Florida renters who paid eviction attorney fees to Progress Residential are set to receive 75 percent of those fees back under a class action settlement, and there is no claim form to file. The deal resolves Johnsten v. Progress Residential, case 2024-CA-001692 in the Circuit Court of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit in Seminole County, Florida.
Three groups, three outcomes
The settlement splits affected renters into three classes, according to the settlement summary. The paid class has 476 members and gets back 75 percent of the eviction attorneys’ fees it paid. A balance class of 773 members gets 30 percent. A third group, the attempted-collection class of 1,754 members, gets no cash but is released from claims Progress has or could have brought related to the lawsuit.
The class covers charges from August 27, 2020 through August 26, 2024. Because members are identified from Progress Residential’s own records, the settlement summary says no claim form is needed.
So was a renter charged these fees, and will the refund find them? A Florida tenant who paid eviction attorney fees to Progress Residential between August 27, 2020 and August 26, 2024 is in the paid class, and the 75 percent share is calculated from the landlord’s records, not from anything the renter files. The settlement page lists a separate balance class that receives 30 percent, and an attempted-collection class that receives no cash. What the renter has to do is make sure the notice and the check can reach a current address.
With 75 percent of the fees coming back automatically, the one thing a former Progress Residential tenant controls is the dates. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice, built for exactly this kind of notice with an opt-out date and a hearing date.
Learn the four dates on a Progress Residential notice with the Recovery System →
The dates that matter
Anyone who wants out of the settlement, or wants to object to it, has until November 20, 2026. The court has set a final fairness hearing for January 11, 2027, at 9:30 a.m. before Judge Jessica J. Recksiedler. Payments follow the settlement’s effective date, which comes after that hearing.
Once the settlement is effective, the settlement page says checks are mailed within 30 days to the address on the notice. Recipients then have 90 days to cash them. Uncashed money goes to the NeighborWorks Florida Collaborative, according to the same page.
Who runs the payments
The settlement administrator is American Legal Claim Services LLC. The administrator’s name and contact details appear on the notice, and a renter who moved after the eviction should send the current address there instead of waiting to see if the check turns up at an old one.
The settlement page says eligible members are paid automatically from Progress’s records. That makes the company’s ledger the starting point for every check: the amount depends on the attorney fees recorded as paid during the four-year class period, and the paid class receives 75 percent of that figure. A renter who thinks the ledger is wrong has the chance to object by November 20, 2026, or to ask the administrator named on the notice.
The effective date is not set yet. It follows the January 11 hearing, and the settlement page does not list a payment date before then, so the first dollars would arrive after that hearing and not before.
Checking the ledger and tracking an automatic refund
The free source is the settlement page and the notice itself. Start by finding any paperwork from the eviction: the lease, the eviction notice, the final ledger or payment statement, and bank records that show the attorney fees were paid. Those records let a former tenant compare their own number with the amount the administrator says it will pay.
Mark four dates on a calendar: November 20, 2026 for opting out or objecting, January 11, 2027 for the fairness hearing, the effective date once it is announced, and the 30 days after that for mailing. Then keep the 90-day window to cash the check in view, because the settlement page says money not cashed goes to the NeighborWorks Florida Collaborative.
The figures here come from the settlement page: 476 members in the paid class, 773 in the balance class, 1,754 in the attempted-collection class, and a 75 percent refund for those who paid.
A 75 percent refund that depends on four dates
The Progress Residential refund arrives without a claim, but the opt-out date of November 20, the January 11 hearing and the 90 days to cash a check still decide whether the money lands. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a claim log and payment tracker, for keeping those dates and any payment in one place.
Log the Progress Residential refund in the Recovery System’s payment tracker →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
