§ 384.5.Judgments Providing For Distribution to Non-Party Recipients

Section 384.5 works alongside § 384’s unpaid-residue rule and § 382.4’s conflict-of-interest disclosure to keep track of where class action money ends up outside the class itself. Whenever a judgment in a class action under § 382 — including a consent judgment, decree, or court-approved settlement agreement — sends money or anything of value to someone who is not a party to the case, the court must transmit a copy of that order to the Judicial Council.

The order, judgment, or decree the court sends must contain, at minimum, the information the California Research Bureau needs to complete the report required by Government Code § 68520. That reporting requirement is what makes these nonparty distributions visible beyond the individual case file, letting the state track a pattern that would otherwise stay buried in scattered court records.