Telmate Data Breach Settlement: $4.225 Million Across 431,031 People Is $9.80 Each on Paper and $5.30 After Requested Fees and Costs, but Only Those Who File by December 21, 2026 Split It

Yes, it is real. Cooper v. Telmate, LLC, Case No. 1:24-cv-01622, is a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. On August 20, 2026, Senior U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema granted preliminary approval and appointed Kroll Settlement Administration as administrator. The official website is telmatedatabreachsettlement.com, which calls itself “the only authorized website for this case.” Kroll also announced the settlement in a PR Newswire release on September 21, 2026.

Who is included: “all individuals within the United States of America whose Personal Information was impacted during the Security Incident experienced by Defendant on approximately August 13, 2020.” The notice says that is about 431,031 people. Telmate serves incarcerated people and their families through platforms such as GettingOut, VisitNow, Command, Telmate Inmate Telephone and Guardian. The claim form says: “If you received Notice of this Settlement, the Defendant’s records identify you as a Settlement Class Member.”

What you can get: a pro-rata cash payment that needs no paperwork, plus up to $5,000 for documented, unreimbursed losses. You can claim one or both on a single form.

Deadline: file online, or mail a paper form postmarked, by Monday, December 21, 2026. That is 82 days from September 30 (our arithmetic). The mailing address is Cooper v. Telmate LLC d/b/a Viapath Technologies, c/o Kroll Settlement Administration LLC, P.O. Box 225391, New York, NY 10150-5391. The phone number is (833) 453-3721. If you do nothing, you get no payment and you give up the right to sue Telmate over the claims the settlement resolves. The court still has to grant final approval. The hearing is set for February 12, 2027.

Pro-rata cash payment. You do not need any documents for this. Money is paid out in a fixed order. First come administration costs, then the fee award and cost reimbursement, then the service award, then approved loss claims. What is left is “divided equally among Settlement Class Members who submit a valid claim for a Pro Rata Cash Payment.” The notice does not give a dollar estimate.

Documented out-of-pocket losses, up to $5,000. These are unreimbursed costs “more likely than not attributable to the Security Incident.” The documents must be “generated by a third party … (i.e., telephone records, correspondence, and receipts).” The notice says personal certifications, declarations or affidavits “are not considered proper documentation,” but you may add them for context. The claim form’s own example is a $50 bill for a credit monitoring service. You cannot be paid for costs a third party already covered.

How to file. The online form linked from the settlement website opened on a login screen when we checked on September 30, 2026. That screen asked for a Class Member ID. The paper claim form has a Class Member ID field too. If you no longer have the notice with your ID, the administrator’s number is (833) 453-3721. If you file online you can choose an electronic payment. If you mail the form, “you will receive your payment by check.”

If something goes wrong. If you do not clearly pick a payment type, your claim counts as a pro-rata cash claim. Under the settlement agreement, Kroll must give you 30 days to fix an incomplete claim. You then have 30 days after a decision to appeal it. Kroll may also use “identity verification, duplicate claim detection, and audit procedures.” Each person may have only one valid claim.

The notice does not say what a pro-rata claim will pay. Here is the math with the numbers the documents do give. All of it is our arithmetic.

• On paper: $4,225,000 ÷ 431,031 class members = $9.80 per person.
• Requested and capped deductions: attorneys’ fees of up to one-third ($1,408,333.33), litigation costs of up to $35,000, a $5,000 service award for Amber Cooper, and administration costs the court capped at $493,077. Together that is up to $1,941,410.33, leaving $2,283,589.67.
• If every class member filed: $2,283,589.67 ÷ 431,031 = $5.30 each.
• If 10% filed (43,103 people): about $52.98. If 5% filed (21,552): about $105.96. If 2% filed (8,621): about $264.89.

These claim rates are examples, not a forecast. Approved loss claims of up to $5,000 each come out of the pool first and would lower every figure above. A smaller fee award or lower administration costs would raise them. The fees are only requested so far, and the judge decides them at the final hearing.

