Court preliminarily approves $5.75M LocalMed settlement involving 1.08M people

A federal judge in Chicago preliminarily approved a $5.75 million settlement over LocalMed, a dental scheduling tool, with notice to a class BRD Media says includes 1,079,483 people. The case centers on allegations that tracking tools on the booking portal sent patient-entered information to Google without consent; the settlement is not final until a March 2027 hearing.

Why it matters: - The settlement could resolve privacy claims tied to a booking tool used on dental practice websites and affect more than 1 million people. - The case highlights risk for dental practices that use third-party scheduling, tracking and marketing tools on their websites. - If approved, the deal would release claims against Dental Intelligence and the dental offices that deployed the portal, unless class members opt out.

What happened: - A federal court preliminarily approved a $5,750,000 settlement on Sept. 24, 2026 in the Northern District of Illinois. - Notice to the settlement class is set to begin Oct. 27, 2026. - Dental Intelligence documented 1,079,483 settlement class members. - The case involves LocalMed, a scheduler dental offices installed on their own websites. - The settlement was reviewed from two filings in Case No. 1:25-cv-02464: the settlement agreement filed Sept. 23, 2026, and the preliminary approval order signed by Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins on Sept. 24, 2026.

The details: - The agreement says LocalMed let patients schedule, modify and cancel appointments on practice websites. - Plaintiffs allege Google tracking and analytics tools on the portal collected what patients typed while booking and sent that information to Google without consent. - The class covers people who used the portal between March 2022 and June 2025 and whose private dental information was allegedly disclosed or transmitted to a third party. - The agreement says the class includes only people who may have used specific configurations of the portal. - The March 7, 2025 complaint named Dental Intelligence and two client dental offices. - If the court grants final approval, the settlement would release every entity that contracted with Dental Intelligence to deploy the portal, including the offices that installed it, for class members who do not opt out. - Dental Intelligence states in the agreement that it removed the Google tracking technology and then decommissioned the portal. - Class counsel is expected to verify that removal and decommissioning with documentation before seeking final approval. - The $5,750,000 fund is non-reversionary. - Valid claimants will receive pro rata payments after notice costs, service awards and attorneys' fees are paid. - The order sets opt-outs and objections due Dec. 28, 2026, claims due Jan. 25, 2027, and the final approval hearing for March 25, 2027. - The settlement is not final until the court approves it after that hearing.

Between the lines: - The filings treat the booking widget as software from a third-party vendor running inside a practice's own website, even though it appears to patients like part of the practice site. - That setup matters because website scripts can move patient-entered data outside the practice environment before a booking is finished. - The court has not found wrongdoing, and the allegations remain unproven. - Dental Intelligence denies liability in the settlement agreement. - BRD Media said the same privacy question can apply to pixels, chat widgets, call tracking and dental SEO tools that add scripts to a page.

What's next: - Class members have until Dec. 28, 2026 to opt out or object. - Claims are due Jan. 25, 2027. - The court will hold a final approval hearing on March 25, 2027. - If the judge approves the deal, the settlement will become binding on non-opt-out class members.

The bottom line: - The LocalMed case puts a large dollar figure on alleged website tracking practices in dental scheduling and could set expectations for how dental offices handle third-party scripts on their sites.