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	Judge Likely Aims to Prevent Bankruptcy By Sandi Dolbee and Greg Moran Union-Tribune [San Diego CA] February 22, 2007 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070222-9999-1m22priest.html Just days after San Diego Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Brom suggested the diocese may have to file for bankruptcy protection in the face of its clergy abuse lawsuits, a Los Angeles judge has ordered attorneys for both sides into court today. Judge Anthony Mohr notified attorneys yesterday to be in his Los Angeles courtroom at 1:30 p.m. today. Mohr, who has been designated to try to bring the sides to a settlement, is likely trying to speed a resolution and head off the diocese from becoming the fifth in the nation to declare bankruptcy. "If the diocese wants to settle these cases, this is the time," said San Diego attorney Andrea Leavitt, who is representing several plaintiffs. Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor for the San Diego diocese, confirmed that settlement negotiations have been going on this week in Los Angeles. "We hope we will reach a settlement," he said. "There is no settlement yet." The San Diego diocese is facing some 150 lawsuits, most of which were filed in 2003 after the state Legislature lifted for one year the legal statute of limitations, allowing the clergy cases to go forward. The cases date back for decades. Timing is particularly urgent right now because the first of the lawsuits is scheduled to go to trial next week. This past weekend, Brom distributed a letter to parishioners saying that if acceptable settlements can't be reached, "the diocese may be forced to file a Chapter 11 reorganization in bankruptcy court." The judge's order yesterday brought up reminders of the settlement in the Diocese of Orange in 2004. There, the diocese agreed to a $100 million payment to settle 90 lawsuits. That deal was struck after a grueling, four-day negotiating marathon in the cramped Stanley Mosk courthouse in Los Angeles. Lawyers worked through lunch and dinner breaks and stayed well into the night long after the courthouse doors were locked. At one time some 80 negotiators – representing plaintiffs, the diocese and insurers – were spread out across the courthouse. The final deal points were struck at 8 p.m. one Thursday night. Del Mar lawyer Irwin Zalkin, who represents about 30 percent of the San Diego plaintiffs, also had several clients in the Orange settlement. He said that the San Diego cases are not so far along. "I would say we are more at the start point of that process, more like Monday morning than Thursday night," he said. Portland, Ore., Spokane, Wash., and Davenport, Iowa, and Tucson have filed for bankruptcy over the past three years as a way of combining litigation as well as protect as many assets as possible in the priest abuse scandal. Tucson is the only one that has finalized a reorganization plan – and the San Diego diocese recently retained Susan Boswell, the lead lawyer for that diocese's bankruptcy case. Plaintiffs, and their supporters, have blasted Brom's letter, calling the bankruptcy threat a stalling tactic. "This is a move by Bishop Brom to keep crimes secret and to keep as many Catholics in the dark and deceived and blind to this crisis," Mary Grant, a Southern California spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said this week. But then came yesterday's order to go to court today. As one participant put it: "It's going to be very interesting." Greg Moran: (619) 542-4586; greg.moran@uniontrib.com
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