On November 19, 2018, the Government of British Columbia
introduced Bill 57, Attorney General Statutes
Amendment Act, 2018 (Bill), in the legislative assembly
for first reading. If passed, the Bill will amend the Class
Proceedings Act to provide direction on how to allocate
undistributed funds at the end of a class action.
Historically, funds that were not distributed to the class were
to be applied in any manner that could reasonably be expected to
benefit class or subclass members, even though the order does not
provide for monetary relief to individual class or subclass
members. This is known as a cy-près distribution and such
funds were typically provided to a charity.
The Government of British Columbia, in introducing the
amendment, noted that one of the fundamental purposes of a class
action is to provide access to justice. It further noted that the
leading funder of access to justice in British Columbia is the Law
Foundation of British Columbia (Law
