Chapter 11 announced - Part 14 - Plan Effective

[RememberSchiff]

Scouts Lawyer Seeks to ‘Shine a Light’ on Mass Tort System Flaws

..."In the Boy Scouts case, former clients of Slater Slater Schulman LLP approached Friedman, he said, after the settlement trustee said she stopped processing thousands of Slater claims for irregularities. The New York-based firm acknowledged its claims were being investigated over “procedural and factual problems.”

A Delaware judge next week is scheduled to hear Friedman’s unusual request to take over some Slater clients and, more pointedly, reduce or outright deny Slater’s 40% contingency fees in the case, which he estimates could top $50 million.

Slater on Thursday lashed back at Friedman, filing a response that called his motion an improper bid to interfere with their clients and “wholly untethered to any recognized legal authority.”

Friedman insists he didn’t seek out the role or the clients, saying that they approached him after reading his past public criticisms about mass tort firms gaming the system.

“I didn’t ask for this,” he told Bloomberg Law last week in an interview near his Stuart, Fla. home.

But the lawyer sees it as a golden opportunity to go beyond talking and writing about the need for change. With clients in the case, he can actively litigate the problems he says have followed mass torts into the bankruptcy system."

More at source:

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/scouts-lawyer-seeks-to-shine-a-light-on-mass-tort-system-flaws

[clbkbx]

On 10/7/2025 at 9:35 AM, clbkbx said:

October 1 update:

A little late in the month... feels a bit of a slog at this point with all of the unknowns.

November 1 update: average $588,121 per TDP claim... again, about the same for the last few months but steadily rising (for reference, it was $557,053 six months ago).

• For the TDP, 72% claims determined and 52% paid (30,413 paid)
• For the IRO, 58% claims determined and 27% paid (54 paid)

The "paid" percentages include me this month! Thanks to my counsel, Jeff Anderson & Associates. 

The Trust has valued the paid-only claims so far at just about $18B (noting that, presumably and in some cases, confirmedly, the IRO determinations push this higher... this only accounts for the first $1MM of any IRO determination). If the mix remains similar through the remaining unpaid claims, the Trust would need $34B. With the SSS issues, hard to say if it does remain the same. Initially, I was going to note that 30% of disallowed claims were in the last quarter! But there were also a lot more claims determined, so the disallowed claims percentage only ticked up a litte (1.7%, from 1.4%) inching up to 1.7% of claims determined). I think reasonable bounds are $25-35B. 

I hope everyone is hanging in there and has a lovely Thanksgiving. 

 

[clbkbx]

In light of the Liberty Mutual filing, I’ve been thinking about this post:

The Bates approach being accepted really hung survivors out to dry. If implemented, unfortunately, the operative information needed to provide to the trust was not that the abuse happened, but that someone else was also abused by the same person. On par with the unfairness of the SOL. 

A dude with the worst abuse by one (known) abuser in a 10% state: $2.7MM reduced by 90% and then again by 90% receives $27k. 

I thought the SOL information was fairly detailed when people voted on the plan. That there could be a 90% reduction based on whether other (living) scouts put in a claim about the same person was not really apparent. 

Maybe this was the best way to maximize insurance coverage but it definitely seems unfair and unexplained.