LA Archdiocese agrees to pay $880M to settle clergy abuse claims

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed Wednesday to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse. With the $740 million paid to victims in 2007, the church has now agreed to pay a record $1.5 billion.

"It's been a long time coming and a huge amount and work to get to this point. I'm convinced that the archdiocese has done everything they could to make this thing work and compensate clients. But it is a bittersweet day, as it always is," said Raymond P. Boucher of Boucher LLP, one of the four plaintiffs' liaison counsel.

The other liaison counsel are: Michael Reck of Jeff Anderson & Associates, Spencer Lucas of Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, and Morgan A. Stewart from Manly, Stewart & Finaldi.

Kirk D. Dillman, a partner at McKool Smith, represented the church. He said Archbishop José H. Gomez wanted "most importantly to get victims closure and healing."

"We determined the best way forward was with focused mediation with the plaintiffs' liaison committee to share and be as transparent as we could about the finances of the archdiocese. And we did that.

"It was that dialog, I think, that convinced the plaintiffs we were not trying to get out on the cheap. We put cards on the table," Dillman said.

Liaison counsel Lucas said the settlement was made more difficult by the fact that the church's insurance was exhausted from the previous payouts to abuse victims.

"The difficulties were multifaceted. We were dealing with an individual defendant. Looking at investment accounts. Looking at all their assets. So that was a challenge. It took years of investigation and detailed analysis and turning over every stone," Lucas said.

In 2007, the church agreed to pay $740 million to nearly 600 victims of abuse by clergy, teachers and other members of the Los Angeles archdiocese. In the latest round, 1,353 people claimed abuse by members of the archdiocese. The church has also agreed to undisclosed settlements with about 500 other plaintiffs.

Reck said the settlement will require public disclosure of any perpetrator files. "That's noteworthy given that there was a lot more cases than there were in the other round. So, not all those [perpetrators] were known."

Boucher said settlement talks had been going on for nearly two years but really started to come together in the past six to eight weeks. He said retired Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Buckley, now of Signature Resolution, "kept pushing to get this realized."

He praised the Los Angeles archdiocese, which "did not take the cowardly road of filing for bankruptcy" like several other dioceses in California and in other states have done in recent months.

Lucas said everyone understood no one benefited from bankruptcy. "Many years of delay and bankruptcy lawyers making tens of millions of dollars that just comes out of the pockets of survivors at the end of the day," he said.

Lawyers for the 1,353 plaintiffs must sign off on the latest settlement before it is finalized. The plaintiffs' liaison counsel held a meeting Wednesday with the victims' attorneys - estimated to be around 100. They must now take the deal back to their clients to get approval.

Asked if he was comfortable that he would get the approval of so many people, liaison counsel Stewart responded: "I'm comfortable that it has to go through that process. If it doesn't get a result that is favorable, then the archdiocese will have to file for bankruptcy protection."

"We as a liaison team reached the best and highest number we could reach without the archdiocese filing for bankruptcy," he concluded.

Liaison counsel Reck had a similar answer to the question.

"I really hope so," he responded. "The reality is that we've all seen what happens if a diocese is in bankruptcy. We've seen how that will delay any measure of justice for survivors."

Boucher said there was "some degree of relief" among his clients who have "suffered in silence for so many years."

"They can finally start to put this to bed. And that's so important in these types of settlements."

Superior Court Judge David S. Cunningham has presided over the litigation.