Indiana

IMI's settlement must be approved by a federal judge before it's official. It would boost the amount of settlement money paid by the companies in the case to $53 million.

"This is an historic settlement. We could not be more thrilled," Irwin Levin, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said Tuesday.

The settlement funds, minus legal fees and other costs, will be paid to a court-approved class of about 5,000 individuals and companies that bought $700 million of ready-mixed concrete from the seven companies during the four years of the conspiracy, 2000 to 2004. Of the $24 million in settlements, attorney fees and other costs have eaten up $8 million. The fees and costs for the IMI settlement are not known.

Levin, an attorney for the Indianapolis firm Cohen & Malad, said the settlements so far, counting IMI, amount to "one of the highest percentage recoveries in civil antitrust cases in history."

The settlement money will cover more than 90 percent of the estimated overcharges from the price-fixing, Levin said. The first checks to plaintiffs will be mailed late this year or early next year and amount to a kind of eagerly awaited economic stimulus check.

"A lot of contractors are going through difficult times," Levin said. "We need to get this (money) out to them as quickly as possible."