What Important Deadlines Apply For Filing A Claim
The bankruptcy court set a claims bar date for November 16, 2020. A claims bar date is the last date by which the bankruptcy court will accept new claims. In other words, it is the deadline by which all survivors of child sexual abuse by a BSA volunteer, leader, employee, or other affiliated member must file their claim.
How Could The Bankruptcy Filing Affect Victims
The Nov. 16 deadline pit survivors attorneys in a race against the clockeven as the pandemic ragedto gather as many accounts of abuse as possible. For many of these victims in their 50s, 60s and 70s, suing the Boy Scouts is their only chance at justice: Their abusers have died.
When the national organization declared bankruptcy, all previous lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America were paused bankruptcy court will deal with all the remaining cases. A bankruptcy judge will decide how best to divide the groups assets among any claimants. Those claimants include both men who say they were abused as scouts and the insurance companies currently suing the Boy Scouts. According to the bankruptcy petition filed in Delaware, BSA lists their assets between $1 billion and $10 billion.
Boy Scouts Of America Files For Bankruptcy Due To Sex Abuse Lawsuits
The Boy Scouts of America, barraged by hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that would enable the hallowed, 110-year-old organization to carry on.
The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, sets in motion what could be one of the biggest, most complex bankruptcies ever seen. Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested by scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago but are only now eligible to sue because of recent changes in their states statute-of-limitations laws.
By going to bankruptcy court, the Scouts can put those lawsuits on hold for now. But they could ultimately be forced to sell off some of their vast property holdings, including campgrounds and hiking trails, to raise money for a compensation fund that could surpass $1 billion. BSA first explored bankruptcy in December 2018.
Scouting programs will continue throughout this process and for many years to come, said Evan Roberts, a spokesman for the Scouts. Local councils are not filing for bankruptcy because they are legally separate and distinct organizations.
The Boy Scouts finances have been strained in recent years by declining membership and sex-abuse settlements.
It may prove difficult to determine how much is available to settle suits.
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Is My Call Confidential
Yes. We realize it is difficult to reach out for help. Some of our clients have reached out to us before they have shared their history of abuse with close friends or family members. We realize these are difficult matters to discuss, and we are here to help. We are pleased to offer a free and confidential consultation to answer your questions and help you understand your rights.
Turning On Historic Christian Morality
In Scouting in recent decades, physical edginess and tough training requirements also were loosened or removed. The values of a culture dedicated to the human person as totally malleable, based on self-will, took hold. Safety and comfort became increasingly the ultimate values.
Such values, which affected Scouting ultimately more because of changes in in its anchoring mainline Protestant and business cultures than leftist subversion, reject an age-old cultural inheritance of the American republic that regarded virtue and self-restraint as the goals of education of young men, to be leaders of a free society and the families that would continue it.
In the wake of the Neo-Chalcedonianism established by the Fifth Ecumenical Church Council in 553, St. Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century articulated the basis for traditional Christian ascetic approaches to identity as a cosmology, not merely morality. It was a synthesis in part of biblical and Greek philosophical traditions. He wrote of how God created man male and female, but also that there was neither male nor female in Christ.
The complementarity of marriage was a living symbol of the relation of humanity in the universal church to God. Biological sexes of male and female were an embodied sacred iconography to be honored and followed, nurturing trans-generational families in which men could learn to be guardians of peace, husbands who would lay down their lives for their families and country.
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What Does It Mean That Survivors Will Vote On The Plan
The Boy Scouts filed bankruptcy in February 2020 in the wake of lawsuits publicly exposing the decades-long sexual abuse of Scouts, with the intent to use bankruptcy to set up a fund to compensate survivors. The Boy Scouts plan to exit bankruptcy includes settlements with insurance companies, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which previously funded scouting activities, the Boy Scouts and its local councils. These settlement deals total almost US$1.9 billion.
The roughly 250 local councils will contribute $500 million, and the national umbrella organization, the Boy Scouts, will put in up to $320 million. Insurers and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will collectively contribute a bit under $1.1 million. If the plan is approved, the settlement will prohibit further lawsuits against the Boy Scouts and its local councils.
For the judge to approve the Boy Scouts plan, a majority of the nearly 82,000 survivors who filed claims in the bankruptcy case and businesses owed money by the Boy Scouts that is, its creditors must vote in favor of it. The survivors will receive ballots and informational packets by mid-October. Survivors must return the ballots by Dec. 15, 2021. The votes will be tallied by Jan. 4, 2022. The judge has scheduled a hearing on Jan. 24, 2022, to consider the results of the voting and whether to approve the Boy Scouts bankruptcy exit plan.
