Kim Gale  |  October 22, 2020

Category: Legal News

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Two boys and a girl on a hike in the woods with male adult leader

The Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice will be able to participate in mediation discussions over the Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy plan that will include financial distributions to sexual abuse survivors. The coalition consists of about 7,500 alleged victims of abuse.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein ruled that the group can participate in the mediation, but that the existing case protective order needs to be changed in order to ensure members of the coalition cannot access any documents or records that would have remained unavailable in state court proceedings.

The Boy Scouts of America filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February after former and current leaders and volunteers began facing a litany of sexual abuse allegations made by former child Scouts.

The ruling is a blow to the Boys Scouts of America’s insurance providers who tried to argue the coalition was not a legally viable entity. Also on the side of the insurance providers was the statutory official committee of tort claimants, the group responsible for representing legal and monetary interests of all the people and organizations that have claims against the debtor.

Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice

A vintage Boy Scouts of America badgeThe Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice participated in an advertising campaign, which Boy Scouts’ insurance provider Century Indemnity Co. argued that increased the number of claims from about 1,700 at the start of the Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy filing to 10,000 in a relatively short period of time.

Sunni Belville, an attorney for the Coalition, said the content of the ads didn’t meet the threshold of speech that could be legally restricted because the Boy Scouts of America was not able to show that the ads were a “clear and present danger” to court proceedings.

“The debtors, and certainly the insurers, would prefer there not be a large and active body of sexual abuse creditors. … Their goal here is to minimize the number of claims,” Belville told the Associated Press in August.

Back in March, nine survivors were selected to represent the interests of sexual abuse victims in the Boy Scouts’ bankruptcy proceedings. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lawson told the paper in a 2016 interview that former Scoutmaster Royal Fleming Weaver Jr. had sexually abused him when Lawson was a Boy Scout.

Lawson and Weaver allegedly were attending an Order of the Arrow scouting convention in 1985 when Lawson said Weaver raped him. According to the Gainesville Times, Weaver led Troop 26 in Gainesville where he began as Scoutmaster in 1969. The Times also gained access to investigative files that show Weaver reportedly admitted to sexually abusing five boys who had been in his troop.

Survivors of sexual abuse inflicted upon them decades ago have until Nov. 16 to seek compensation from the Boy Scouts of America.

The Boy Scouts Bankruptcy Litigation is In re: Boy Scouts of America and Delaware BSA LLC, Case No. 1:20-bk-10343, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Boy Scouts of America’s New Volunteer Requirements

The Boy Scouts of America now requires all registered volunteers to take Youth Protection training, which must be repeated every two years to continue volunteering.

In addition, every adult application includes a request for background information that should be verified by a unit committee or the chartered organization prior to the application being accepted. The Boy Scouts of America says it has a “multilayered adult leader selection process” that makes use of criminal background checks that are conducted by a third party.

Finally, volunteers and “all persons involved in Scouting” must report suspected abuse of a child to local law enforcement authorities.

Join a Free Boy Scouts of America Sexual Abuse Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or someone you love suffered from sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America, you may qualify to join this Boy Scout sexual abuse class action lawsuit investigation.

See if you qualify by filling out the free form on this page.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
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