The Boy Scouts of America urged victims to come forward Tuesday as the historic, 110-year-old organization filed for bankruptcy protection in its first step toward creating a huge compensation fund for potentially thousands of men who were molested as youngsters decades ago by scoutmasters and other leaders. The bankruptcy filing could mean an end for the Boy Scouts of America, according to news reports.
Thousands of child sexual abuse claims in multiple states – and there are more cases coming forward every day. A lawyer who represents 1,800 men who claim to have been sexually abused as scouts said the number of victims could reach into the billions. The Scouts have thus, resorted to Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) in hopes of surviving a barrage of lawsuits, many of them made possible by recent changes in state laws to allow people to sue over long-ago sexual abuse. The most common use of this type of bankruptcy filing is for business reorganizations, but it is also available to high-income earners or couples with high real estate debts or other circumstances. Maybe by filing for this kind of insolvency, the Scouts wish to achieve a temporary stay on the cases as bankruptcy will enable them to put those cases on hold for now and continue operating. Nonetheless, the company now has no other way out than to face immediate consequences for the accusations barraged at them. Surely, they must have gotten in touch with experts like a bankruptcy attorney Harrisburg PA to deal with their case. Though it might not be of much help to them considering the situation, hopefully they will try and salvage the situation whichever way they can.
But ultimately, the Boy Scouts could be forced to sell some of their vast property holdings, including campgrounds and hiking trails, to raise money for a victims’ fund that could top $1 billion.