Some cases need an institution, not a programme
Participation infrastructure is built to hold a defined claimant population through the years a case takes. That is the right tool for most collective actions, and it is the tool we build.
It is not the right tool for a court-approved notice plan reaching millions of people nobody has a name for, a claims process that has to withstand organised fraud at volume, or a distribution a federal court will scrutinise before it approves. That is a different kind of machine with a different kind of standing, and we are not going to build it.
Knowing when not to be the answer is part of being the infrastructure.
Four conditions that put administration at the centre
These are the conditions under which administration stops being a formality and becomes the substance of the settlement. In practice they tend to arrive together.
The class cannot be identified
Notice has to reach people nobody holds a name for, in numbers no register contains.
The court expects a recognised administrator
Approval can turn on who is administering, not only on how good the plan is.
Claims fraud at volume
At millions of claims a small fraudulent percentage becomes the largest single line in the distribution.
Many jurisdictions, one timetable
A class spread across countries, currencies and notice regimes, answering to a single court.
It’s settled. They do the rest.
A.B. Data is a class action administrator, part of the A.B. Data Group, with offices in Milwaukee, Washington DC, New York, Palm Beach Gardens, Tel Aviv and London. It administers notice, claims and settlement distribution, and it is among the most established administrators in antitrust and securities work.
The parts that matter for our purposes are the ones built for volume: court-approved notice and media planning, claims processing with fraud screening, a contact centre and case websites, and digital settlement distribution with several hundred payment options.
- Firm
- A.B. Data, Ltd. — class action administration, part of the A.B. Data Group
- Offices
- Milwaukee · Washington DC · New York · Palm Beach Gardens · Tel Aviv · London
- Role
- Class administration where notice, claims and distribution must run at scale and answer to a court
- Services
- Pre-settlement consultation, notice administration, media services, claims processing, contact centre, case websites, settlement fund distribution
- Practice areas
- Antitrust and pharmaceutical antitrust · securities · data breach and privacy · commodities · labour and employment · ERISA · product liability
- Distribution
- Digital PayPortal™, with instant delivery and several hundred digital payment options alongside conventional payment
- Assurance
- SOC 1 certified; dedicated claims-fraud screening
- UK & EU
- A London office and a stated UK and EU practice
- Reference
- abdataclassaction.com
Two columns. One case file.
This division is different from the rest of the register. Where an administrator is appointed, work moves off us rather than onto them: notice to the wider class, claims processing and distribution become theirs.
What stays with us is everything that happens before and around that — the book, the registered claimants, the firm’s own relationship with the people who came to it directly.
Participation infrastructure
Before and around the settlement.
- Claimant acquisition and registration
- Eligibility validation and data quality
- One claimant record for the firm’s own registered population
- Engagement through the years before settlement
- Claimant communications in the firm’s name
Class administration
From settlement onward, facing the court.
- Court-approved notice plans and media reach
- Claims processing, deficiency handling and fraud screening
- Contact centre and case websites at volume
- Settlement fund distribution, digital and conventional
- Declarations and reporting to the court
Fig. 01 — the join. Column A supplies a clean, evidenced population; column B administers the whole class, including everyone column A never reached.
Class administration and settlement distribution do not run together. Where an administrator is appointed, distribution is theirs; where one is not, it runs through the payments partner. The specification records which applies before either is engaged.
Stage by stage
The handover point is settlement. Before it, the work is ours. After it, most of the operational load is theirs — and the quality of what we hand over sets how well it goes.
Stage 02 is where money is won or lost.
Notice plans and claims processes specified after the settlement is agreed inherit whatever the data can support. Specified before, they shape what gets collected.
Case design Participation strategy for the population the firm can identify and reach directly. Pre-settlement consultation: whether this case will need an administrator at all.
Settlement design What the register can actually evidence, field by field, stated plainly. Notice plan and claims process drafted to be approved, not merely to be filed.
Notice Registered claimants notified through the channels they already recognise from the firm. Court-approved notice to the unidentified class, with media planning and reach modelling.
Claims Registered claimants supported through their own claim, with our records supplied as evidence. Claims processing at volume, deficiency correspondence and fraud screening.
Distribution Contactability maintained, and claimant queries answered in the firm’s name. Settlement fund distribution, digital and conventional, with reconciliation.
Court Participation-side records produced in the form the declarations require. Administrator declarations, reporting and the final account to the court.
A clean, evidenced register is the cheapest input an administrator will ever be given.
Documents, not introductions
A joint engagement that produces nothing but a warm handshake is not worth publishing. These are the artefacts the joint engagement is designed to put on your desk.
The assessment comes first, so the programme is scoped by the matter rather than by habit.
The administrator answers to the court, not to us and not to the firm. That independence is the point of appointing one, and nothing in this arrangement qualifies it. The firms are separately owned and separately engaged, and data-sharing terms are agreed in writing before any class data moves.
Scoped to the scale of the matter
The partner register sits above the operating modes, not inside one. Whichever configuration of the Participation Operating System™ a matter runs on, the administration discipline attaches the same way.
What varies is how much of it a case calls for. Court approval, notice adequacy and fraud exposure all turn on making that judgement early rather than at settlement.
CasePartners™
You hold the book. Where the class is identified and finite, administration is scoped around notice and payment rather than reach.
Read the mode →LeadPartners™
We build the book. Opt-out classes far larger than the book we build are where the threshold is crossed.
Read the mode →ArbPartners™
US matters at campaign scale, in front of US courts, where a recognised administrator is closest to being assumed.
Read the mode →- Jurisdiction
- Principally US federal and state class actions; a London office and a stated UK and EU practice.
- Best introduced
- Pre-settlement, while the notice plan and claims process can still shape what the register collects.
- Also useful
- Where a court has signalled it expects a recognised administrator, or where fraud exposure at claims volume is material.
- Lighter touch
- Where the class is identified and finite, direct notice through the register and a payments partner will usually carry the distribution.
Questions of substance
How much administration does our case need?+
It turns on how far notice has to travel. Where the entitled population is named and reachable, administration is scoped tightly around notice and payment. Where it must reach people nobody holds a list for, or the court expects a recognised administrator on the record, the full programme applies.
Does this replace Mediatasks on the case?+
Partly, and deliberately. Notice to the wider class, claims processing and distribution become the administrator’s. Participation before settlement, the claimant record and the firm’s own relationship with its registered claimants stay with us. The handover schedule sets out the line.
How does this sit with the settlement distribution partner?+
They do not both run. Where an administrator is appointed, distribution is part of the administration. Where one is not, distribution runs through the payments partner. The choice is made once, in writing, before either is engaged.
Is this only for US cases?+
Predominantly, because the administrator role is most formalised in US class practice. A.B. Data has a London office and a UK and EU practice, and the same thresholds apply in principle to large opt-out proceedings here.
What does our register do about claims fraud?+
A great deal, indirectly. Claims from a validated register arrive with provenance the administrator can rely on, which narrows the population that needs adversarial screening. The screening itself is theirs.
How is the arrangement paid for?+
Administration costs are normally met from the settlement fund and are subject to court approval, which makes them a different commercial animal from the rest of this register. Each firm is paid for its own work, and neither pays the other for an introduction.
Request the specification.
The joint specification sets out the threshold test, the handover schedule, how notice and claims responsibilities divide, the interaction with settlement distribution, and the commercial basis in full. Sent as a PDF, no call required.
Request the specification
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