Lawyers Say Maine Diocese Settled Older Clergy Abuse Claims Only if Others Dropped Their Lawsuits

Attorneys involved in a settlement process with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, say the diocese agreed to resolve claims from people who said they were sexually abused as children by clergy but who had lost the ability to sue — only on the condition that dozens of other claimants who could still bring lawsuits agreed to drop them, according to a Sept. 2 report by Emily Allen carried on BishopAccountability.org.

The report says the process resolved roughly 100 claims in all. The lawyers' account, as described in the report, ties the structure of the deal to a ruling by Maine's highest court that affected which survivors retained the right to sue the diocese in civil court.

Settlement terms that trade compensation for the withdrawal of live litigation are significant because civil lawsuits are often the mechanism through which internal church records and personnel histories become public. The characterizations above come from the lawyers quoted in the report, not from the diocese; readers can find the full account at the link below.