The Boy Scouts of America will be facing at least 92,700 claims of sexual abuse as former scouts submit filings against the bankruptcy-bound organization, as reported by CNN.com
The Fogelman Law Firm is proud to represent several of the abuse victims and help fight for their rights.
“We are devastated by the number of lives impacted by past abuse in scouting and moved by the bravery of those who have come forward,” a BSA statement said. “We are heartbroken that we cannot undo their pain.”
The cases against the Boy Scouts are no normal court proceeding. The organization filed for bankruptcy in February as hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits were filed across the country — some of which alleged repeated fondling, exposure to pornography and forced anal or oral sex.
When it filed for bankruptcy, the BSA said it was “outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our program to abuse innocent children.”
The bankruptcy filing, which effectively placed the lawsuits on hold, had been a matter of speculation since at least December 2018. In April 2019, court testimony indicated that the organization believed more than 7,800 of its former leaders had sexually abused at least 12,000 children since the late 1940s.
Alleged survivors will now have to pursue their claims in bankruptcy court rather than via civil proceedings.
After reportedly hiring a firm specializing in Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the Boy Scouts initiated several changes — allowing girls to join, naming a new president and partnering with an organization for male survivors of sex abuse — before making the bankruptcy filing official earlier this year.
In an open letter to alleged victims, BSA national chairman Jim Turley wrote that the bankruptcy filing was aimed at ensuring the organization “is able to equitably compensate all the victims of abuse.” BSA had voluntarily restructured its finances and created a compensation trust, he wrote.
“The BSA cannot undo what happened to you, but we are committed to supporting you and to doing everything in our power to prevent it from happening to others,” Turley wrote.
The bankruptcy filing, which came just days after the group’s 110th anniversary, listed BSA assets of between $1 billion and $10 billion. Its liabilities were estimated at between $100 million and $500 million.
Claims have arrived rapidly in recent months.
The recent statement from the Boy Scouts said, “We intentionally developed an open, accessible process to reach survivors and help them take an essential step toward receiving compensation. The response we have seen from survivors has been gut wrenching. We are deeply sorry.”
After Monday’s deadline, the next step is for third-party advisers to review the claims, while BSA “works to develop a plan of reorganization to fund the proposed trust,” the organization said.
“We are committed to working as expeditiously as possible to provide survivors of abuse with equitable compensation,” the BSA statement said.
