FirstMerit Bank Overdraft Fees Class Action Settlement

Parties have reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit concerning overdraft fees charged by FirstMerit Bank.

Current and former customers of FirstMerit Bank may be entitled to cash payments or debt forgiveness if between March 16, 2005 and Aug. 13, 2010 they were assessed overdraft fees that resulted from FirstMerit Bank’s alleged practice of posting debit card transactions in order of highest dollar amount to lowest.

Plaintiffs Emily Jacobs and James Glavic claim FirstMerit Bank unlawfully manipulated the order in which debit card transactions posted to customers’ accounts in a way that increased the number of transactions that qualified for overdraft fees.

The plaintiffs also accuse FirstMerit Bank of commingling debit card transactions with checks and other types of non-check debits. FirstMerit Bank did not properly notify its customers about this commingling nor about its reordering of transactions, the plaintiffs claim.

As a result of these two practices, FirstMerit Bank ended up charging its customers far more overdraft fees than it should have, according to the plaintiffs.

FirstMerit Bank maintains that there is nothing wrong with the way it posts transactions to accounts. The bank contends it has complied with all applicable laws and regulations at all relevant times.

The current settlement agreement does not require any admission of liability from FirstMerit Bank, and the court has made no determination regarding liability.

Class Members who want to opt out or object to the settlement must do so no later than May 5, 2017.

Who’s Eligible

The plaintiff Class includes persons who held a FirstMerit account that provided access to funds via debit card and who between March 16, 2005 and Aug. 13, 2010 incurred overdraft fees as a result of FirstMerit Bank’s posting of debit card transactions in the order of highest to lowest dollar amount.

These fees would not have been incurred had FirstMerit Bank posted transactions chronologically as part of the following order:

1. Credits
2. Fees and other non-customer-initiated debits, in highest to lowest order
3. ACH transactions, in lowest to highest order
4. Checks, in lowest to highest order
5. Debit card transactions for which the time of day of authorization is known, in chronological order
6. Debit card transactions for which the time of day of authorization is not known, in lowest to highest order

Potential Award

Varies.

Payments to Class Members who file a valid claim will be made on a pro rata basis out of the $8,975,000 cash payment fund after that fund has been used to cover attorneys’ fees, costs, expenses, and incentive awards to the Class representatives.

In addition to cash awards, Class Members may be entitled to debt forgiveness. The settlement establishes a $7 million fund that will be used to reduce or eliminate existing negative balances on accounts that were closed with an outstanding negative balance and that were not assigned, transferred or sold to any third party.

Eligible Class Members do not need to file a claim to receive debt forgiveness. It will be automatically applied to qualifying accounts of Class Members who do not opt out of the settlement.

Class Members whose accounts with outstanding negative balances have been assigned, transferred or sold to third parties are not eligible for debt forgiveness.

Proof of Purchase

N/A.

Class Members must submit a Claim Form to receive a cash payment. Claim Forms may be submitted by mail, email, or online via the settlement website.

Claim Form

CLICK HERE TO FILE A CLAIM »

Claim Form Deadline

6/19/2017

Case Name

Jacobs, et al. v. Huntington Bancshares Inc. and Huntington National Bank, Case No. 11CV000090, in the Court of Common Pleas for Lake County, Ohio

Final Hearing

6/2/2017

UPDATE: On June 2, 2017, the court granted the FirstMerit Bank overdraft settlement final approval.  Let Top Class Actions know when you receive a check in the comments section below or on our  Facebook page.

Settlement Website

www.FirstMeritOverdraftSettlement.com

Claims Administrator

FirstMerit Overdraft Settlement
c/o Epiq Systems Inc.
P.O. Box 6389
Portland, OR 97228-6389
info@FirstMeritOverdraftSettlement.com
Phone: 1-844-616-6615
Fax: 1-844-603-5052

Class Counsel

Patrick J. Perotti
Nicole T. Fiorelli
DWORKIN & BERNSTEIN CO. LPA

Stuart E. Scott
SPANGENBERG SHIBLEY & LIBER

Hassan A. Zavareei
Andrea Gold
TYCKO & ZAVAREEI LLP

Defense Counsel

David F. Adler
JONES DAY