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

Dates and Deadlines