MYCVAStory

We're about to hit "Expert Season" where every party hires experts to make their points or rebut those of others. The TCC back in September moved to hire Claro, a firm with expertise in assessing value of such claims. It was approved in October. It'll be interesting to see that report as well as others when they all start to see the light. From the docket https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/7deb7908-df9b-497d-9bf7-0fe922e7707a_6287.pdf

For many, the current settlement isn't much better. Many just might want a fresh swing at going to their Stetehouses with new ammunition to change their statutes.

Could be. I think I remember the TCC saying that their calculations also included the LCs being able to maintain their credit rating. Perhaps they'll discuss more of this tonight at the TCC.

TCC having a Town Hall Thursday night. From its website: A Town Hall will be held on Thursday, December 16 to discuss this week's developments, including the newly announced settlement agreements. Be sure you know how to fill in your ballot if voting individually. Watch our video "How to Complete & Return Your Ballot" and read more about how to be sure your vote is counted. View Most Recent Notice Zoom link: https://pszjlaw.zoom.us/j/82272826295 (no registration required) or by phone: 888-788-0099 (toll free), Webinar ID: 822 7282 6295

That makes a fuller understanding of LC available assets even more important. Awaiting what the TCC can share and hopefully soon. Amazing how the LCs said they had pledged all they could....and now here's another 40 million. Is that supposed to buy the protection for all chartered organizations?

True. THAT is why the insurers are so critical and the Hartford deal such a sin. The USAG Nasser settlement is largely being paid for by insurers. For perspective, average settlement is approximately $760 Thousand. BSA average settlement, not so much....

Some important context on this insurance contribution from an attorney opposing the plan: Like the proposed Hartford deal, this is an absolute windfall for Century and for the third parties who would likely get a release of liability for paying $0 out of their own pockets or from their separate insurers. Century insured the most claims in this bankruptcy -- about 40,000 claims. With this settlement, the two insurers who wrote the most coverage, Hartford and Century, have now settled out. If you do the math, this works out to an average of about $20,000 per survivor who had a claim covered by Century, and less than an average of $10,000 per survivor if spread across all survivors who filed a claim in the bankruptcy. This means the global settlement fund will now be around $2.4 billion. If you look at the disclosure statement, the TCC provided estimated how much the average survivor would receive based on a global fund of around $1.6 billion. For ease of math, you can increase those estimates by about 50%. If you were fondled under the clothes, you are estimated to get an average of between about $1,200 and $22,000. If you were masturbated, you are estimated to get an average of between about $2,400 and $44,000. If you suffered the worst type of abuse possible, you are estimated to get an average of between about $5,000 and $87,000. As noted above, the fine print of these proposed insurance deals is that survivors have to release their claims against any of the insureds of these participating insurers. We have not yet seen all the fine print on this new proposal, but our guess is that it will require most claims against most charter orgs to be released for $0. If you have a claim against a wealthy charter, the Hartford and Century deals likely means that claim is released for $0 from that charter.

The members of the TCC made it clear that PSZJ, its lead attorneys, offered to pay 10% of its fees to a Survivor's Trust. This offer was AFTER it was retained and NOT part of the decision. PSZJ is the TCC's bankruptcy professionals and per bankruptcy rules paid by the debtor (BSA). That system is in place in all bankrutcies so that the impaired classes (Survivors in this case) have advocacy/representation. So yes, the BSA is paying its opponents attorneys in this case. NO part of the PSZJ fees is contingent upon awards. The Coalition's professionals have written their fees into the settlement agreement. No percentage was offered to the Survivor's Trust. The judge previously has made it clear she is not rubber-stamping those fees. Lastly, the TCC has said that it has a sub-committee of its Survivors that review all of its bills before voting to approve them. Bad week for the Coalition continues. Judge just ruled that it can be deposed. Insurers lining up to do just that.

Thanks....sometimes it's tough to digest every piece of some of the realities. Gotta go onto Amazon and order my copy of "Late Career Change to Bankruptcy Attorney for Dummies."

Worth remembering, the TCC's lead firm agreed AFTER being retained to give back 10% of its fees to a Survivor's trust. It's something, and not matched by the professionals from any other group. I know, I too wish I had a different career choice at this point but still....

One piece of news from the TCC Town Hall is that the Local Council "Dashboards" were submitted with the expert reports and are expected to be posted on the TCC website by Tuesday.

