency days: each person’s days at Laguna Honda during the class period, divided by the days of all class members combined, times the adjusted fund. Someone who lived there for the entire period (490 days, by our count) receives the largest share; someone who stayed a few weeks receives a correspondingly smaller share on top of the $1,000. No per-day figure has been published, because it depends on how many people stay in and on the fees the judge approves.

For a sense of scale only: spread evenly over 518 people, $3,907,500 would be about $7,500 each (our arithmetic). It will not be spread evenly. A Confidentiality-only member is capped at $750, and long-term residents will receive far more than short-stay patients. One more caution about the class size: an earlier stipulation, signed May 30, 2025, referred to 735 class members; the amended agreement says 518. Neither document explains the difference.

Everyone who stays in the settlement is asked to choose between two ways of being paid, on the Distribution Election Postcard or online at LHHSettlement.com using the CPT ID and passcode printed on page 1 of the notice. The deadline is November 10, 2026.

Option 1 — cash. A check, mailed after the settlement becomes final. The notice attaches a warning for anyone on disability benefits: “By choosing this option, you acknowledge that you are responsible for managing the funds to maintain your eligibility for disability benefits such as SSI and Medicaid (Medi-Cal).” It says a lump sum must be reported to the Social Security Administration and the county Medi-Cal office “by the 10th day of the month after you receive it,” gives the SSI asset limits as $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple, and describes the “spend down” required to stay under them.

Option 2 — a pooled special needs trust. The money goes into an individual account inside a trust run by CPT Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit the court appointed as trust administrator, and “protects your money without affecting your eligibility for SSI or Medicaid (Medi-Cal).” It can pay for medical and therapeutic care, support services, phones, clothing, travel and entertainment, but “funds are generally paid directly to vendors, not to you personally.” The notice lists CPT Institute for disability-benefit questions at (855) 278-7681 for new clients.

If you do nothing, you are paid in cash: members who neither choose nor opt out “will be deemed to have selected Option 1 and will receive a cash distribution.” For residents who depend on Medi-Cal — which, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2023, accounted for more than 95% of Laguna Honda’s funding — that default is the one choice worth checking with a family member, conservator or benefits adviser before November 10. Payments may also be taxable; the notice says members may receive a Form 1099.

If the resident has died, the settlement still applies. A “legal successor to any deceased Settlement Class Member” may file a Distribution Request with CPT Group up to 90 days after the election period — by about February 8, 2027, by our arithmetic — and payment “is contingent on the availability of settlement funds.” A trust account of a member who dies can be transferred to the legal successor on proof of next-of-kin status. The same request route is open to any member who was never paid, once CPT Group verifies membership.

Opt out only by mail: a signed letter with your full name, address, phone number and a clear sentence such as “I want to be excluded from the Settlement Class,” postmarked by November 10, 2026, to Johnson, et al. v. City and County of San Francisco, et al., c/o CPT Group, Inc., PO Box 19504, Irvine, CA 92623. Opting out means no payment, and the notice adds a caution that matters for anyone thinking of suing separately. It quotes Government Code section 911.2(a) — claims for death or personal injury against a public entity must be presented within six months — and says that “any person who did not file their own government claim with SAN FRANCISCO would be barred from filing suit concerning the facts, circumstances and legal theories asserted in PLAINTIFFS’ CLAIMS.” Whether that applies to a particular person is a question for a lawyer.

Object in writing to the same address by November 10, 2026, with your name and contact details, a statement that you lived at Laguna Honda during the class period that applies to you, whether you plan to attend the hearing, your reasons and your signature. The notice also says class members “may object by appearing at the final approval hearing without giving any prior notice.” The hearing is on January 29, 2027, at 9:30 a.m., in Department 613 of the Civic Center Courthouse, 400 McAllister St., per the judge’s order; the settlement site’s dates page lists 9:20 a.m. Class counsel must file the final approval motion and fee request by December 18, 2026.

When money could arrive. The city pays the full amount into a qualified settlement fund within three days after the judge signs a final approval order. Cash checks go out “no earlier than five (5) days after the EFFECTIVE DATE,” which is 60 days after the final judgment if no one appeals. If Judge Ross approves the deal on January 29, 2027 and nobody appeals, that puts the earliest checks around April 4, 2027 (our arithmetic); an appeal would push everything back. Checks can be cashed for 180 days. Nothing returns to the city: leftover money goes to a second distribution if that is practical, otherwise to a court-approved nonprofit.

Treat the notice as genuine if it matches the court papers: the official website is LHHSettlement.com, the administrator is CPT Group, Inc., PO Box 19504, Irvine, CA 92623, toll-free 1-888-261-1713, email LHHSettlement@cptgroup.com. (The notice PDF prints the address as LHHSettlement.com@cptgroup.com; the website uses the shorter form.) The judge’s order also appoints Eastern Point Trust Company of Warrenton, Virginia, to hold the fund and CPT Institute to run the trust, so all three names can legitimately appear in letters about this case.

Nobody should charge you to take part. Class counsel — Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger; Stebner Gertler & Guadagni; and Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy — are paid from the fund only if the court approves their fee. There is no claim form to buy help with. Apart from an opt-out or an objection, what CPT Group handles from class members is the payment choice, address changes and, for a relative of a resident who has died, a Distribution Request. Be wary of anyone who asks for a fee to “release” a Laguna Honda payment. Because the notice says members may receive a Form 1099, a request for tax information can be legitimate — check any request for a Social Security number or bank details with CPT Group at the number above before answering. The cash option pays by mailed check.

The case was filed on March 24, 2020. According to the notice, the plaintiffs alleged that the city “engaged in a pattern and practice of not complying with nursing home regulations meant to protect patients’ rights, which harmed those patients and contributed to the decertification of LHH and termination of its Medicare and Medicaid provider agreements by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in April 2022, as well as other violations of certain patients’ rights to privacy and confidentiality in their personal and medical information.” The class claims rest on California Health and Safety Code section 1430(b) and on the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, Civil Code § 56. The city denies wrongdoing, and the court has not decided who was right. The settlement documents do not describe the incidents behind the privacy notices, and we do not speculate about them here.

The class dates track the crisis. The Patients’ Rights period opens in April 2022, when the federal agreements ended, and closes on August 16, 2023 — the day, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, that the state reinstated Laguna Honda into Medi-Cal, “just five days after city health officials made the request.” The same report described a threat of closure that had hung over the facility since April 2022 and residents, “including dozens who were forced to move out last summer in an aborted closure plan.” The Department of Public Health announced on April 28, 2025 that Laguna Honda had earned a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, noting it “had a two-star rating when the facility lost its certification in 2022.”

The parties agreed to settle in May 2025, about two months before an August 4, 2025 trial date; the stipulation, signed May 30, 2025, made the deal subject to approval by the Health Commission, the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor. An amended agreement followed, and preliminary approval came in August 2026. The notice’s own warning is the practical lesson for families: under the Government Code section it quotes, a claim for injury against the city has to be presented within six months after the cause of action accrues — long before a class action like this one settles.