None of the money goes back to Telmate. The agreement says “Absolutely no monies shall revert to Defendant.” If payments go uncashed, the leftover money is first paid out again, pro rata, to class members who claimed, if that is practical. Otherwise it goes to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), subject to court approval. The agreement has Telmate deposit $493,077 within five days of preliminary approval. The other $3,731,923 is due one business day after the settlement’s Effective Date.

According to the settlement documents, a malicious third party accessed files on Telmate’s network between August 11 and August 13, 2020. “Upon becoming aware of the Security Incident in 2020, Telmate notified 44,360 individuals that their information had been compromised.” Then, “After a Federal Trade Commission investigation in 2024, Telmate informed additional individuals that their information had been, in fact, compromised in the Security Incident.” The class, at about 431,031 people, is almost ten times the 44,360 who got letters in 2020 (our arithmetic).

The FTC’s November 2023 announcement describes the incident differently. The FTC brought its case against Global Tel*Link, “which also does business as GTL and ViaPath Technologies,” and two of its subsidiaries, which the FTC’s case page names as Telmate and TouchPay Holdings. The FTC says that in August 2020, while testing new search software, the company and a vendor copied unencrypted data on “nearly 650,000 real users” into the cloud. After the vendor changed security settings, the data sat open on the internet. According to the FTC, the company then “waited approximately nine months to notify affected customers and only contacted 45,000 users.” The documents we read do not explain why the FTC’s figure is higher than the class count.

The notice lists the kinds of Personal Information covered by the settlement, “including, but not limited to,” names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, usernames paired with passwords, home addresses, driver’s license and passport numbers, Social Security numbers, payment card numbers and financial account information. The FTC adds location information, grievance forms, and “messages exchanged between incarcerated individuals and their friends and family.” The notice does not say which items were exposed for any one person.

The FTC finalized its order on February 23, 2024. The order required the company to notify users who had not been told before and to give them credit monitoring and identity protection products. The settlement agreement says the FTC action “did not provide monetary compensation to affected individuals.” It says this settlement provides monetary relief and is “intended to complement” the FTC’s order. Credit monitoring is not one of the two benefits listed in this settlement’s notice.

Amber Cooper filed the case on September 13, 2024. The docket shows it was put on hold in January 2025 while the parties waited for a Fourth Circuit ruling in Holmes v. Elephant Insurance Co. The docket shows activity again in February 2026, including a further stay until an April 9, 2026 status report, and the settlement followed. The preliminary approval order first set the final hearing for December 18, 2026, which was three days before the claims deadline. On September 14, 2026, the judge moved it to February 12, 2027, at 10 a.m., in Alexandria Courtroom 700. The English long-form notice prints the year as “2026” in two places. The website, the Spanish notice, Kroll’s press release and the court docket all say February 12, 2027.

Before the hearing: Class Counsel Kevin Laukaitis of Laukaitis Law LLC must file the fee request 60 days after the notice date. That is about a month before the December 21, 2026 objection deadline (our arithmetic; the order counts both from the notice date).

Opting out: mail a signed letter that says you want to be excluded. Include your name, address, phone and email, and send it to the P.O. box above marked “ATTN: Opt Outs,” postmarked by December 21, 2026. You can only opt out for yourself. Opting out is the only way to keep your right to sue Telmate separately, and you get no payment.

Objecting: file your objection with the Clerk of the Court by December 21, 2026. The address is Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse, 401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314. The notice lists what it must include. If you object, you can still file a claim.

When money could arrive: only after final approval and after any appeals are resolved. The September 14 order extended the settlement distribution deadline (Section 11.1(m) of the agreement) from 60 days to “120 days from issuance of the Final Approval Order.” Suppose the judge signed that order at the February 12, 2027 hearing and nobody appealed. The deadline would then fall on June 12, 2027 (our arithmetic). An appeal would push payments later.