LA county reaches tentative $828M agreement to settle 400 more claims of sexual abuse

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County has reached a tentative $828 million agreement to settle more than 400 additional sexual abuse claims against county employees, months after approving the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history, officials said Friday.

The agreement still needs approval from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The county approved the historic $4 billion settlement in April for thousands of claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959, officials said.

It also comes as the county investigates allegations that some people included in the $4 billion settlement were paid to file claims. A Los Angeles Times investigation reported that nine plaintiffs said they were paid to sue, and four of them have said they made fraudulent claims.

County officials said in announcing the new settlement for 400 additional claims 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.”

The plaintiffs 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 to bring cases for three years.

The lawsuits filed by thousands of people alleged they were mistreated and sexually abused in foster care and juvenile detention facilities in the county.

Initially the $4 billion agreement was to settle 7,000 claims but that grew to 11,000, officials said. The county said it now faces as many as 2,500 additional cases beyond those covered by the two settlements and that the total number of claims could run as high as 14,000 or more. Officials said the settlements were causing financial strain for the county.

Under the $4 billion settlement, the amount paid to each plaintiff could range from $100,000 to $3 million. If the latest settlement is approved, individual awards will be determined based on factors including the severity of abuse alleged.

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said the system is vulnerable to fraud but officials are strengthening their review process to ensure settlement money only goes to victims.

To prevent fraud, the county said every plaintiff must complete a detailed, multipage summary, under penalty of perjury, of the abuse suffered, and additional proof may be requested.

Claims brought by the law firm Downtown L.A. Law Group, or DTLA, in the April settlement will undergo additional scrutiny, officials said.

Some of the plaintiffs represented by the firm told the Los Angeles 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.

California law prohibits non-attorneys from soliciting people to sign up for lawsuits with a firm.

DTLA denies any wrongdoing. Those plaintiffs 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.

“The conduct alleged to have occurred by the DTLA firm is absolutely outrageous and must be investigated by the appropriate authorities. Not only does it undermine our justice system, it also deprives legitimate claimants of just compensation,” said Dawyn R. Harrison, the county’s counsel. “While both settlements have protections to ensure that this is not a windfall for fraudulent plaintiffs, legislative protections must be put in place to ensure unscrupulous lawyers don’t get windfalls at the expense of survivors of abuse.”

DTLA Law Group said in a statement that 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’s 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.

The county has also put into place more safeguards to prevent abuse and act quickly if it does occur. 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.

The $4 billion settlement in April far surpassed a $2.6 billion settlement reached in 2022 with Boy Scouts of America that was the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history at the time.