In a widely anticipated move, the Diocese of Rockville Centre has filed for federal bankruptcy protection. In their announcement yesterday, diocesan officials blamed a surge of priest abuse lawsuits and COVID-19 for the bankruptcy filing. What wasn’t mentioned concerns the fact that a bankruptcy filing…
Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York ruled Friday that the bar date for abuse victims to submit claims should be the same day that the extended Child Victims Act expires – Aug. 14, 2021.…
Father Michel Mulloy, 66, was appointed by Pope Francis on June 19 to be bishop of Duluth, Minnesota and was due to be formally installed in a ceremony on October 1, 2020. However, in the interim, a sexual abuse allegation was lodged against the priest…
In 2016, prior to his court appearance to provide testimony against a Catholic bishop, Pope Francis summoned the priest to the Vatican for a talk about his testimony. Francis wanted to know what the priest was going to say about an embattled bishop and let…
Recently a confluence of events has led me to reflect upon a significant area of my work as a lawyer. For the last two decades, I have represented and advocated for survivors of childhood sexual abuse-whether they survived abuse from a Catholic priest, minister, rabbi,…
In a recent 2019 summary of changes in statutes of limitation for child sex abuse, written by CHILDUSA, 41 states had either changed their statutes of limitations or had bills pending to do so. In the past two years 15 states have extended or suspended…
According to a report issued the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in 2019 the number of allegations of Catholic clergy sex abuse of minors more than quadrupled compared to the average from the previous five years. The 2019 report, which covers July 2018 through June…
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive degenerative illness that causes damage and nerve cell loss in the brain. The dopamine-producing cells are vital for smooth and controlled muscle movement. The loss of these cells due to Parkinson’s disease is currently irreparable, and treatment is limited. While…
A suspension of trucking safety laws has been extended due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s unclear when things will return to normal, and the suspension is valid at the federal level through the end of 2020. The suspensions, which began shortly after COVID-19 started to…
It’s fair to say that COVID has replaced terrorism as a focus of national concern these days, but justice for victims of terrorism marches on. In 2015, the Department of Justice (DOJ) took a critical step toward holding foreign terrorists accountable when it established the…
