Many victims have stepped forward to initiate their own Catholic Church molestation lawsuits in the courts after states like California have expanded their laws and windows for victims to file suit outside of the typical statute of limitations.

The very first California Catholic Church molestation case has reportedly settled since the passing of the law. The victim in this lawsuit that he was abused as a child, according to a local ABC News affiliate.

The victim, now aged 47, reportedly obtained a $1.9 million settlement with three different defendants including the Arch Diocese of Los Angeles. The victim said that he was sexually abused by a priest in the church, who is also one of the defendants. Allegedly this abuse occurred between 1982 and 1984 when the victim was between the ages of 9 and 11. The alleged abuse took place inside the San Gabriel Mission Church while the victim was serving as an altar boy.

The victim said that he did attempt to step forward to share his story of abuse to Church authorities when he was a teenager. The Church leader in question was removed from ministry in 1986 after he was convicted of abusing a 14-year-old boy in Los Angeles. He reportedly received 3 years of probation for those charges. Furthermore, he was later indicted in 2003 for sexually abusing children in Maricopa County and Yavapai.

Pre settlement agreements have reportedly been reached in both of those cases. The most recent lawsuit was initiated under the 3-year window expansion through California’s Child Victims Act that expanded the state statute of limitations, enabling victims of previous childhood sexual abuse to seek justice where they previously would have not been able to due to expiration of the statute of limitations.

Many victims of Catholic Church sexual abuse in California and in other states have only begun to file their lawsuits recently after coming to terms with what happened to them. Widespread coverage reporting and investigations into the Roman Catholic sexual abuse scandal has raised awareness and given voices to many victims.

According to Market Watch, tt’s expected that the sexual abuse lawsuits facing the Church could cost them upwards of $4 billion in terms of possible settlements and the legal fees required to respond to these growing allegations.

In California, the opening of that window to allow for new Catholic Church molestation cases means that much more litigation is expected in the coming months. Plenty have already been filed, according to the LA Times. The basis for much of these suits are allegations that Church leaders knew about cases of abuse and situations in which one person was even accused multiple times but failed to take corrective action quickly enough to protect victims from further suffering.

If you were a child victim of Church leadership or a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of another organization, you could take advantage of this new window to file a lawsuit against that group. Top Class Actions recognizes the difficulty of that situation and can assist you with finding appropriate legal counsel for your California sexual abuse case.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.