A court authorized the Settlement Notice because you have a right to know about a proposed settlement of this class action lawsuit, and about all of your options, before the Court decides whether to approve the Settlement. If the Court approves the Settlement and after any objections or appeals are resolved, an administrator appointed by the Court will make the payments that the Settlement allows. Because your rights will be affected by this Settlement, it is important that you read the Settlement Notice carefully.  A copy of the Settlement Notice can be found in the Important Documents section of this website.

If you received a postcard in the mail or an email notice, it is because records indicate you may have received one or more calls from Cavalry between February 8, 2009 and January 26, 2016.

More specifically, the Settlement Class comprises individuals that Cavalry called on cell phone numbers while attempting to collect 1,035,232 Accounts between February 8, 2009 and January 26, 2016, while using the Aspect Ensemble Pro system, or the Avaya Proactive Contact 5.0 system.

The Court in charge of the cases is the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The cases which comprise this settlement are Horton v. Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC, No. 13-cv-0307-JAH-WVG and Krejci v. Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC, 16-cv-00211-JAH-WVG. Cory Horton and Kevin Krejci are the “Plaintiffs” or “Class Representatives,” and the company sued, Cavalry, is the “Defendant."

A class action is a lawsuit in which the claims and rights of many people are decided in a single court proceeding. Representative plaintiffs, also known as “Class Representatives,” assert claims on behalf of the entire class.

The Class Representatives filed and/or pursued this litigation alleging that Cavalry is liable under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the "TCPA") for calls it made to cell phones while attempting to collect using what Plaintiffs contend are automatic telephone dialing systems, the Aspect Ensemble Pro system, or the Avaya Proactive Contact 5.0 system, without consent.

Cavalry denies that it violated the TCPA and specifically denies that it used an automatic telephone dialing system to call any class member without prior express consent.

The Court did not decide in favor of the Class Representatives or Defendant. Both sides agreed to a settlement instead of going to trial. That way, they avoid the risk and cost of a trial. The Class Representatives and their attorneys think the Settlement is best for all Settlement Class Members, who can get compensation.

The Court has certified a class action for settlement purposes only. You are in the Settlement Class if you were called by Cavalry on a cell phone while it was attempting to collect using the Aspect Ensemble Pro or the Avaya Proactive Contact 5.0 dialing systems between February 8, 2009 and January 26, 2016.

Excluded from the Class are individuals who are not or were not regular users or subscribers of cell phones associated with 1,035,232 Open and Closed Accounts, are officers or directors of Cavalry or of any Cavalry affiliate, any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States or any State, their spouses, and persons within the third degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouses of such persons, and all persons who validly excluded themselves or opted out of the Settlement Class.

If you have questions about whether you are a Class Member, or are still not sure whether you are included, you can call 1-833-900-1645 for more information.

Cavalry has agreed to establish a Debt Relief Fund of up to $18,000,000, and to establish a Cash Fund of $6,150,000. The deadline to submit a claim was July 29, 2020, and has now passed.

If your Account had an outstanding balance with Cavalry as of January 2, 2020, you have an Open Account with Cavalry and you could have claimed a pro rata share of debt relief of up to $599 or claimed a pro rata share from the Cash Fund. You could have claimed debt relief or cash but not both.

If your Account did not have an outstanding balance with Cavalry as of January 2, 2020, you have a Closed Account with Cavalry and you could have claimed a pro rata share from the Cash Fund but not debt relief.

The Cash Fund will also be used to pay Class Counsel’s attorneys’ fees and costs, pay incentive awards to the Class Representatives, and pay costs and expenses of settlement administration.

Any remaining money from uncashed checks may be redistributed in one further distribution to valid claimants. However, if a further distribution would be administratively infeasible (e.g., less than $1 per qualifying claimant), any remaining money will instead be donated to a not-for-profit public interest organization.  If approved by the Court, any remaining money will be donated to The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.

We mailed the Settlement checks to all those claimants who are both eligible and elected to receive a pro rata share from the Cash Fund on January 15, 2021.

If you received a postcard, the Identification Number on the front of the postcard tells you if your account was Open or Closed as of January 2, 2020.  The deadline to submit a claim was July 29, 2020, and has now passed.

If you have an Open Account, you could have claimed a pro rata share of debt relief of up to $599 or claimed a pro rata share from the Cash Fund. You could have claimed debt relief or cash but not both.

If you chose debt relief, the amount of debt relief will depend on the total number of valid and timely claims filed by all Settlement Class Members who requested debt relief.

