Received Notice From Verizon About Subpoena To Identify For Torrent Usage.

Location: MD, USA

Good afternoon.

I just received a notice from Verizon that they are being subpoenaed to provide the identity associated with an IP address associated with my account for copyright issues. The list of files is about 25 hash numbers over 3 years. Some internet searching shows that the plaintiff holding company files thousands of these cases a year. I verified that the case number listed is real and could see many other cases filed by the same company. I've read on reddit where people have used lawyers to settle and people that claim that the company will never follow through. I can't see if the company is just dismissing the cases after threatening everyone and not getting anything, if they are settling every case, or if they are pursuing any/all of them. I looked into lawyers specializing in this and it seems that there may be good and bad options available. It's hard to call it fear mongering when the stakes could be very high. There also seems to be some finger pointing at some firms being settlement factory firms. Some of the people that have claimed that it went nowhere seemed to have very little. I have a decent job, house with a mortgage, a spouse that doesn't work due to health issues, a child, and full custody of two of my deceased family member's children.(3 teens in the house) The settlement amounts that I'm seeing are scary for my family, but I hardly feel like it is a real hardship case. I am feeling overwhelmed with guilt for what this might put my family through.

I was trying to see the outcome of similar cases filed last year and the year before and could not figure out where to see that. Any tips on how to search for that info? Would it even say something that might indicate it was settled and not dismissed?

Anything else that I should consider doing or not doing?

Thank you.