Six Data-Breach Settlements Opened in 48 Hours. The One Advertised as "$2,500" Expects to Pay $10 — Its Lawyers Asked for Three Times the Entire No-Proof Cash Pool

Six data-breach settlements appeared on the class-action wire in two days. Five have court-authorized administrator sites we could read today; one does not yet. Every figure below that comes from an administrator is marked as such, and every figure that comes from a roundup is marked too, because on this batch the two disagree more than once.

• Coleman Professional Services (Ohio, behavioral health) — roughly $70 no-proof, or up to $5,000 documented. Claims close October 5.
• Albany Gastroenterology Consultants (New York) — up to $2,500 documented, but an expected $10.00 for everyone else. Claims close October 5; the opt-out deadline is August 21.
• Anixter Center (Illinois, disability services) — $50 no-proof, up to $5,000 documented, plus lost time. Claims close October 19.
• Crossroads Trading (resale retail) — $25 no-proof, plus about $100 more if you lived in California. Claims close October 13.
• Dairy Farmers of America (employees and cooperative members) — claims close October 14.
• AIS InfoSource — no court-authorized site located as of publication.

The spread between the biggest advertised number ($5,000) and the number most people will actually receive ($10 to $70) is the whole story, and it is not an accident of any one case.

The case is Clements v. Albany Gastroenterology Consultants, PLLC, Case No. 2026-008885-CA-01, in the Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County, Florida. It follows a targeted cyberattack on the practice's systems in November 2024; HIPAA Journal reported the practice notified up to 57,751 individuals.

Aggregators are promoting it as a settlement where patients "could be eligible to claim up to $2,500." That is true of one tier and one tier only. From the administrator's own FAQ:

• Cash Payment A, for documented out-of-pocket losses: up to $2,500.00 — with a $100,000.00 cap on the whole tier.
• Cash Payment B, the alternative for everyone without receipts: "expected to be $10.00 but may be larger or smaller depending on the total claims filed" — also capped at $100,000.00.
• An overall "$200,000.00 cap on these cash benefits."
• Credit monitoring: two years of CyEx Medical Shield Complete with $1 million of medical identity theft insurance — and here the notice is genuinely generous, because "You do not need to submit a claim to receive Credit Monitoring."

Now the ratio that explains the $10. Class counsel "will ask the court to approve $300,000.00 as reasonable attorney's fees and costs," plus $2,500.00 for each class representative. The fee request is three times the size of the entire pool available for the no-proof payment. And $100,000 spread across 57,751 notified people is $1.73 each if everyone filed — so the $10.00 estimate already assumes that roughly four out of five never will.

One ordering trap: the opt-out and objection deadline is August 21, 2026 — nine days from publication — while claims run to October 5 and the final approval hearing is September 22 at 9:00 a.m. EST. The hearing happens before the claim window even closes.

Most notices let you infer the claim-rate assumption. Coleman's prints it.

The case is Armstrong, et al., v. Coleman Professional Services, Inc., No. 2024CV00139, in the Portage County Court of Common Pleas, Ohio, administered by Atticus Administration LLC. The data incident ran September 18 to October 31, 2023, when unauthorized individuals allegedly accessed Coleman's email accounts containing "names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver's license or state issued ID numbers, financial account information, treatment/diagnosis information, patient identification numbers, and health insurance/payment information." For a behavioral health provider, treatment and diagnosis information in an email account is about as sensitive as a breach gets.

From the official FAQ, verbatim: the settlement provides "(1) up to $5,000 in reimbursement for Out-of-Pocket Losses... and/or (2) a roughly $70 cash payment (assuming a claims rate of 10% of the 51,889-person Settlement Class); and/or (3) a one (1) year subscription to 3-bureau identity and credit monitoring." Payments are "subject to a pro rata increase or decrease based on the money remaining in the Settlement Fund at the time of payment."

The fund is $950,000, per classaction.org. Our arithmetic: $950,000 divided across all 51,889 class members is about $18.31 each, before a dollar of fees or administration comes out. The only reason the notice can print $70 is that nine out of ten people are expected to throw the envelope away.

Dates: preliminary approval May 22, 2026; exclusion and objection September 4; claim filing October 5; final approval hearing October 13 at 9:45 a.m. ET.

Wright, et al. v. Crossroads Trading Co., Inc., Case No. 25CV479119, Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County, administered by Kroll Settlement Administration LLC. The incident is dated February 15, 2025 and affected roughly 60,041 current and former employees and customers, per classaction.org.