There are 674,760 Open Accounts as of January 2, 2020.  If 5% of Settlement Class Members with Open Accounts submitted valid claims for debt relief, each will receive a debt relief award of $533.  If 10% of Settlement Class Members with Open Accounts submitted valid claims for debt relief, each will receive a debt relief award of $266.

If you chose cash, the amount of your cash award will depend on the total number of valid and timely claims filed by all Settlement Class Members who requested a cash award.

There are 1,035,232 Settlement Class Members, of which 674,760 have Open Accounts and 360,472 have Closed Accounts as of January 2, 2020.  All 1,035,232 Settlement Class Members were eligible to submit valid claims for cash.  If 5% of Settlement Class Members submitted valid claims for cash, each will receive a cash award of $63 after subtracting for administrative costs, incentive awards, fees, and litigation costs.  If 10% of Settlement Class Members submitted valid claims for cash, each will receive a cash award of $31 after subtracting for administrative costs, incentive awards, fees, and litigation costs.

Your Claim Form had to be postmarked or submitted online on or before July 29, 2020. 

The Court will hold a hearing on September 28, 2020, to decide whether to approve the Settlement. If the Settlement is approved, appeals may still follow. Whether the appeals, if any, can be resolved is uncertain, and resolving them can take time, perhaps more than a year. Please be patient.

If you received a postcard, the Identification Number on the front of the postcard tells you if your account is Open or Closed.

If you have a Closed Account, you could have claimed a pro rata share from the Cash Fund. You are not eligible for debt relief.

The amount of your cash award will depend on the total number of valid and timely claims filed by all Settlement Class Members who requested a cash award.

There are 1,035,232 Settlement Class Members, of which 674,760 have Open Accounts and 360,472 have Closed Accounts as of January 2, 2020.  All 1,035,232 Settlement Class Members were eligible to submit valid claims for cash.  If 5% of Settlement Class Members submitted valid claims for cash, each will receive a cash award of $63 after subtracting for administrative costs, incentive awards, fees, and litigation costs.  If 10% of Settlement Class Members submitted valid claims for cash, each will receive a cash award of $31 after subtracting for administrative costs, incentive awards, fees, and litigation costs.

Your Claim Form had to be postmarked or submitted online on or before July 29, 2020.

The Court will hold a hearing on September 28, 2020, to decide whether to approve the Settlement. If the Settlement is approved, appeals may still follow. Whether the appeals, if any, can be resolved is uncertain, and resolving them can take time, perhaps more than a year. Please be patient.

If you are a Settlement Class Member, unless you excluded yourself, you will be bound by the release of claims in the Settlement. This means that, if the Settlement is approved, you can’t sue, continue to sue, or be part of any other lawsuit against Cavalry regarding violations arising out of calls Cavalry made to you using the Aspect Ensemble Pro or the Avaya Proactive Contact 5.0 dialing systems between February 8, 2009 and January 26, 2016, and all of the decisions and judgments by the Court will bind you.

For non-emergency calls or text messages to a cell phone number made using an automatic telephone dialing system without the prior express consent of the called party, the TCPA provides for damages of $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 for willful violations, plus an injunction limiting future conduct. However, Cavalry has denied that it is responsible for the Calls, and in any future lawsuit it will have a full range of potential defenses, including that it is not responsible for the calls, that it did not use an automatic telephone dialing system and/or that it had prior express consent to make the calls. This Settlement permits Settlement Class Members the opportunity to obtain a smaller amount of money, risk-free.

If you filed a Claim Form for benefits or did nothing at all, you will be unable to file your own lawsuit regarding the claims described in this Notice, and you will release Cavalry from any liability for the Released Claims defined below and in the Settlement.

Remaining in the Settlement Class means that you, as well as anyone claiming through you such as heirs, administrators, successors, and assigns, relinquish and discharge each and all of the Released Parties from each of the Released Claims (as defined below).

Claims Released: Upon Final Approval, each member of the Settlement Class shall, by operation of the Judgment, be deemed to have fully, conclusively, irrevocably, forever, and finally released, relinquished, and discharged the Released Persons in all capacities, including individual and trustee capacities, from any and all claims, causes of action, suits, obligations, debts, demands, agreements, promises, liabilities, damages, losses, controversies, costs, expenses and attorneys’ fees of any nature whatsoever, whether based on any federal law, state law, common law, territorial law, foreign law, contract, rule, regulation, any regulatory promulgation (including, but not limited to, any opinion or declaratory ruling), common law or equity, whether known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, asserted or unasserted, foreseen or unforeseen, actual or contingent, liquidated or unliquidated, punitive or compensatory, as of the date of Final Approval, that relate to or arise out of Cavalry’s alleged use of the Aspect Ensemble Pro system or the Avaya Proactive Contact 5.0 system during the Settlement Class Period to make, place, dial or initiate calls, any and all claims for violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 and the regulations promulgated thereunder or related thereto, and any and all claims for violation of any laws of any state that regulate, govern, prohibit or restrict the making, placing, dialing or initiating of calls using an automatic telephone dialing system, an artificial or prerecorded voice, or any automated process or technology.

