The Anchorage Daily News reports that as part of a bankruptcy plan, the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks will pay abuse victims nearly $10 million dollars. The plan includes sending a bishop to travel to parishes where sexual abuse occurred and putting the names of suspected abusers on the diocese website.
Approximately $9.8 million dollars will go into a fund for about 300 victims of sexual abuse. There will be another $2.5 million dollars that will be set aside for attorneys, accountants, and other professionals involved in the case. The amount given to each victim will be decided by mediator. Some of the factors that the mediator will most likely consider will be: the nature and severity of abuse, the age of the victim at the time it started, and whether the perpetrator was in a position of trust. A variety of priests, nuns, deacons, brothers and even church volunteers are suspected of abuse.
The settlement fund for the abuse victims could get even bigger. The abuse victims will be able to pursue claims of abuse through two insurance companies: Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. and Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America.
Related Resources:
- The Catholic Church’s Self-Audit on Its Clergy Child Sexual Abuse Procedures: The Fox Continues to Guard the Henhouse (FindLaw)
- Child Abuse (FindLaw)
- Child Abuse Information by State (FindLaw)
- Rape, Sexual Assault, Date Rape and Statutory Rape (provided by Adam Boyd Bleile)
- Debts You Can’t Discharge (provided by Law Offices of Richard N. Gottlieb)
You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help
Civil Rights
Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court
Criminal
Judges Can Release Secret Grand Jury Records
Politicians Can’t Block Voters on Facebook, Court Rules
