Earn Company - Fees Class Action Settlement

Credit Repair · Pending — Automatic Payment

Current Status

There is no claim form and no claim deadline in this settlement. Payment is automatic for everyone in the class whose notice was not returned as undeliverable. The Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County authorized notice of the proposed settlement, and the Settlement Administrator has been sending it by email and mail. The deadline to object is December 26, 2026. The final approval hearing is set for January 20, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 636. No final approval order had been entered as of September 30, 2026, and no payment date has been set. Because the defendants fund the settlement in monthly installments over about two years after approval, checks are not expected soon.

What Changed Recently?

The parties signed the Class Action Settlement Agreement and Release on May 20, 2026, less than two weeks before a bench trial that had been scheduled to begin June 1, 2026, and the Court has since authorized notice to the class. The case is Christina Atterbury v. Earn Company, et al., No. 210400637, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. It was filed in April 2021, and the Court certified it as a class action by order docketed April 18, 2023. Class members may remember a first notice from that certification in 2023.

The complaint alleges that the defendants violated the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) by using customer contracts that contained provisions the statute prohibits and by charging upfront fees before any credit repair work was performed, which the Act forbids. The named defendants are Earn Company, Earn Finance Company LLC, Credit Exterminators Inc., Sprinkle of Jesus Corp., and four individuals: Casey Olivera, known online as Dana Chanel; Donnell Morris, known as Prince Donnell; Cassandra Olivera, known as April; and Nakia Rattray, known as Uncle Majic the Hip Hop Magician. The defendants deny that they violated any law, say the claims against the individual defendants in particular are legally baseless, and have not admitted liability. No court has ruled on the merits.

The reason the case is settling for $125,000 is stated plainly in the agreement. During trial preparation the defendants represented that they could not pay a judgment, the plaintiff conducted court-approved asset discovery that was consistent with insolvency, and the defendants hired bankruptcy counsel. Class Counsel concluded that a trial win would likely produce nothing collectable, and that a modest settlement paid over time was better than a judgment against a bankrupt defendant.

This is a separate matter from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's civil enforcement action, filed in November 2021 against Credit Exterminators, Earn Company, Casey Olivera and related parties over the same credit repair business and an app development business. That action was reported to have settled with restitution, legal fees and civil penalties, and a ban on the defendants selling credit repair or app services, without an admission of wrongdoing. Money paid to the state in that matter is not part of this class fund.

Who Qualifies?

The class was fixed by the Court's April 18, 2023 certification order: all persons in the United States with whom Earn Company, Earn Finance Company LLC, or Credit Exterminators Inc. entered into a Credit Repair Services Agreement beginning on February 10, 2016. Based on the defendants' customer records, there are 1,434 class members.