College entrance exam takers finalize $16M settlement

A federal judge signed off Monday on a $16 million settlement for students who said the company that administers the ACT college entrance exam sold universities personal information, including the fact that they had disabilities that required testing accommodations.

U.S. District Judge George H. Wu of the Central District of California also awarded class counsel fees of nearly $4 million, 24.5% of the total settlement, along with $78,634 in litigation expenses. Class counsel put close to 4,000 hours of work into the case, with a lodestar value of about $2.6 million to negotiate the deal, the judge wrote.

The students and ACT Inc. reached a preliminary deal last fall after two years of litigation and mediation sessions with retired judge Louis Meisinger.

Attorneys representing the students are: Jesse M. Creed, Rahul Ravipudi and Whitney T. Smith of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP; Jennifer D. Bennett of Public Justice PC and Marci L. Miller of Potomac Law Group.

ACT is represented by G. David Rubin of Litchfield Cavo LLP and Ronald D. Balfour of SmithAmundsen LLC.

The students filed suit in 2018, challenging ACT policies' compliance with federal and state disability discrimination laws. The students said ACT indicated to universities that they took the test with accommodations. The students also accused ACT of allowing universities to target or exclude students based on their disabilities through a data search. Bloom et al. v. ACT, Inc. et al., 2:18-cv-06749 (C.D. Cal., filed Aug. 6, 2018).

-- Gina Kim