Scout sex abuse lawsuit verdict is too complex to understand

A federal court entered an order and opinion regarding the sexual abuse case against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

“Unfortunately it is 281 pages long, so we will not be able to summarize it for you until Monday,” said an email from Hurley McKenna & Mertz, a Chicago law firm representing some of the 82,000 plaintiffs. “We are meeting with our colleagues over the weekend to digest the court’s ruling and will have a follow up email for you on Monday.”

More than 82,000 former scouts reported they were sexually abused by troop leaders or camp staff.

The BSA declared bankruptcy in order to pay for the settlement with abuse survivors.

The compensation fund would pay out more than $2.6 billion, making it the largest total sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history.

Accounts from men and boys who leveled accusations of rape, molestation and other sexual abuse indicated the Boy Scouts’ pedophile problem was far more widespread than the organization ever previously acknowledged.

An official abuse claimants committee, known as the tort claimants committee or TCC, was appointed by the bankruptcy trustee to act on behalf of the sexual abuse survivors.

Boy Scouts of America’s centurylong cover-up of sexual abuse revealed how an institution that’s as American as a Norman Rockwell painting became a playground for pedophiles, with a record of abuse that surpasses that of the Catholic Church.

The BSA case has received much less attention than the clergy scandal.

There were at least 82,000 men, and even some women, who had come forward alleging sex abuse causes by the Boy Scouts, which started allowing girls to join in 2019.

The survivors ranged in age from 8 to 93.

This case is pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, and the case is known as In re Boy Scouts of America and Delaware BSA, LLC, No. 20-10343 (Bankr. D. Del.). The Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing the case is Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein.