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new wave of settlements has emerged in the Gibson/Umpa commissions case, with four more brokerages agreeing to combined deals worth nearly $5 million. This brings the total settlement fund to over $1 billion after preliminary agreements were filed for these firms. In a separate development, a judge gave final approval to nine other settlements totaling around $110 million last week.
The new additions include:
* The Keyes Company in Florida with a settlement of $2.4 million
* John L. Scott in Washington and the Pacific Northwest with a settlement of $1 million
* LoKation, based in Florida with offices in five additional states, with a settlement of $925,000
* NextHome in California with nationwide offices, with a settlement of $600,000
The amounts do not appear to be directly tied to the firms' sales volume, which ranged from roughly $5 billion to $11 billion in 2022. Firms with sales volume exceeding $2 billion were not covered by NAR's deal and could choose to opt-in or negotiate their own deals.
Additional settlements are expected to be announced soon, with the plaintiffs asking the court to hold off on setting a Class Notice deadline to combine these upcoming settlements with the four filed yesterday. Once preliminary approval is received from U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Bough, a final hearing will be scheduled.
The settlement tally now stands at 12 brokerage settlements totaling over $318 million, with two proposed settlements worth $668 million and nearly $700 million when opt-ins are included, set for a final hearing on November 26.