Several Thousand Men Say They Were Molested When
Nbc news reports that by filing for chapter 11 protection. The head of boy scouts america, roger mosby, says he believes bankruptcy will actually help victims. Victims who havent reported abuse need to do. The group has more than two million. The boy scouts of america has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after sexual abuse settlements have reportedly strained finances
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Did Boy Scouts File For Bankruptcy
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Did Boy Scouts File For Bankruptcy. The boy scouts of america filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on monday in an effort to keep operating while thousands of claims of sexual abuse by former members have been launched against the national youth group. The boy scouts of america said it hopes to continue providing outdoor activities and progams as it has done for more than 100 years after it filed the national organization announced that it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy as it aims to settle scores of lawsuits which claim scoutmasters and.
The boy scouts estimate 1,000 to 5. On one level, its business as usual. Did the boy scouts violate their own honor code by filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy? Today, the national organization of the boy scouts of america filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy to achieve two key objectives: Nbc news reports that by filing for chapter 11 protection.
Will Local Councils Be Forced To Sell Assets
This is a major point of dispute.
The national organization describes its relationship with local councils as a type of franchise arrangement. The national group handles the development of Scouts content and structure, licensing, training, human resources, legal support and information technology.
The local councils are separate legal entities, according to the national group.
Local councils often own their own assets. Victims attorneys believe those assets should be included in the national bankruptcy.
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Boy Scouts Of America Files For Bankruptcy As It Faces Hundreds Of Sex
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Faced with hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy. Tony Gutierrez/APhide caption
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Faced with hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy.
The Boy Scouts of America has filed for bankruptcy, a sign of the century-old organization’s financial instability as it faces some 300 lawsuits from men who say they were sexually abused as Scouts.
The organization says it will use the Chapter 11 process to create a trust to provide compensation to victims. Scouting programs will continue throughout.
The Boy Scouts had been exploring the possibility of bankruptcy since at least December 2018, when the group hired a law firm for a possible Chapter 11 filing. Chapter 11 usually involves the debtor making a reorganization plan to keep its business alive and pay its creditors over time.
The filing was made in Delaware and is expected to set a new deadline for victims’ claims to be made.
The Boy Scouts also published a carefully worded open letter to victims of abuse. The letter, signed by BSA National Chair Jim Turley, reads in part:
The letter encourages people who were abused to come forward and file claims so they can receive compensation from the trust that will be created.
The Boy Scouts’ potential liability is large. Mones points to just one case he won in Portland, Ore., in 2010, where the judgment against the organization was nearly $20 million.
The Long History Of Scouting In America
Founded in England by cavalry officer Robert Baden-Powell, the scouting movement made its way to the United States in 1909 thanks to Chicago newspaperman William D. Boyce. Seven years later, Congress unanimously passed a charter that helped enshrine Boy Scouts as a respected U.S. institution.
From the outset, Boy Scouts has operated on a decentralized structure, much like the Catholic Church, with the National Council serving as more advisory body and much of the day-to-day operations, including some fundraising, happening at the local level.
The youth organization says 110 million Americans have participated at some time in their lives, with a peak of more than 4 million members a year in the 1970s. Some of those members included future astronauts, Supreme Court justices and presidents, including John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford.
The organization also has played an important role in American culture.
Norman Rockwell started his career creating illustrations for the Boy Scouts Hike Book, becoming art editor for its monthly Boys Life magazine at 19. Hed go on to create dozens of works featuring Scouts, including during his stint at The Saturday Evening Post. The Scouts still own about 70 of the famed artists works.
The Boy Scout mission embodied in its oath to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight inspired major contributions from other icons and business leaders as well.
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Boy Scouts Reach Historic Settlement
The Boy Scouts of America recently reached an $850 million settlement with tens of thousands of plaintiffs who said they were sexually abused while they were still Scouts and later filed a lawsuit against the youth organization. The settlement is the largest in a child sexual abuse case in United States history.
The ruling by U.S. Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein means that the BSA can now proceed with its reorganization plan to exit bankruptcy and compensate claimants. But the group should still obtain formal approval from creditors to move ahead with the deal. These include the majority of the victims, who generally supported the settlement.
The historic settlement would also protect BSA and around 250 of its local councils from future lawsuits.
How Can I File A Claim
Claims in the Boy Scout of America Chapter 11 bankruptcy may be filed by filing a claim form with the court detailing certain information needed to evaluate the claim. If you would like assistance with filing a claim, we can help represent you throughout the process. For more information, please contact us today.
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Girl Scouts Get Out In Front Of Boy Scouts Bankruptcy Crisis With Proactive Messaging
On February 18, the Boy Scouts of America formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Exemplifying the Girl Scouts of the USA motto of Be prepared, the organization promptly sent messaging guidance to all of its members, which includes volunteers and parents.