The Settlement Agreement provides more detail regarding the release and describes the Released Claims with specific descriptions in necessary, accurate legal terminology, so read it carefully. You can talk to the law firms representing the Class listed in FAQ No. 10 for free, or you can, at your own expense, talk to your own lawyer if you have any questions about the Released Parties or the Released Claims or what they mean.

The release does not apply to Settlement Class Members who timely opted-out of the Settlement.  See FAQ No. 9.

If you didn’t want a payment from this Settlement, and you wanted to keep the right to sue or continue to sue Cavalry on your own about the legal issues in this case, then you had to take steps to exclude yourself from the Settlement postmarked no later than July 29, 2020. This deadline has now passed.

If you asked to be excluded, you will not get any Settlement Relief, and you could not object to the Settlement. You will not be legally bound by anything that happens in this lawsuit. You may be able to sue (or continue to sue) Cavalry in the future. Although no other person could have excluded you from the Settlement Class, nothing prohibited you from obtaining the assistance of another, such as a lawyer or family member, in preparing or submitting any individual exclusion.

The Court appointed the following law firms to represent the Class Members:

Terrell Marshall Law Group, PLLC and Lemberg Law, LLC.

These lawyers are called Class Counsel. The names and mailing addresses for Class Counsel are listed in FAQ No. 12. Class Members will not be charged separately for these lawyers’ services. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your own expense.

Additionally, you could have entered an appearance through your own attorney if you so desire, but you did not need to do so.

Class Counsel will ask the Court to approve payment of up to $2,000,000 to compensate them for attorneys’ fees for investigating the facts, litigating the case, and negotiating the Settlement, plus actual costs of up to $100,000. Class Counsel will also request incentive awards of up to $10,000 each to the Class Representatives, as compensation for their time and effort. The Court may award less than these amounts. These payments, along with the costs of administering the Settlement, will be made out of the Cash Fund.

You could have told the Court that you do not agree with the Settlement or some part of it by submitting an objection no later than July 29, 2020. This deadline has now passed.

If you are a Settlement Class Member and did not exclude yourself, you could have objected to the Settlement, or any part of the Settlement, for example if you did not think the Settlement is fair. You can state reasons why you think the Court should not approve it. The Court will consider any objections submitted.

The Court held the Fairness Hearing on October 13, 2020, at the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, 333 West Broadway, San Diego, California 92101, in Courtroom 13B. Judge John A. Houston approved the Settlement.

You could have asked the Court for permission to speak at the Fairness Hearing. To do so, you had to file a notice with the Court no later than July 29, 2020 saying that you intend to appear at the Fairness Hearing in Horton v. Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC, Case No. 13CV0307 JAH WVG (S.D. Cal.) and Krejci v. Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC, 16cv00211 JAH WVG (S.D. Cal.). You may not be permitted to speak at the hearing if you excluded yourself from the Settlement or did not file a timely notice of intent to appear.

If you did nothing, and are a Settlement Class Member, you will not receive a payment after the Court approves the Settlement and any appeals are resolved. In order to receive a payment, you had to submit a claim form. Unless you excluded yourself, you won’t be able to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Cavalry regarding the legal issues in this case.

The Notice summarizes the proposed Settlement as embodied in the Settlement Agreement. More details are in the Settlement Agreement. You can get a copy of the Settlement Agreement by calling the Settlement Administrator toll-free at 1-833-900-1645 or by writing to:

CPS TCPA Settlement
c/o JND Legal Administration
PO Box 91237
Seattle, WA 98111

You may also download a copy of the Settlement Agreement, a claim form, and other important documents on the Important Documents tab of this website.

1. Navigate to https://www.MyPrepaidCenter.com.

2. Once on the https://www.MyPrepaidCenter.com site, click “Enter Code” and enter the bolded redemption code provided in your letter.

If you use a search engine to search for the redemption site online, please be aware that there are fraudulent websites. We recommend typing the website address into your browser or using the link above to avoid fraudulent sites.