Rockville Centre Diocese Agrees To $320 Million Bankruptcy: Law Firm

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY — The Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre (DRVC) and its parishes have announced a proposed global settlement with hundreds of sex abuse survivors, who allege they were abused as children at the DRVC’s parishes, churches, and schools, lawyers for survivors announced on Thursday.

The settlement is based on DRVC's parishes filing for a $320 million bankruptcy, and it will halt a number of jury trials against the Diocese and its parishes.

"The timing of this settlement speaks volumes. With less than two weeks to go before the first jury trial, the Diocese, its parishes, and its insurance companies have come to the table and we have a global deal. Ironically, the Diocese filed for bankruptcy in order to avoid jury trials, but then spent the last four years asserting our clients’ claims had little or no value," said Jason Amala, a partner and sexual abuse attorney with Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, who represents more than a dozen survivors who filed claims in the DRVC bankruptcy.

Patch attempted to reach the Diocese for comment.

Filed on October 1, 2020, the DRVC’s bankruptcy is one of the longest pending Catholic bankruptcies in the country, and has also been one of the most contentious.

Law firm Slater Slater Schulman served as a mediation party in the historic settlement, under which a trust will receive approximately $320.5 million for the benefit of survivors.

Alan Slater, who served as a mediating attorney said: "Importantly, this is the largest Diocese settlement in the history of New York State, and the first Diocese settlement to be reached nationwide following the Supreme Court’s recent Purdue Pharma decision relating to non-consensual third-party releases.

Slater Slater Schulman represents 100 of the approximately 600 survivor-claimants in this matter.

The bankruptcy was originally filed after hundreds of child sex abuse lawsuits made possible by the Child Victims Act. The CVA opened a “lookback” window that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations and bestowed survivors with the unprecedented opportunity to seek restitution for decades-old child sex abuse crimes. During a two-year period that ended in August 2021, PCVA and The Marsh Law Firm filed nearly 700 cases in state court.

"The Diocese claimed $200 million was its 'best and final' offer, and threatened to dismiss its own bankruptcy if survivors did not accept its low ball offer. Rather than capitulate, the survivors told the Diocese, its parishes, and their insurance companies to get ready to face New York juries for their wrongdoing. On the proverbial courthouse steps at the first jury trial, the Diocese, its parishes, and its insurance carriers have finally agreed to settle for more than $120 million over their last offer," said James Marsh, a partner and sexual abuse attorney with Marsh Law Firm PLLC.