U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough has appointed two “special masters”—third parties granted significant authority over witnesses, evidence and testimony—to audit JND Legal Administration’s billing in the Burnett and Gibson commission lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), capping months of scrutiny over the settlement administrator’s finances.
The July 27 order names Chris T. Hellums to oversee the audit process and negotiate a new, cost-capped contract for JND’s future settlement administration work, and Randall L. Sansom, a certified public accountant, to audit JND’s time, billing and expense records “from the inception of this matter to date.” Both Hellums and Sansom have served in similar roles in mass tort and antitrust matters, according to Bough.
Late last year, JND was accused in a consolidated federal lawsuit of participating in a kickback scheme with banks in order to maintain dominance of the lucrative settlement administration market. The company denied those allegations.
JND was contracted back in 2023 in the wake of the initial brokerage settlements to administer practical and logistical elements, including informing class members through millions of postcards and digital outreach.
JND did not respond to a request for comment. Bough’s initial order disallowed the company from receiving any more payments while he mulled appointing the special master, but it was not immediately clear if that provision is still in effect after the appointment was made.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs—the lawyers who successfully led seller plaintiffs to a $1.8 billion verdict against NAR, HomeServices and Keller Williams—informed Bough that they did not have a “signed document” for their agreement with JND.
“Instead, the agreement that sets forth JND’s proposal, engagement, payment rates, terms and conditions, and scope of responsibilities in this case was produced to the Court…via hand delivery on or around March 19, 2025,” they wrote.
How we got here
Bough first flagged the potential of an audit in an April 16 show-cause order, and the back-and-forth stretched through the summer. On May 22, he ordered the parties to explain by June 18 why he shouldn’t appoint a special master to audit JND’s past and future bills—and barred any further payments to JND until he decided. If a master were appointed, Bough wrote, JND would have to turn over internal timesheets, hourly billing records, all outside vendor billing and any revenue JND received from vendors, whether tied to this case or not.
In its June 17 response, JND called an audit “potentially costly for the class/parties and a lengthy, burdensome process for all involved.” They submitted a declaration from CEO Jennifer Keough, who said she hoped it would ease the court’s concerns.
Among other things, JND denied any sort of conflict of interest, and said it had always followed directions of class counsel. Dozens of other companies subsequently settled copycat lawsuits, with JND noting that its initial scope of work expanded massively from the initial contract.
Plaintiffs lawyers did not oppose the appointment of the special masters.
But the filing said JND would cooperate if the court moved forward anyway—with a catch; it wanted its pricing, rates and margins protected under the case’s existing protective order, arguing that disclosure could let competitors underbid it on future contracts.
On June 25, Bough ordered JND’s contracts, invoices and bank statements unsealed and filed publicly by July 31, rejecting JND’s trade-secret argument as unsupported.
That order disclosed some of the numbers and details that the special masters will review: JND billed the class $34,959,791.85 across 55 invoices between January 2024 and October 2025, with additional invoices ranging from roughly $4,000 to $437,000 filed through this past April. Bough noted that other settlement administrators’ rates in unrelated Missouri cases are already public.
Under the July 27 order, JND has 14 days to hand the special masters its original bid proposal or contract; a full accounting of hours and dollars billed since the case began, including individual timesheets; every timekeeper’s name, title and hourly rate; all third-party vendor invoices and documentation of any markups, rebates or revenue-sharing tied to its other clients.
The special masters will be paid $950 an hour as a case expense, with fees submitted to the court monthly.
JND’s fees are paid out of the settlement funds, meaning the money, ultimately, comes from real estate entities who settled the commission lawsuits.
