The Telmate data breach settlement pays a pro rata cash share to everyone who files a valid claim, plus up to $5,000 for documented losses. The fund is $4,225,000, and a claim form is the only way to receive anything. Claims close December 21, 2026.
Telmate, LLC does business as ViaPath Technologies and provides communication services to incarcerated people and their connections, through platforms including GettingOut and VisitNow. Those services cover calls, video visits and money transfers between people in custody and their families, which is what put so much personal and financial information in one company’s hands.
Unauthorized third parties accessed Telmate’s network between August 11 and August 13, 2020. The lawsuit alleges the company failed to protect the information it held and failed to notify affected people promptly. Telmate denies all allegations and any wrongdoing, and the court has not yet approved the settlement.
What If You Never Got a Notice?
Notice went to the contact details Telmate had on file, from a breach that happened in 2020. Six years is a long time for an address or an email to stay current, and it is an especially long time for a population that moves between facilities, moves after release, or was using a relative’s details when the account was set up.
The settlement administrator is Kroll, and its phone line is 833-453-3721. Anyone unsure whether they are in the class should start with that call rather than assume they are out.
The claim form and the full court-approved notice are both posted on the settlement website’s documents page, so the paperwork is available whether or not a letter ever arrived. What Kroll holds on file is the part only Kroll can tell you.
How Much Can You Get?
Pro rata cash payment. Every valid claimant shares what is left of the fund. No per-person figure has been announced, because the amount depends on how many valid claims arrive by December 21 and what survives the deductions below.
Documented out-of-pocket losses, up to $5,000 per person. This requires proof, such as records of fraud, unauthorized charges or costs incurred cleaning up identity theft.
Class counsel is requesting up to $1,408,333.33 in attorneys’ fees, which is exactly one third of the settlement, along with up to $35,000 in costs and a $5,000 service award for the named plaintiff. Administration costs come out of the fund as well, before anything is divided among claimants.
Who Is Eligible for the Telmate Data Breach Settlement?
All individuals in the United States whose personal information was impacted in the August 2020 incident.
That covers the person inside the facility and the relative who set up the account and paid for the calls. There is no purchase requirement and no need to show that anything went wrong afterward.
How Do You File a Claim?
Claims go through the official settlement website, TelmateDataBreachSettlement.com, either online or by downloading the paper claim form from the documents page and mailing it. Mailed forms must be postmarked by December 21, 2026.
Questions about the form, or about whether Kroll has you on file, go to 833-453-3721.
Key Deadlines
December 21, 2026 is the claim deadline, the opt-out deadline and the objection deadline. Online claims must be submitted by that date, and mailed forms must be postmarked by it.
Most settlements set an earlier opt-out date, which gives people a second reminder that the case exists before claims close. Here there is one date and no second prompt.
Objecting does not cost you the money. The settlement website states plainly that a class member who objects can still submit a claim form for benefits. Opting out is the choice that forfeits payment, and it is the only way to keep the right to sue Telmate over these claims.
Doing nothing has no deadline and no upside. You receive nothing and you still give up the right to sue.
When Will Payments Be Made?
The final approval hearing is scheduled for February 12, 2027, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The court will decide there whether the settlement is fair and whether to approve the requested fees and service award.
Payments follow final approval and the resolution of any appeals. No payment date has been announced, and an objector’s appeal could extend the timeline well past the hearing.
What Should Class Members Do?
Gather your documentation before you file if you plan to claim out-of-pocket losses. Assembling it after starting the form is how deadlines get missed.
Check the long form notice on the settlement website for what categories of your information were involved. The published materials describe the exposure as personal information without itemizing it, and the category matters, because some kinds can be reissued after a breach and some cannot.
Ignore anyone who calls offering to process your settlement payment for a fee. Kroll does not charge claimants, and no legitimate administrator asks for money to release funds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I file if the person who used the service is still incarcerated?
Each person files for their own exposure, so an incarcerated user and a relative who paid on their behalf would submit separate claims. Kroll’s phone line is the place to sort out who is on file and under which name, which matters when an account was opened under one person’s details for another person’s use.
Does filing a claim affect anyone’s custody status or record?
No. This is a civil settlement about data security, administered by a private company under court supervision. It concerns how information was stored and has no connection to any criminal matter.
Why is a Virginia court handling a nationwide case?
The case was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia and the settlement must be approved there. That has no bearing on eligibility, which covers individuals throughout the United States.
What happens if barely anyone files?
Individual payments go up. Participation rates in breach settlements are routinely low, and a class notified by mail six years after the incident faces an obvious reach problem, so the people who do file may end up with more than the fund size suggests.
Is there a separate Spanish-language process?
The same process applies, with a Spanish notice available on the settlement website’s documents page and Spanish assistance at the same toll-free number.
About This Page
RecallRefunds.com is a consumer information site. We are not a claims administrator, a law firm, a government agency, or Telmate. This page summarizes a proposed class action settlement that a court has not yet approved. It is general information, not legal advice.