The Cook County Board has approved a $55.3 million settlement in a class-action civil lawsuit alleging that thousands of inmates at the county jail were improperly strip searched.

The settlement resulted from the county losing several federal court rulings stemming back to 2006. The courts had already determined the strip search procedures improper and the county has changed them.

The attorneys representing the former jail inmates will be paid $15 million, reports indicate, while the remainder of the funds will be divided among as many as 400,000 inmates jailed between January 30, 2004 and March 19, 2009. The County's insurance will cover $10 million of the settlement, and taxpayers the rest.