SETTLEMENT PROPOSED IN CLASS ACTION AGAINST CHOICEPOINT

Insurance agents and agencies who provided personal information regarding potential or actual insureds to ChoicePoint Services Inc. between Jan. 1 1997, and Aug. 9, 2005, may be entitled to money and benefits as a result of a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit that Illinois agents filed against that firm.

CF&H Insurance Agency Inc., et al., v. Statewide Data Services Inc., et al., a group of insurance agents claimed that ChoicePoint and its related affiliates took confidential, personal customer information from agents’ requests for C.L.U.E. underwriting reports and created prospecting lists (Lead Lists), which it sold to the agents’ competitors.
The defendants, ChoicePoint Inc., ChoicePoint Direct Inc., Statewide Data Services Inc., and ChoicePoint Services Inc., have denied any wrongdoing or liability. Members of the plaintiffs’ class include all insurance agents and agencies that made a request for C.L.U.E. Auto, C.L.U.E. Personal Property and/or National Credit File underwriting information, and/or who purchased a list of consumers and contact information used for personal lines insurance marketing purposes from Jan. 1, 1997, and Aug. 9, 2005.

The proposed class action settlement would require the defendants to provide a
cash settlement fund, not to exceed $7 million, to compensate agents whose data was wrongfully used. Other requirements would be charitable contributions of $500,000, half allocated to the University of Illinois and the other half would go to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.