Ohio veterans who are rated 100% disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs and paid fees on a specialty military license plate have until Dec. 2 to file for a refund under a class settlement with the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The deal would return every dollar of registration taxes and fees that should have been waived, with no cap. A judge will hold a final approval hearing on July 21, 2027.
Who is covered and what is refunded
The case is Kacin v. Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, No. 2023-00204JD, in the Court of Claims of Ohio. According to the settlement notice as published by OpenClassActions, the class is veterans rated 100% service-connected disabled who paid registration taxes or fees to an Ohio deputy registrar on or after Oct. 17, 2019, for a specialty military plate whose charges should have been waived. A veteran who already got a BMV refund for that purchase is not covered.
Refunds are full, including sales tax, for each qualifying plate purchase. Personalization and transfer fees are left out. The BMV works out the amounts from its own records, and the notice lists no cap and no pro rata cut. The court estimated up to 23,376 people are in the class.
The question for a veteran who bought a plate
Anyone who thinks the settlement applies has two things to do before the deadline. The first is to find the Class Member ID printed on the notice, which arrives by mail and email. The second is to get a VA letter that shows the 100% rating and the date it took effect…