Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The judge in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese bankruptcy case recently ordered creditors to opt-in to allow some of the diocese's entities to be released from liability. One lawyer says that could prove to be a challenge.
Attorney Steve Boyd represents some of the abuse victims in the case. He says he advocated for an opt-out, like in Rochester and Syracuse. "The US Trustee in all of those cases advocated for an opt-in plan, where everyone must vote or the plan could fail and judge Bucki in Buffalo ruled that this must be an op- in plan, so it makes it more difficult to settle the case," says Boyd. he says it puts a big challenge in front of him, but he believes most of the attorneys involved in both the church side and the survivor side are going to work very hard to get the plan approved.
Boyd says there are around 900 claimants. "it is a huge challenge, especially in a population of people where, by the very nature of the abuse, some of these folks suffer from various forms of mental illness. Some people have died since the case began. So it's going to be a challenge. We're going to do our best to address it as best we possibly can," says Boyd. Another issue is some don't have legal representation, and nobody's really allowed to reach out to them, other than sending them a ballot and hoping that they return it.
Boyd says the settlement is made up of monies from Catholic entities and monies from insurance companies. "We are still in the process of negotiating with a handful of smaller insurance companies, but it is our strong belief from the survivor creditor side, that everyone we've negotiated with has negotiated in good faith, so we are confident that we will be able to bring this case to fruition and get everyone, finally some sense of justice, even if, by the very nature of bankruptcy," says Boyd, He says no one gets full justice or the full amount a jury might give if they were presented with the kind of abuse that occurred, but it will be something, and it'll be substantial. "Am I confident? I'm hopeful, once we get going and get some of the work done, then I think then I could use words like confident," says Boyd.