FLAP is an Ideal Choice for Cy Pres
If you are involved in a class action case settlement and are designating a cy pres for the residual funds, please consider FLAP as a cy pres recipient. FLAP will use the award to provide Community Outreach and Education improving low-wage working conditions in Illinois having a significant effect on the lives of low-wage Illinois residents.
While it is ultimately up to the courts to determine whether a cy pres award is appropriate, attorneys for the plaintiff and defense can each play an important role in directing cy pres awards to FLAP.
Mission: to improve working conditions and opportunities for low-wage workers and their households in the cannery, farms, greenhouse, landscaping, meat, nursery, packinghouse, poultry, restaurants, and snow plowing industries.
The organization carries out its mission through advocacy, community outreach and education, litigation, community legal education, information and referrals, partnering with other organizations to fight human labor trafficking, preventing family separations by helping immigrants secure dual citizenship for their children and facilitating access to cash transfers to very low-wage populations.
FLAP provides these services free of charge and without regard to immigration status.
- Collaboration: FLAP partners with more than 200 organizations in Illinois and works closely with the legal aid community to provide Legal resources to low wage workers.
- Expertise: FLAP has been improving working conditions of low-wage workers in Illinois for more than 22 years.
- Area of Service: FLAP is eligible to receive cy pres awards because we promote equal access to justice for disadvantaged low-wage Illinois residents.
- Population FLAP services: Our clients share something in common with the members of class action lawsuits. They are Latine low-wage workers.
Among the many violations that low-wage workers are exposed to are:
- Human Labor Trafficking
- Nonpayment of wages (“wage theft”)
- Denial of overtime wage rates
- Illegal pesticide exposure
- Hazardous housing
- Unsanitary working conditions
- Illegal deductions from wages [for visa, travel, housing, equipment and uniform expenses]
- Discrimination
- Injuries at work
- Affected by COVID-19
The term cy pres comes from the French, “cy pres comme possible,” meaning “as near as possible,” and the doctrine is often applied in class action cases in which full restitution to all injured parties is impossible or infeasible, resulting in residual funds.
Under cy pres, courts can approve a charitable donation out of unclaimed class action funds. Designation of a cy pres prevents a windfall to the defendant while serving to deter future violations. Court settlement awards occur when the court approves a settlement that requires one of the parties to make a specified contribution to a charity.
Cy pres awards have been used to fund important legal services all over the country. In addition to special projects, cy pres awards are often used to fund operational costs for legal aid organizations and nonprofits like FLAP, allowing them to continue to provide vital services in their communities.
For further information, please contact the Chief Executive Officer, Alexandra Sossa, at info@flapillinois.org or 1-888-451-3527.