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A recent night at the theater reverberated with a chorus of “where’s my check” for Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin.

Conlin brought an antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. in 2001 and reached an out-of-court $179.9 million settlement last year with a multi-level payback plan for consumers, businesses and governments, plus a multimillion-dollar bonus for Iowa schools.

Individuals qualified for what amounted to a no-questions-asked refund of up to $100 by answering a few questions on an online form.

“I cannot leave my house without someone asking me where their check is,” Conlin said.

She recapped a recent weekend this way: “Saturday night we went to ‘Ring of Fire’ at the Civic Center and several people inquired. We had dinner right before at Azalea’s and a few people came to the table to ask. Sunday afternoon I went to the public library for a lecture and a few people asked. People are generally very nice about it. They say, ‘It was so easy I am afraid I did it wrong.'”

Checks have been mailed for about half of the 118,821 individual claims filed by Iowa consumers, said Jamie Buelt, a partner in en Q strategies who acts as a Microsoft spokeswoman in Des Moines. All consumer reimbursements should be out by the end of May.

In addition to the $100 quick claim, individuals could mail a claim for up to $200; claims for additional amounts required proof of purchase. In all cases, consumers had to attest to the honesty of their claim.

It appears that few, if any, Iowa consumers tried to cheat the software behemoth. Average claims paid to date have been well below $100, although Buelt was reluctant to give an exact figure, saying those numbers were very “fluid.”

The 2,002 businesses and 223 state and local governments – all volume users who buy their Microsoft products in bulk – that filed claims will wait several months for their payouts, primarily because their records are double-checked against Microsoft records. Any discrepancies must be resolved before claims are paid in the form of vouchers.

Buelt said that 1,017 Iowa businesses set a record of sorts among the 19 states and District of Columbia where Microsoft faced antitrust suits by formally opting out of the settlement. By comparison, 84 businesses opted out of the Microsoft settlement in California.

“That lawsuit was completely irrelevant,” said Stephen Fry, co-founder of Spindustry Systems Inc., which is a Microsoft-certified training center in Des Moines.

Pella Corp. notified Microsoft that it would not take part in the settlement.

“Like virtually every business today, we are a Microsoft user, and if we have any problem, we prefer to deal directly with them,” said Kathy Krafka Harkema, a Pella spokeswoman.

On the other hand, Debora Hobbs, city of Des Moines enterprise application development manager, said the settlement will help the city do things, such as pay for training or application support, that it might not otherwise be able to afford.

Whether in cash or vouchers, Microsoft agreed to pay claims of $16 for each copy of a Windows operating system, $29 for each copy of Microsoft Office, $10 for Microsoft Word and $25 for Microsoft Excel.

The city filed claims for 1,365 copies of the Windows operating system, 1,957 copies of Office, three copies of Word and three copies of Excel. If the claims are approved, the city stands to receive a voucher worth $78,698 that can be used to purchase computers, software, training or support.

While the settlement allows the purchase of computers and software from any manufacturer, Hobbs would like to tap back into Microsoft products and possibly its elite corps of software developers, programmers and troubleshooters who ride to the rescue under the banner of the company’s Premier Support squad.

When everything is said and done, Iowa school kids will emerge the big winners. In all other state settlements, Microsoft has negotiated language to help schools bridge their own digital divides. That was a notion supported in Iowa by the company and Conlin.

As result, schools will receive one-half of all unclaimed funds, plus a portion of business and government reimbursements that go unclaimed.

Conlin said the figure could run between $40 million and $50 million.

Elaine Watkins-Miller, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Education, said there are no plans yet for specific uses for the money.

“We do know that the funds will be used for innovative practices that use technology to improve teaching practices,” Watkins-Miller said. Emphasis will be placed on getting the money into schools with a large number of students living in poverty, she said.