At least 80 percent of the 552 plaintiffs in clergy sex-abuse lawsuits have signed on to an $85 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston, activating the largest such settlement ever in a U.S. diocese, a church lawyer said Monday.
Attorney Thomas Hannigan Jr. told The Associated Press that he had received signed agreements from more than 442 alleged victims, putting the number over the 80 percent required for the agreement to take effect.
The threshold was reached three days before Thursday's deadline, set in September when the archdiocese agreed to the landmark settlement with the alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests.
Lawyers for plaintiffs had said earlier Monday that enough victims had signed the settlement with the archdiocese for it to take effect.
Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 120 plaintiffs, submitted 114 signed agreements to mediators on Monday afternoon. "With that 114, we have reached the 80 percent threshold to begin arbitration," Garabedian said.
Each victim will tell his or her story to a mediator who will decide the amount they receive within the range of $80,000 to $300,000 set by the agreement. That process was due to begin Tuesday, Garabedian said.
Attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr., whose firm represents about half of the 552 victims, said more than 200 of his clients had already signed their agreements.
"I've been surprised at the acceptance rate, but it's a positive," MacLeish said. "Now it's time to get going with these arbitrations."
Those that opted not to sign the agreement are now planning to take their cases to trial, he said.
"There are people that had viable cases to try, and we felt as though they could do better at trial," MacLeish said. "It's their decision to make. This turned out to be something that worked for a large number of victims."
The archdiocese has been at the center of a national scandal for nearly two years following the release of church documents revealing that archdiocese leaders shuffled abusive priests from parish to parish instead of removing them from ministry.
The $85 million settlement agreement was reached in early September, less than two months after Archbishop Sean O'Malley took over as leader of the nation's fourth-largest diocese.
Garabedian client Alexa MacPherson, 28, who says she was molested by the Rev. Peter Kanchong at St. Margaret's church in Dorchester in the late 1970s and early 1980s, met one-on-one with O'Malley last week. She said she chose to sign the agreement so she could get on with her life.
"This will be something that will always be with me, but I don't want it to run my life any longer," she said. "I've carried a lot of guilt and pain, and been ashamed and embarrassed. It's time for that to be put aside."