UPDATE: An Appeal to the Order granting Final Approval of the Settlement was filed. On April 4, 2023, the Court of Appeals of the State of Washington affirmed the Superior Court’s Order approving the Settlement. 

Settlement Information

A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit entitled Deien v. Seattle City Light, Case No. 19-2-21999-8 SEA (the “Action”). In the Action, Plaintiff challenges Seattle City Light’s “practice of billing based on estimated electricity usage, instead of the amount of electricity actually used by each customer.” Plaintiff claims that estimated bills were often inaccurate, and that in some cases, when Seattle City Light found that its prior estimates were incorrect, it issued customers bills for hundreds, or thousands of dollars in an effort to “true-up” what it considered to be prior under billing.

Seattle City Light denies any liability or wrongdoing of any kind associated with the claims alleged in the Action, and further denies that this Action is appropriate for class treatment for any purpose other than settlement.

Who Is in the Settlement Class?

Settlement Class Members are all Seattle City Light residential customers who received one or more bills based on estimated electricity usage followed by a bill based on actual usage between August 21, 2015 and June 8, 2020 and who do not timely and properly opt out from the settlement. Excluded from the Settlement Class are Counsel for Plaintiff and the Judge presiding over this lawsuit. Settlement Class Members will be eligible to receive a payment from one of two funds, based on the type of estimated bill each Class Member received.

  • The True Up Fund will pay customers who received at least one estimated bill followed by a bill based on actual consumption.
  • The Elevated Bill Fund will pay customers who received a bill in which the average kilowatt hours per day was 400% or more than their average daily kilowatt usage for a comparable billing period.

If you received notice of the settlement directed to you, records indicate that you are a member of the Settlement Class.

Your Legal Rights and Options

Option and Deadline

Your Legal Rights

Submit A Claim Form

Deadline Passed

Stay in the Class and submit a Claim Form to receive a payment

You must submit a claim form to receive a payment. You will receive a payment reflecting your share of the settlement if you submit a claim form online or by mail no later than February 28, 2022.

EXCLUDE yourself

Deadline Passed

Get no payment from the Settlement Fund.

This is the only option that allows you to ever be part of any other lawsuit against Seattle City Light about the legal claims in this case.

OBJECT

Deadline Passed

Write to the Court explaining why you don’t like the Settlement.

If you are a member of the Settlement Class, and you do not exclude yourself from the settlement, you may object to the settlement or any part of the settlement that you think the Court should reject.

ATTEND A HEARING

April 15, 2022 at 11:00 AM

Ask to speak in Court about the fairness of the settlement.

Dates and Deadlines

Claims Deadline

February 28, 2022

Exclusion Deadline

February 28, 2022

Objection Deadline

February 28, 2022

Fairness Hearing

April 15, 2022