LA County unanimously approves $4 billion sexual abuse settlement
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a "historic" $4 billion agreement on Tuesday to settle more than 6,800 alleged sexual abuse cases that date back to 1959.
"While no amount of money can erase the horrors that they endured, this agreement acknowledges the profound harm inflicted on thousands of children over the course of decades," said Adam Slater, founding and managing partner of Slater Slater Schulman, LLP.
Slater and several law firms represented the thousands of alleged victims. After the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the settlement, he described it as "closure" for his firm's clients.
"Today's resolution for approximately 7,000 people was made possible due to the bravery of the survivors, the perseverance of counsel, and the willingness of the County of Los Angeles to fully confront its problem head-on and help the generations of children it harmed find closure," said Slater.
The cases stem from allegations at county juvenile facilities, including MacLaren Children's Center, which permanently closed in 2003. A majority of the sexual abuse claims happened in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
Victims were represented by other law firms, including McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP, Becker Law Group, ACTS Law and Boucher LLP, in addition to Slater.
"This landmark settlement represents restorative justice for victims. Restorative justice is a societal recognition that a horrible wrong has been committed and compensation is justified," said co-lead attorney Patrick McNicholas. "By balancing justice for the victims with a commitment to reform, this resolution ensures both acknowledgment of past wrongs and a pathway to a safer, more accountable future."
After tentatively agreeing to the settlement in early April, the county said it would be paying "hundreds of millions of dollars through 2030 and substantial continuing annual payments through fiscal year 2050-51." It is the "costliest financial settlement in the history of LA County," officials said after the tentative agreement.
"On behalf of the County, I apologize wholeheartedly to everyone who was harmed by these reprehensible acts," Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport said after the tentative agreement on April 4. "The historic scope of this settlement makes clear that we are committed to helping the survivors recover and rebuild their lives—and to making and enforcing the systemic changes needed to keep young people safe."
The county said an independent team of allocation experts will determine and administer the awards to individual claims. It plans to pay for the settlement, including cash from reserve funds, cuts to department budgets and the issuance of judgment obligation bonds.
Davenport listed the $4 billion settlement as one of the "mounting financial challenges" that led to her proposing $88.9 million worth of cuts in her budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
"We are in uncharted territory with these simultaneous pressures on our budget," Davenport said. "Any of these alone would be daunting, but taken together these challenges—the wildfires, the AB 218 settlement, the threat of deep cuts in federal funding—are cause for great concern."
In 2020, the newly implemented Assembly Bill 218 gave victims of childhood sexual abuse an increased amount of time to sue their abusers, even after the statute of limitations had expired.