Given the current sensitivity around mediation I suspect all parties will be VERY careful about what is said between groups "privately." The Judge booted a mediator this past week. I wouldn't want to be in her sights for breaking mediation confidentiality!

FWIW....TCC Town Hall tonight. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that the Tort Claimants’ Committee will hold a virtual town hall meeting on December 9, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern Time). Zoom: https://pszjlaw.zoom.us/j/82272826295 (no registration required) Dial-In by Telephone: 888-788-0099 (Toll Free), Webinar ID: 822 7282 6295. If asked for a “Participant ID,” just press # PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that, pursuant to section 1102(b)(3) and 1103(c) of the Bankruptcy Code, the TCC holds virtual town hall meetings for Survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their representatives Survivors who are not appointed to the Tort Claimants’ Committee to provide updates and access to information about the bankruptcy cases. The identity of participants shall be kept strictly confidential, but if you ask questions using the Zoom “Q&A” function, you might want to use your initials or otherwise abbreviate your name because the questions and any answers may be publicly visible or subject to discovery in the Debtors’ bankruptcy case. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that this Town Hall will include: Topics Extension of Voting Deadline Communications with the TCC and its Counsel, Mediation Update, TCC’s continued goals of (1) more money for the trust, (2) independent governance of the settlement trust, and (3) meaningful youth protection.

Objections to the plan and supplement are not due until the new year. She knew they were coming. This makes the TCC's unintentional email mistake seem minor compared to an intentionally agreed upon deal between the BSA and Coalition to try and install Carey as special reviewer (sort of a trust mediator and not Trustee). The judge is going to hear a LOT more about mediation now. Remember, the BSA and Coalition have been saying its been ongoing, intensive, valuable, productive etc. The TCC has complained that its been excluded at times and non-settling insurers have said the same. So now we have a judge that looked at the BSA's actions, in light of their contention about the value of mediation, and has said that at least one of the two remaining mediators was not impartial to the standard that the bankruptcy code required. As well, she also brought up the possibility of eliminating the mediation altogether. Why didn't she? Well, there's one mediator remaining and his specialty is insurance mediation. So, the BSA must now push that its plan was created "in good faith" when one of the mediators was working in concert with them to have a paid role in the Trust after confirmation? That isn't good faith and the Judge knows it. The BSA and Coalition have a VERY big problem now and we're still 48 days away from a confirmation hearing with objectror's expert reports and more objections still to come.

Good day for Survivors in court. The Judge said that the appointment of Kevin Cary, as a part of any trust, is a "non-starter" and now places the impartiality of the mediation in doubt. The selection of Carey made her think about cancelling mediation! But, because one is left, Gallagher, mediation may continue. Carey is no longer a mediator!! So the only mediator left is one who specializes in insurance mediation. The judge is completely amazed that the BSA and Coalition would try this.

The Judge and Trustee are two entirely different entities. Remember, a hearing or two ago the Trustee suggested a solution was for teh three AIS firms to stop contacting their clients entirely!

The judge is trying to do everything possible to eliminate arguments at confirmation. So, this deletes "we didn't have enough time."

Not exactly. Voting report is 1/6, confirmation hearing still 1/24 start, various objection deadlines altered slightly. BSA spoke about reserving the right to challenge reporting requests. Sounds like they may not want to report out where the $3500 elections came from as applied to Council.

And with that....voting deadline extended two weeks. If you thought calls from an attorney were about to come to an end, you were wrong. If you wanted time to get a ballot and change your vote, you've got it.

Noticed this: NOTICE OF DECEMBER 2, 2021 VIRTUAL TOWN HALL MEETING HOSTED BY THE OFFICIAL TORT CLAIMANTS’ COMMITTEE PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Official Committee of Tort Claimants’ (the “TCC”) holds weekly meetings to keep survivors of abuse (“Survivors”) and their representatives informed. The next meeting will be on December 2, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. (ET). The details for the next meeting are below. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that the Tort Claimants’ Committee will hold a virtual town hall meeting on December 2, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern Time). Zoom: https://pszjlaw.zoom.us/j/82272826295 (no registration required) Dial-In by Telephone: 888-788-0099 (Toll Free), Webinar ID: 822 7282 6295. If asked for a “Participant ID,” just press # PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that, pursuant to section 1102(b)(3) and 1103(c) of the Bankruptcy Code, the TCC holds virtual town hall meetings for Survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their representatives Survivors who are not appointed to the Tort Claimants’ Committee to provide updates and access to information about the bankruptcy cases. The identity of participants shall be kept strictly confidential, but if you ask questions using the Zoom “Q&A” function, you might want to use your initials or otherwise abbreviate your name PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that this Town Hall will include: Topics Communications with the TCC and its Counsel TCC’s continued goals of (1) more money for the trust, (2) independent governance of the settlement trust, and (3) meaningful youth protection. Voting Deadline and Confirmation Timeline PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that the Town Hall meetings will occur on every Thursday at 8:00 p.m. (ET) using the same Zoom link above and dial in information. Recordings and transcripts of all Town Hall meetings are posted after they are concluded at www.TCCBSA.com.

