The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Washington

• Some insurance companies and sex abuse claimants objected to the Boy Scouts’ plan to pay claimants, but the 3rd U.S.
• Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plan can go ahead anyway while the insurers’ appeal is pending.
• The BSA filed for bankruptcy in February 2020 to halt the hundreds of lawsuits that were then pending in state courts.

What happens next?

• The plan the court approved in the BSA’s bankruptcy case will create a settlement trust to process and pay sexual abuse claims.
• Two retired judges and a committee made up of lawyers who represent sex abuse claimants will administer the trust, which will be the largest sexual abuse compensation fund ever established in the U.S.

Where will the money come from?

• The BSA will contribute to the trust property estimated to be worth $220 million.
• Local councils will contribute about $515 million in cash, property and money obtained from their insurers.
• The trustee of the settlement trust has the authority to sue the insurance companies that have not agreed to the settlement to try to get more money to pay claims.

How much money will survivors get and when will payments begin?

• About 6,700 survivors have already elected this option.
• 2) Submit additional information and have the trustee determine the amount based on agreed-upon factors, including the severity of the abuse.
• Payments will not start to flow until the trust determines the payment amount of each claim.

How will this settlement affect the Boy Scouts?

• The organization’s revenue depends on membership dues, contributions from its troop sponsoring organizations, product sales, service fees and donations.
• The BSA now has a little more than 1 million members across the country – about half as many as in 2019.
• Trying to convert some of the Boy Scouts-owned properties into cash to meet the organization’s obligations under the bankruptcy plan is complicated.
• Local Boy Scouts councils own a significant portion of open space in the U.S., and much of it may be lost.

Are there precedents for this?

Catholic organizations have resolved liability for child sexual abuse in bankruptcy cases with plans that are similar to the BSA’s. But the scale of the Boy Scouts’ case in terms of the number of claims and the size of the settlement trust fund is much larger than any case involving a single diocese, or any other nonprofit organization bankruptcy case.