This messaging is informative, timely and well done.
Kudos to the Girl Scouts for being ready to protect and defend its brand, and for preparing its memberswho may have to field questions from the public at Girl Scout cookie program booth salesas news of BSAs bankruptcy made national headlines.
This is a great example of proactive, pre-crisis thinking. And its also a lesson in internal communications that is, sharing accurate information in a timely fashion with front line representatives of an organization. This is a textbook case of using proactive messaging to distinguish your brand from co-petitors in the news.
The talking points below come via an email from the Girl Scouts of Orange County, California.
Camps And Troops Of Scouts
In bankruptcy, only the filing business or nonprofits assets, debts and operations are subject to the reorganization. For Catholic dioceses that have filed, this means that only the property owned by the diocese is available to sell to pay survivors claims. Because dioceses usually do not own parish churches, which typically belong to parishes, those buildings are not subject to be sold to fund settlements.
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Could the Boy Scouts case turn out differently? The national organization appears to be predicting that it wont. But Boy Scouts of America does not merely set the rules guiding its packs that bring together 2.4 million youth members and nearly 1 million adult volunteers. It supervises agreements between local scout councils and chartered organizations that independently run scouting programs.
The national organization manages some camps and other properties that might be subject to sale, including in bankruptcy, to fund settlements to survivors. Local councils and independent organizations potentially could be required to sell assets or otherwise fund a portion of the Victims Compensation Trust.
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Why Did The Boy Scouts File For Bankruptcy
The Boy Scouts faced so many sex abuse lawsuits that their insurance companies began to refuse to pay out damages in 2018. The insurance companies argued that the organization was liable for the abuse because they could have taken steps to prevent it. The Boy Scouts filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware in February when faced with the burden of the financial awards granted to those who brought suits against the organization.
Now that the Nov. 16 deadline has passed, the organization will restructure, likely adopt a new name and, per terms laid out by the judge, will no longer be subject to additional sex abuse claims. Lawyers representing the claimants say some victims could still pursue legal action against local Boy Scout councils in states with extended statute-of-limitations laws, like New York and California.
At the time of the Chapter 11 filing, Boy Scout leadership acknowledged the historic widespread pedophilia problem in the organization. While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 processwith the proposed Trust structurewill provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSAs important mission, Roger Mosby, the president and CEO of the Boy Scouts of America, said in a statement.
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Bsa Files For Bankruptcy After Lawsuits
The cases against the Boy Scouts are no normal court proceeding. The organization filed for bankruptcy in February as hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits were filed across the country some of which alleged repeated fondling, exposure to pornography and forced anal or oral sex.
When it filed for bankruptcy, the BSA said it was outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our program to abuse innocentchildren.
The bankruptcy filing, which effectively placed the lawsuits on hold, had been a matter of speculation since at least December 2018. In April 2019, court testimony indicated that the organization believed more than 7,800 of its former leaders had sexually abused at least 12,000 children since the late 1940s.
Alleged survivors will now have to pursue their claims in bankruptcy court rather than via civil proceedings, Michael Pfau, a Seattle-based attorney representing hundreds of alleged victims, told CNN in February.
Their lives wont be scrutinized, but they lose their right to a jury trial. For a lot of abuse survivors, telling their story in a court of law and forcing the organizations to defend their actions can be cathartic. That wont happen with a bankruptcy, he said.
Pfau estimated at the time that the number of claims would surpass those targeting the Catholic Church.
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Setting Boys Adrift In A Mooring
Scouts were never a perfect organization. Major problems with sexual abuse and coverups of it show that. They had quasi-Masonic aspects in Order of the Arrow ceremonies and great Scoutmaster in the sky language at camp chapel, emerging from an odd crucible of Teddy Roosevelt-style nationalist progressivism and British Empire civics of the early 20th century. Rudyard Kiplings Jungle Book also inspired Cub Scout ranks.
But in the lost world of 1969 working-class Chicago neighborhoods, in the heyday of the Boy Scouts of America, I with many other boys before and since learned valuable lessons from Scouting, and however imperfectly kept respect for the virtues of the Scout Oath and Law tucked away with my old copy of the Scout handbook and Scout pocket knife in later years.
Our eldest son found a home in a small rural troop run by dedicated military and law enforcement veterans. I often went along on camping trips as an adult volunteer leader. It was a great experience and a sad day when the troop closed recently due to dwindling membership.
Our familys relationship with regular Scouting ended around the time our younger son in fifth grade ran to get his copy of Boys Life magazine in the mail only to throw it aside because it was featuring girls, as if photoshopped into Norman Rockwell Scouting art. He lost his enthusiasm, our eldest lost his home troop, and dad didnt want to send money to a national organization adrift.