This was the important takeaway of the day. Whether the TCC refiles its motion or not several parties stated that a fight is coming over the validity of some votes. The last matter though, and the Judge making a decision, was telling because the Judge made it clear that attorneys who signed claims were to have first-hand knowledge of the claim. This can come via discussion directly with the client, reading a client's report of what happened, etc. She signaled this long ago when the issue first came up. She made it clear then that she ONLY wanted attorneys signing claim forms for their clients when they had enough knowledge of the claim to do so. So, the discovery then will look like this "Mr. Attorney, tell me about the process you used to determine that claim 12345 you signed was accurate and truthful." If, and that's a big IF but I suspect it's the reason insurers are pressing this, Mr. Attorney bought clients/claims and didn't do any due diligence then it's going to put those claims and votes in question. As ThenNow pointed out, it appears to be the reason the Coalition brought in a heavy hitter like Robinson. It doesn't want the discovery. In court, always look to see what a party is fighting or preparing to fight the hardest. It's often its biggest weakness.

I appreciated the light humor! To be fair, the TCC's Town Hall was about six minutes long and basically said there were no developments, they encouraged every Survivor to vote (regardless of what that vote was) and keep an eye on their website for any updates. No bait and switch. As far as Stang stepping down, I have to guess that this was a tough decision by PSZJ but it speaks to wanting Survivors and the court focused on the settlement. PSZJ said in court it made a mistake and is owning it. It will now be interesting to see how far the Coalition wants to rub PSZJ's nose in the dirt. We have to remember that these bankruptcy attorneys all compete for the same business. So now they're going to act like children playing in the sandbox, reaching for a toy at the same time, and neither will let it go. I was happy to see the TCC working to ignore that spat and I fully expect the Coalition having won this fight over a toy to now wave it in the TCC's face. Survivors don't like bullies. The TCC as nine survivors and NOT a group of lawyers has already shown it won't sit quietly and be bullied. That'll be the wrong move if the Coalition overplays its hand. It's still about money and YP. Every Survivor should be thinking about the MOST the Coalition can get from the BSA and insurers. Starting off so low makes the MOST possible a bar too low for me. Let's see if any insurance settlements are announced and whether they come with charter organization releases. If so, every Survivor whether they have voted or not should consider the ramifications of that and whether the settlement is anywhere near giving a CO a pass on all responsibility without a contribution and for open States what that means realistically for a case already filed where the insurance has evaporated.

I disagree. Look, I applaud ANY survivor involvement but this is putting a band-aid on a spurting artery. Will survivors help at any level? Sure. But think as well how that is going to shake out over the coming years and the challenges inherent with volunteers let alone with the sensitivity of the "qualification" needed. What's needed is an independent body made up of survivors, bsa-types and MOST importantly outside experts to inform the BSA and make recommendations, assess accountability and data to be published, and serve at the highest levels. First the BSA said it would add a Survivor to its Board. ONE Survivor. Now LCs are saying the same. The TCC has repeatedly said that an organization responsible for 82,500 victims needs a lot more than that. All this seems to me to be is again the absolute minimum and may even do more harm than good. Abuse has gone on with well-meaning volunteers serving on Boards. Adding ONE Survivor, as the press release says will help but Survivors, and I'm one, do NOT have the expertise to make recommendations and enact cutting edge abuse elimination protocols. So disappointing.

NOT surprised.

The comparison between the two groups is increasingly striking. The TCC in order to avoid ANY connection to a mistake by one of its staff replaces its lead with another attorney from the firm. The Coalition Tells everyone in its Tuesday night Town Hall to tune back in Friday for BIG news and has....NONE. High road....low road.