Joanna Szabo  |  September 13, 2020

Category: Legal News

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Lawyers for The Weinstein Company have brought forward a newly revised settlement proposal to bring an end to sexual assault claims against Harvey Weinstein. However, an attorney for the accusers has already pledged to oppose the plan—which offers less in settlement money for Weinstein’s alleged victims than the previous iteration of the settlement proposal.

The new $32.5 million settlement proposal, filed on Sept. 1 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, includes $17 million to settle sexual assault claims in several courts as well as a lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general.

The Weinstein Company—the bankrupt studio of the former producer who has been accused of sexual assault and rape—had offered $18.9 million to accusers in the previous plan, which was rejected back in July by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan. This new settlement offers $17 million for alleged victims, which comes out to $1.9 million less for accusers than the previous one, and $10 million less overall.

gavel money and handcuffsAccording to an attorney for The Weinstein Company, the settlement pool was reduced because this plan, unlike the previous iteration, does not include claims that pre-date The Weinstein Company itself.

The rest of the proposed payment would go toward business debts and defense costs for former representatives of The Weinstein Company.

The previous settlement proposal had been intended to cover legal fees for Weinstein, but Hellerstein called that part of the proposed plan “obnoxious.”

Alleged victims have a couple of options under this new plan. If they accept the plan’s proposed payment, this will fully settle their claim against Weinstein, meaning that they will no longer be able to pursue sexual assault litigation against him. The other option is to accept 25% of the payment. If they take this payment portion, their claim will not be fully settled, and they will be able to continue pursuing Weinstein with litigation.

An attorney for the accusers called this plan “fundamentally deficient,” noting that his clients opposed it. Judge Mary Walrath in Wilmington said that the newly drafted plan seemed to prevent an accuser who chose to pursue litigation against Weinstein and won a judgment against him from being able to collect against Weinstein’s insurers.

“Filed in the middle of the night to avoid attention, the latest Weinstein settlement plan is more offensive than the version that was rejected by Judge Hellerstein,” said attorneys for some of the accusers. “Under the new plan, which is approximately $10 million less than the plan rejected by Judge Hellerstein, more than half of the settlement funds are paid to Robert Weinstein and the other ultra-wealthy former directors of The Weinstein Company, as well as TWC creditors including huge media companies and famous actors.”

“We continue to be perplexed by the Attorney General of New York’s endorsement of a resolution that is a complete and utter sellout of Harvey Weinstein’s victims,” they said.

They referred to New York AG Letitia James’s endorsement of the resolution as a “complete and utter sellout of Harvey Weinstein’s victims.”

Another victim’s attorney said he was “baffled” about James’s support of the newly proposed settlement agreement. “Far from supporting the rights of women, Ms. James is putting the support of her office behind the wealthy good old boys network who accepted ‘Harvey being Harvey’ for so long.”

“This is a complete disgrace in my opinion,” he said.

Weinstein was found guilty in February of two felony charges after a two-month trial in New York City, and has been sentenced to more than two decades in state prison. Weinstein reportedly plans to appeal the trial’s outcome. Weinstein also faces more litigation from nearly a hundred other accusers, some of whom say he abused them when they were still underage.

Join a Sexual Assault Lawsuit Investigation

If you or your child was the victim of sexual assault at school, in athletic teams, medical settings, workplaces, and organizations such as the Boy Scouts, you may be entitled to compensation even if the assault happened years ago.

Many perpetrators of sexual assault are not held criminally accountable by the systems in place. A civil lawsuit, however, against the perpetrators and those who allowed their criminal behavior can lead to future changes and also help compensate those who were harmed.

Fill out the form on this page for more information.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
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