Boy Scouts of America is creating a victim compensation trust as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, February 22, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- California personal injury law firm Nadrich & Cohen, LLP is filing sex abuse claims against Boy Scouts of America (BSA), who filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware last Monday. BSA plans on creating a victim compensation trust through the process of bankruptcy to pay sex abuse victims whose claims are filed by a deadline which has yet to be set.

“We are committed to providing victims of the heinous crime of child sex abuse with the justice they deserve,” said Jeffrey Nadrich, managing partner of Nadrich & Cohen, LLP. “It is important that victims step forward now so their claims can go through bankruptcy court before any deadlines.”

The bankruptcy filing comes shortly after states including California, New Jersey and New York recently allowed more victims to sue BSA for sex abuse. California’s AB 218 law, for example, went into effect in January, gave victims who previously couldn’t sue due to statutes of limitation a three-year “lookback window” to sue and gave victims until the age of 40 or five years after becoming aware of abuse-caused injury to sue.

BSA were already facing mounting sex abuse lawsuits before states recently expanded victims’ options for filing lawsuits. BSA started getting hit hard by lawsuits after media outlets reported on the existence of the “Boy Scout Perversion Files” in 2012. These files are said to contain the names of 7,819 volunteers who have been accused of child sex abuse, as well as the names of 12,254 child sex abuse victims. Only a section of the “Perversion Files” covering a span from 1965 to 1985 has been released to the public thus far.

Some BSA insurers have refused to provide payouts in child sex abuse cases, saying BSA could have prevented the abuse. The “Perversion Files” contain evidence that pressure from local BSA officials allowed alleged child sex abusers to continue to serve in BSA after BSA gained knowledge of child sex abuse allegations against them. The files also demonstrate that around one third of child sex abuse allegations reported to BSA were never forwarded to law enforcement.

A letter in the files referring to a scoutmaster who confessed to child sex abuse involving three children contains a BSA executive writing, “This subject and Scouts were not prosecuted to save the name of Scouting.” Another letter in the files regarding a different case contains a different BSA executive writing, “I would like to let this case drop... one father has threatened legal action which could only injure the Boy Scouts of America. My personal opinion in this particular case is, ‘If it don’t stink, don’t stir it.’”

BSA’s bankruptcy petition lists liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion and assets of $1 billion to $10 billion. BSA may need to sell off some of its assets in order to adequately fund the planned victim compensation trust. BSA’s local councils are responsible for local troops’ everyday operations and were not included in the bankruptcy filing since BSA considers them to be legally separate entities.

About Nadrich & Cohen, LLP

Nadrich & Cohen, LLP is a California personal injury law firm established in 1990. The firm has recovered over $350,000,000 on behalf of clients and its lawyers possess over 70 years of combined legal experience. The firm is currently representing victims of sexual assault in California and throughout the nation, including victims of BSA, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and clergy abuse.

Chris deCastro
Nadrich & Cohen, LLP
+1 800-718-4658
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