Cy Pres
Cy Pres
Turning Cy Pres into Social Impact
Help fund access to justice for individuals and families who need it most.
A cy pres award is the “leftover” class action settlement money that gets designated to a charitable organization. California allows cy pres funds to be distributed to nonprofit organizations that provide civil legal services to low-income Californians. Bet Tzedek is a well-established designee of cy pres funds for almost any type of class action in California state courts, and one of the most effective legal aid organizations in Southern California.
Cy pres funds enable Bet Tzedek to bring impact litigation matters and provide direct representation to low-income clients. Each fiscal year, cy pres funds account for a sizeable portion of our operating revenue, which equipped us to serve 82,840 individuals and families seeking legal assistance in 2025, including:
- 15,498 workers, taxpayers, and small business owners
- 35,729 seniors, dependent adults and caregivers
- 16,292 children and families
- 15,321 tenants, homeowners, and unhoused individuals
17,543 people were served in over 812 clinics and presentations, covering a variety of legal topics from self-help conservatorships to Small Business Legal Academies, including 64 Family Preparedness presentations and the first-of-its kind Medi-Cal Matters Clinic, which helps older adults and individuals with disabilities secure coverage, keeps families together, and promote independence for vulnerable adults. Cy pres awards also helped fund 6,497 hours of advocates’ time that were spent helping victims of the Altadena and Palisades wildfires, including relief efforts.
For a comprehensive view of our free legal services and programs for low-income clients that cy pres awards support, please click here.
CY PRES DISTRIBUTIONS TO BET TZEDEK
If you, your firm, or someone you know is party to, or counsel on, a class action case involving potential cy pres awards, you can nominate Bet Tzedek as an awardee to benefit our general work, or designated to one of our specific practice areas, such as: employment, consumer law, housing, government benefits, foreclosure, real estate fraud, conservatorship and guardianship, immigration, advance planning, Holocaust reparations, tax, small business transactional legal issues, caregiving for seniors and the developmentally disabled, or more.
Before cy pres funds can be distributed to a non-profit entity, a court must approve the distribution.
If your litigation involves an issue that we also address through our various activities or involves a group of Californians whose rights we also seek to protect, we hope that you consider us as a possible nominee for any cy pres distribution. Cy pres funds are essential in sustaining our advocacy on behalf of low-income and vulnerable Californians.
For more information about Bet Tzedek’s work or to get a declaration from Bet Tzedek to submit to the court, please contact Mary Ross, Vice President of Legal Programs, at mross@bettzedek.org or (323) 648-4756, and Vincent Cummings, Vice President of External Affairs, at vcummings@bettzedek.org or (323) 549-5813.
Want to learn more about Cy Pres? Continue reading below . . .
Federal law regarding cy pres differs across the Country, with case law providing guidance. In the Ninth Circuit, federal case law requires cy pres fund recipients to have a “nexus to the interest of the class members” such that the distribution of cy pres funds provide the “next best relief” to the class.
The following types of federal class claims are well matched to Bet Tzedek’s mission and easily enable the qualifying nexus to be found:
- Wage and hour claims are at the heart of our Employment Rights Program (“ERP”) services.
- Discrimination and harassment class actions also find close nexus to our ERP practice.
- Consumer claims, particularly those involving scams that target seniors, may hold a nexus with our Senior Center Outreach and Elder Abuse practices.
- Securities law, IP suits, and antitrust claims may be viewed as closely aligned with our Small Business Development project, which supports business owners by protecting their intellectual property, and working with them to understand, draft, and amend contracts and commercial leases.
The term “cy pres” originates from an old Norman French phrase meaning “as near as possible.” The cy pres doctrine found its legal roots in charitable trusts: if a donor’s trust document contains an impossible, impracticable, or illegal objective, courts have the power to amend the trust while keeping as close to the donor’s original intent as possible.
The cy pres doctrine expands this concept to class action distributions in limited situations as well. When recovery for class members is impossible or impracticable, if class members are difficult to identify, or if unclaimed funds remain after all class members have received their portion of the settlement, courts may elect to distribute class action settlements to charitable organizations.
We hope you will join the many lawyers and firms across California that help support Bet Tzedek by including us as a recipient of Cy Pres funds. These monies are essential in sustaining programs like ours that serve low-income individuals and communities.