"Crossroads has agreed to pay $600,000 into a Settlement Fund." What it buys, from the official FAQ:

• Documented Loss Payment: up to $5,000 for losses "incurred on or after February 15, 2025."
• Alternative Cash Payment: "currently estimated to be $25" for anyone not claiming documented losses.
• California Statutory Cash Payment: "currently estimated to be $100" for California residents, or anyone who resided there between February 15, 2025 and October 13, 2026 — and it is claimable alongside the other payments, not instead of them.
• Two years of complimentary three-bureau credit monitoring.

That is the single most valuable sentence in this batch. Two people with identical exposure, identical paperwork and identical effort receive $25 and $125 depending on which state they lived in. The extra $100 exists because California's data breach statute provides statutory damages that other states' laws do not — the same mechanic that made state of residence the deciding variable in several settlements we have covered this summer.

Counsel requests "up to $200,000 total in attorney fees" — one third of the fund — plus expenses and "up to $2,500 to each of the six Class Representatives." Leftover money is not returned to Crossroads: "If there is money left over after the claims process is completed, it will be donated to a recipient mutually agreed upon by the Parties and approved by the Court."

Deadlines: opt-out and objection September 14; claims October 13; final approval hearing January 13, 2027 at 1:30 p.m. PT in San Jose. That hearing sits three months after the claim deadline, and payment comes after it.

This one is a clean illustration of why the administrator's site beats the aggregator every time.

The case is Cardenas v. Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center, Case No. 2025LA000252, Circuit Court of Sangamon County, Illinois, administered by Simpluris. The Anixter Center is a Chicago nonprofit serving people with disabilities; the July 2023 breach reached roughly 6,238 people, per classaction.org.

A widely syndicated write-up of this settlement lists two benefits: up to $5,000 for documented out-of-pocket losses, and up to three hours of lost time at $17.50 per hour. Read that and you would reasonably conclude there is nothing to claim without receipts.

The administrator's own FAQ lists a third: an "Alternative Cash Payment" of "$50.00 cash payment" requiring no documentation, alongside one year of CyEx Identity Defense Complete with $1 million in identity theft insurance. Lost time is capped at "three hours at $17.50 per hour, for a maximum of $52.50." Class counsel will ask for $185,000.00 in fees and costs, with a $2,000.00 service award.

Deadlines: opt-out and objection September 18; claims October 19; final approval hearing November 23, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. CT.

Dairy Farmers of America. The official site is dfadatasettlement.com, for Jason Buhl v. Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., Case No. WY-2026-CV-000143, in the District Court of Wyandotte County, Kansas. The administrator confirms the dates: opt-out and objection September 14, claims October 14, final approval hearing October 26, 2026; contact info@DFADataSettlement.com, (833) 421-7324.

What the administrator's homepage does not state is the fund size or the benefit amounts. Those circulate via aggregators — a $475,000 fund, roughly 4,546 current and former employees and cooperative members, up to $4,500 for documented losses traceable to the June 2025 incident, or an alternative cash payment estimated at $55. Treat those four numbers as unconfirmed against the administrator until the Notice or claim form states them; the dates above are the part we verified.

AIS InfoSource. Reported as a settlement over a February 16-21, 2025 incident, with up to $5,000 for documented out-of-pocket losses. We could not locate a court-authorized settlement website for it as of publication — only aggregator listings, which did not agree on a claim deadline. Until an administrator site exists, every number attached to this one is unverified. If you received a notice letter, the URL printed on it is the only source worth trusting.

Six settlements, one formula. Take the fund. Subtract the attorney fee request, the service awards and administration. What remains is divided among the people who actually file. That is why the published estimate is, in every case, a forecast about apathy rather than a promise about your payment.

Run it on this batch and the pattern is immediate: Albany Gastro caps its no-proof pool at $100,000 for 57,751 people and estimates $10. Coleman spreads $950,000 over 51,889 people and estimates $70 by openly assuming a 10 percent claim rate. Crossroads splits $600,000 among about 60,041 people and estimates $25. The fund size tells you almost nothing; fund divided by class size, adjusted for how many bother, tells you nearly everything.

Three things can move your number off the estimate. More people file than projected, and it falls. You lived in a state with statutory damages — California in the Crossroads case — and it rises, often by more than the base payment itself. You have documented losses and receipts, and you move to a separate tier that is frequently capped on its own, as Albany Gastro's $100,000 limit shows.

And one thing that never moves: approval is not payment. Crossroads' hearing is in January 2027. Coleman's and Anixter's are in October and November. Filing in the next few weeks is the only part of this you control.