It now seems unlikely any money will flow into Katherine bank accounts by Christmas.

There has been a delay in the complex process of settling Katherine's class action claim over PFAS contamination.

Shine Lawyers has been appointed by the Federal Court to sort out the Katherine claim, and the distribution of the $92.5 million which the Defence Department agreed to pay to as many as 2500 residents.

Many residents had hoped the settlement would arrive by Christmas but that is looking increasingly unlikely today, particularly if people choose to challenge their payouts.

The next stage of the process is the sending of a distribution statement to each of those who stayed opted in to the action.

There has been a lot of work going on in the background as checks have been done on the details of each resident who stayed in the action, their details were held by the litigation funder Omni Bridgeway.

Katherine residents were also able to register for the successful PFAS class action well after the original closing date.

Justice Michael Lee said in June claims had even been received at the start of a two-day hearing into the proposed settlement deal.

Originally, Shine Lawyers had hoped residents would have received their settlement amount already, it was originally planned for the start of September.

Once residents receive notice of the settlement amount soon, they will likely have a month or more to apply to have that amount reviewed.

If a large number of people apply for a review, which is their right especially for a one-off compensation payment, then the final distribution would be delayed.

Originally it was thought the review process could take three months.

Without such a delay the payments might be possible in late November, but given the large number of people involved it is expected there will be a number asking for a review.

The compensation payment from Defence is from the class action claim based on property devaluation as a result of the PFAS still leaking from the Tindal RAAF Base.

Earlier estimates of payments vary widely depending on location, size of the property and whether they have a bore or not and have been the source of a lot of discussion in town.

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