A federal judge in Maryland is scheduled to finalize a $1.65 million settlement in the case of Kohama v. GEICO. The agreement will provide checks of approximately $150 to roughly 7,200 people who previously disputed claims information associated with their insurance policies.
The court hearing for final approval is set for January 14, 2027, and class members have until October 20, 2026, to opt out of the settlement.
The lawsuit was filed in March 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Saki Kohama alleged that Government Employees Insurance Company violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The complaint stated that GEICO failed to properly reinvestigate and correct claims data it had submitted to LexisNexis’s C.L.U.E. database after customers raised objections.
The settlement covers individuals who disputed entries tied to GEICO between March 2022 and May 2026.
The C.L.U.E. database, or Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, tracks auto and home insurance claims filed by individuals or household members over a seven-year period. Unlike vehicle history reports tied to a specific VIN, this file is linked to the driver and is used by major insurers when setting or renewing rates. LexisNexis Risk Solutions manages the auto version of this data.
Individuals are legally entitled to one free copy of their report annually, similar to credit reports, though many drivers only learn of the file’s existence when their premiums increase.
The legal dispute centered on the obligations of data furnishers under federal law. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires companies that submit information to these databases to reinvestigate disputes and correct or delete inaccurate entries.