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Education and Campaign Cy Pres: Resources for Consumer Protection
A campaign to promote transparency, efficiency and accountability Protecting the rights of consumers, particularly those from underserved communities, is becoming increasingly difficult in a poor economy where resources are very limited. A goal of CCPF is to preserve, protect and defend the cy pres doctrine and promote the equitable distribution of cy pres funds by educating those who have the power or influence to designate settlement funds to protect consumer interests. To accomplish this, CCPF launched a campaign in Spring 2011 to promote transparency, efficiency and accountability in the administration of cy pres funds. CCPF believes that standardized policies and best practices must be established on how to: - Create and distribute cy pres funds in order to ensure benefit to consumers, particularly those from underserved communities. - Conduct an accountable and transparent process to ensure distribution is in concert with the underlying purpose of the lawsuit. Why this campaign? Class action settlement awards should be directed to and benefit the damaged class (plaintiffs) and be used as ‘close as possible’ to meet the original intent of the settlement, without reversion to the defendant. When it is difficult to locate or determine each plaintiff’s actual damage or when the amounts of individual awards are too nominal for distribution, the settlement may include “cy pres.” Cy pres funds should not be distributed in an ad hoc basis. Because of the arguable “mis-use” of cy pres funds and a general “anti-consumer litigation” climate, the cy pres doctrine is under attack. C |
