Not a bonus payment to class members and not a way for lawyers or defendants to keep leftover settlement money. A cy pres distribution is a court-approved use of unclaimed or impossible-to-distribute funds from a class action settlement, with the money going to a nonprofit or program whose work closely relates to the lawsuit's purpose. The idea comes from a phrase meaning "as near as possible": if the money cannot realistically reach the people harmed, it should still be used in a way that benefits a similar group or advances the same public interest.

In practice, this usually comes up when some class members cannot be found, checks go uncashed, or the cost of sending tiny payments would outweigh the payments themselves. A judge looks at whether the chosen recipient has a real connection to the case. In an injury-related case, that might mean support for medical research, consumer safety, or road-safety education rather than a random charity with no link to the harm.

For an injury claim, cy pres can affect how a settlement is structured and whether class members receive full compensation directly. Courts generally prefer direct payments first. If money is likely to go to cy pres instead, that can become a fairness issue during settlement approval. New Mexico does not have a widely used state-specific cy pres statute for injury class actions, so the details usually depend on the settlement terms, judicial approval, and general rules governing class settlements.