Six months after approving the largest sexual abuse settlement in US history, officials in Los Angeles announced the county tentatively agreed to pay another huge sum, nearly $1bn, to settle more than 400 additional claims against county employees.
In April, Los Angeles county approved a historic $4bn settlement with about 11,000 claimants and allegations of sexual abuse in LA juvenile facilities that dated back decades. On Friday, the county said it had reached another major settlement for $828m, pending approval by the board of supervisors, the county governing body, and the county claims board.
“Our settlements balance our obligation to compensate victims and treat their experiences with compassion, with the need to put strong protections in place to protect taxpayers from fraud,” Kathryn Barger, the chair of the Los Angeles county board of supervisors, said in a statement.
There are still 2,500 other unresolved cases, not covered by either settlement, that remain, and that number is expected increase, according to the county. The settlements have added to the county’s unprecedented financial problems, which mounted after the wildfires that ravaged the region earlier this year.
County officials said in announcing the new settlement that “the credibility of every individual claim will be reviewed, and plaintiffs determined to have submitted fraudulent claims will receive no money from the settlement”.
Authorities are investigating allegations that some people were paid to file claims. Nine plaintiffs included in the first settlement said they were paid to file a lawsuit, and four of have said they made fraudulent claims, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.
The lawsuits filed by thousands of people alleged they were mistreated and sexually abused in foster care and juvenile detention facilities in the county with claims as far back as 1959. They were able to sue because of a California law that took effect in 2020 that suspended the statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse victims, allowing them to bring cases for three years.
The county said its ability to assess the validity of allegations was hampered by a lack of records, the sheer number of cases and court ordered limits on legal discovery, officials said.
Under the $4bn settlement, the amount paid to each plaintiff could range from $100,000 to $3m. If the latest settlement is approved, individual awards will be determined based on factors including the severity of abuse alleged.
In its statement, the county said that claims brought by the law firm Downtown LA Law Group, or DTLA, in the April settlement will undergo additional scrutiny.
Some of the plaintiffs represented by the firm told the LA Times that people they met outside a county social services office offered them money to submit claims, drove them to the DTLA firm and then paid them amounts ranging from $50 to $200 each. Non-attorneys are prohibited from soliciting people to sign up for lawsuits with a firm under California law.
DTLA has denied any wrongdoing. Plaintiffs represented by the firm could be asked to do additional interviews and provide more proof of allegations, depending on the nature of the claim and the suspected fraud, the county said.
The county may also refer attorneys accused of paying for claims to the state bar for possible disciplinary action, officials said.
DTLA Law Group said it filtered through nearly 13,000 inquiries and only accepted a fraction of the cases.
“We do not pay our clients to file lawsuits, and we strongly oppose such actions. If we ever became aware that anyone associated with us, in any capacity, did such a thing, we would end our relationship with them immediately,” the firm said. “We want justice for real victims.”
The county has put into place more safeguards to prevent abuse and act quickly if it does occur, officials said. That includes a new hotline for reporting child sexual abuse allegations against county employees that is expected to be in place by year’s end.
But officials said the law allowing the lawsuits has placed severe financial stress on the county and required cuts to “critical” programs and services and that “common sense fixes that strike the right balance for victims and LA county and other public entities” are needed.
“LA county and other local governments must balance their obligations to past victims with the need to avoid ruinous financial impacts that would undermine the very social safety net services that our young people, families and communities depend on today,” said Joe Nicchitta, the acting county chief executive.
The $4bn settlement in April far surpassed a $2.6bn settlement reached in 2022 with Boy Scouts of America the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in US history at the time.
