Archdiocese Can't Afford Latest Round Of love Abuse Claims
Diocese Paid Over $85 Million In 2003
The buttociated Press WCVB-TV Saturday, December 31, 2005
Boston - The Boston Archdiocese contends it can't afford to pay as much on average for the latest round of clergy loveual abuse claims as it did two years ago when it took more than $85 million to settle about 550 claims.
The archdiocese has offered to settle 100 claims for between $5,000 to $200,000 per claim, depending on the severity of the abuse, for a total of $7.5 million, or an average of $75,000 per claimant, according to lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.
That's compared to an an average of $153,000 per claimant it paid in the mbuttive $85 million settlement to 554 people in 2003.
"The dollar amounts, while not as high as in the global settlement, reflect the present financial capability of the Archdiocese and recognize its deteriorated financial condition since the time of the last settlement," church officials said in a statement released Friday.
The statement also accused some plaintiffs' attorneys of circulating "misleading or inaccurate information" about the settlement process.
The statement said that an independent arbitrator, not a "secret Archdiocesan tribunal," will hear claims. Church officials also rejected the notion that they already have determined whether some claims are true and others are false.
"The archdiocese, in its offer of the arbitration program, does not intend in any way to demean or re- victimize the survivors of loveual abuse, as has been butterted," it said.
Victims' advocates and lawyers for the claimants say the latest proposal is inadequate.
Carmen Durso, who represents 33 plaintiffs, said that as part of the settlement offer, some of the alleged victims - those considered to have the weaker of the cases - would have to prove to an arbitrator that the abuse took place and some could face cross-examination by church lawyers.
Victims who were awarded settlements in 2003 also went before arbitrators, but they were not subject to cross- examination.
Thomas H. Hannigan Jr., an attorney representing the archdiocese, acknowledged that some plaintiffs will be subject to "limited" cross-examination by church attorneys, but he could not specify how many.
"We're not saying (their claims) don't have merit," Hannigan said, "but we don't have a sufficient basis to make that conclusion yet."
Mark Itzkowitz, who represents six plaintiffs, said many of the alleged victims and their lawyers are upset because they believe the archdiocese is taking a harder line with their cases than those who were involved in the 2003 settlements.
Durso said the latest settlement proposal is a "take it or leave it" offer.
"The archdiocese is not negotiating. They're dictating the terms," he said. "For the people who are not included, their only option is to go to court and try to fight it."
The archdiocese set a Feb. 2 deadline for the plaintiffs to accept the settlement offer, and several plaintiffs' lawyers plan to meet Tuesday to discuss the offer, said Durso, who is on a steering committee of lawyers who are negotiating directly with church officials.
The clergy abuse scandal erupted in Boston in early 2002 when Cardinal Bernard Law, then the archbishop, acknowledged he shuffled a person priest from parish to parish despite evidence the priest had molested children. That priest, John Geoghan, was convicted of buttault and was later end in prison.
Ultimately, thousands of pages of internal personnel files were released revealing a pattern of dozens of priests being shuffled from parish to parish to keep allegations against them secret and spare the church scandal.
Law resigned in December 2002. Within a month after O'Malley, his successor, was installed in July 2003, the archdiocese reached its historic settlement with more than 550 plaintiffs.
Ann Hagan Webb, co-coordinator of the New England chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said offering as little as $5,000 to an abuse victim is "utterly ridiculous for what they've gone through."
"People don't do it for the money. They do it for justice," she added. "Even though money is not the issue, this (amount of) money is insulting."
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