New Orleans sex abuse survivors overwhelmingly approve settlement to end archdiocese bankruptcy
By Erin Lowrey, Aubry Killion
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NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) — New Orleans sex abuse survivors have overwhelmingly approved a settlement plan that would end the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ yearslong bankruptcy case.
This comes after clergy abuse survivors voted over a six-week period on a $230 million settlement plan.
The votes were due Wednesday night and were tabulated. A recent court filing shows abuse survivors overwhelmingly accepted the deal, which would allow payouts by next year.
The plan is expected to go into effect by the end of the year.
Payouts, which could roll out as soon as January, will be specific to sex abuse claims and based on a point system.
The accepted plan would pay settlements to an estimated 660 sex abuse survivors who have filed claims in the case.
The plan settlement proposes the following compensation for sex abuse survivors:
$130 million in committed cash funding to be paid by the archdiocese and its affiliates into a settlement trust on the effective date of the plan A $70 million for sale of Christopher Homes Approximately $30 million from insurance companies, which have reached settlements to date Substantial additional recoveries from abuse litigation against Travelers Insurance Co., which insured the archdiocese during the time period in which many of the abuse claims occurred Importantly, unprecedented child protection measures and transparency into the history of abuse in the archdiocese According to a news release issued by attorneys for the Survivors Committee, the plan also requires the archdiocese and its archbishop to implement new binding child protection protocols.
Those protocols include:
Overhauls the handling of reports of sexual abuse to notify law enforcement, standards for investigation of claims, documentation of all communications and regular information to the survivor, and removal of the accused perpetrator from ministry Provides for outside oversight to ensure compliance with the protocols, including a survivor seat on the Internal Review Board that reviews claims of clergy abuse and an outside child abuse prevention expert to review and monitor all child protection policies and practices Adopts a Survivors Bill of Rights that requires that survivors be treated with dignity and respect, provides resources for counseling and other services, and provides survivors with a direct line of communication to the archbishop to complain about mistreatment Creates a public archive of thousands of pages of documents related to abuse claims that, up until now, have been kept secret Sex abuse survivors’ claims will be reviewed before payments are decided.
WDSU reached out to the Archdiocese of New Orleans for comment and received the following response:
“Today we have the voting results of our proposed settlement and reorganization plan, which has been overwhelmingly approved by survivors and other creditors. We are grateful to the survivors who have voted in favor of moving forward with this plan and continue to pray that both the monetary settlement and the nonmonetary provisions provide each of them some path towards their healing and reconciliation. We remain hopeful and committed to moving forward through the Court processes as we look ahead to the confirmation hearing set to begin on Nov 17.”
The following statement was sent on behalf of certain abuse survivors regarding the vote:
“The proposed deal reached by the Archdiocese and the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee in May of this year was beyond unacceptable to the majority of abuse survivors whose representation was excluded from this original “deal.” With our counsel, our clients dug in their heels and made it clear that if the deal was not significantly improved, the initial Plan of Reorganization had no shot at receiving the necessary votes. We made this abundantly clear to all involved. It was only once the Archdiocese met the demands of the this group of survivors that we were willing to advise our clients to vote favorably on the improved Plan. This is the reason that this most recent plan was overwhelmingly approved by vote of survivors. There is no amount of money that could ever make these survivors whole.”
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