California sex abuse law likely to spur thousands of claims

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Thousands of lawsuits will be filed against alleged child molesters as well as the institutions that employed them under a new California law taking effect next year, attorneys predicted Monday. About 1,000 lawsuits, the vast majority against the Catholic church, were filed when California lifted the statute of limitations for one year in 2003, recalled John Manly, who represents Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman and other survivors of USA Gymnastics sexual abuse, as well as alleged victims of former University of Southern California gynecologist George Tyndall. California School Boards Association spokesman Troy Flint, however, said the new law is “an existential threat to the viability to many school districts.” By extending the cutoff to age 40, “basically you’re opening up another generation to compensation,” Flint said. “Districts will likely be forced to settle, and the insurance companies have already signaled that either the premiums are going to become prohibitive or they will withdraw from this segment of the market.” The California Catholic Conference declined comment beyond a statement by executive director Andrew Rivas calling child sexual abuse by priests “a legacy of shame.” He said the church paid more than $1.2 billion to hundreds of victims in 2003, and hundreds of millions of dollars since then for therapy and other services to survivors. Rivas said church reforms mean “new cases of abuse are rare today in the Church in California.” Attorney Joseph George said he’s filing the first of “dozens and dozens” of planned lawsuits Tuesday on behalf of a client who previously was too old to sue.