A federal judge will issue a ruling by Monday on a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego to take the critical matter of how to value nearly 160 claims of child sexual abuse by clergy out of bankruptcy court.Lawyers for the diocese told chief U.S. District Judge Irma Gonzalez in a hearing today that the fairest and fastest way to determine how much the abuse cases are worth is for her to set up a process to estimate their value.
Attorneys representing abuse victims strongly disagreed, accusing the diocese of “forum shopping” in the face of a strong possibility that bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler will next week order the first of the cases back to state court for trials.
Diocese lawyers said trying cases before juries would take years and cost millions; plaintiffs attorneys scoffed at that notion.
Settlements of more than 900 sexual-abuse cases across California involving priests and other Catholic workers have averaged about $1.3 million per claim.
The San Diego diocese has offered an average of about $600,000 per claim.
Lawyers for both sides have spent this week in secret mediation talks before a federal magistrate judge.
Should no settlement be reached, Adler has set a hearing on Sept. 6 on whether the diocese's bankruptcy case should be dismissed.
Adler's action came in the wake of a financial expert's report showing the diocese failed repeatedly to properly state its assets in court documents.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce