Lawyers representing a small portion of 82,000 victims are trying to delay implementation of one of the largest child sexual abuse settlements in U.S. history, an agreement intended to deliver overdue justice to survivors while attempting to permit continuity for an organization that does tremendous amounts of good while taking accountability for decades of failure to restrain bad actors.
The Supreme Court upheld the nearly $2.5 billion settlement plan for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in February 2024, enabling the organization to address over 82,000 sexual abuse claims from former members.
This resolution, which emerged from BSA’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, provides compensation ranging from thousands of dollars to a maximum of $2.7 million per claimant, depending on the abuse severity.
The plan bankruptcy settlement also offers protections to local councils and other affiliated entities from future lawsuits connected to these claims.
BSA filed for bankruptcy in response to the escalating number of sexual abuse lawsuits, intending to create a trust fund to compensate survivors while preserving the organization’s financial stability.
Despite the settlement, a group of 144 survivors remains dissatisfied, arguing that the compensation amounts are insufficient and that the plan’s provisions unfairly prevent them from seeking further action against other involved parties, such as local scouting councils.
The dissatisfied survivors have taken their appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, where Judges Cheryl Ann Krause, Anthony J. Scirica, and Marjorie O. Rendell are presiding.
While the majority of victims have accepted the settlement terms, a small group retained lawyers who are seeking to delay the distribution of funds due to concerns about the settlement structure.
Attorney Evan Smola of Hurley McKenna & Mertz, P.C., representing the vast majority of abuse survivors, emphasized the urgency of approving the compensation plan without additional delays, noting that many victims have waited decades for justice and closure.
Ninety-one insurance companies are subject to ongoing litigation, but some of those have very little at stake while others are potentially at risk of being obligated to contribute large sums to the pool from which payments will be made.
The Scouting Settlement Trust, formed on April 19, 2023, following BSA’s bankruptcy, is responsible for processing and evaluating these claims. Trustee Barbara J. Houser announced a final deadline extension to July 26, 2024, for the submission of Matrix Claims Questionnaires, a necessary step in claiming compensation.
Houser stated that while no explanations would be required for meeting the extended deadline, any further late submissions would be subject to stringent criteria to establish extraordinary circumstances beyond the claimant’s control.
As proceedings continue, survivors and their advocates remain focused on achieving fair compensation and acknowledgment of their suffering.
Boy Scouts of America reported that over 72 years, more than 7,800 of its former leaders were involved in sexually abusing a child.
In May 1991, the Washington Times published a major five-part investigation entitled Scout’s Honor, which systematically examined the history of sexual abuse in America’s most revered youth group.
Based on tens of thousands of pages of court records from more than 20 states; more than 1,000 newspaper articles about abused scouts; and more than 200 interviews with predators, volunteer leaders, families of victims, sex abuse experts, and lawyers.
It concluded: “The Boy Scouts are a magnet for men who want to have sexual relations with children… Pedophiles join the Scouts for a simple reason: it’s where the boys are.”
As the wheels of justice grind slowly toward a resolution, abuse victims are aging and in some cases, dying, without an end in sight.