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	Hearings Start This Week in Portland Archdiocese Bankruptcy Case Associated Press, carried in KGW [Portland OR] April 7, 2007 http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8OC0F500.html Hearings scheduled to begin Tuesday on the Archdiocese of Portland's bankruptcy reorganization plan could finally spell out just how much the archdiocese will have to pay to settle the 386 clergy sexual abuse claims that have been filed since 1986. At least 169 of those claims have been resolved since the archdiocese became the first Roman Catholic diocese in the nation to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but those claims won't be paid unless the reorganization plan is approved, according to court records. No participant in the litigation is allowed to discuss the case publicly because of a gag order imposed by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan and Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure, who mediated scores of settlements and helped craft the proposed bankruptcy reorganization plan late last year. If approved, the plan will pay all current claimants who have settled their cases and will set up a $20 million fund for claims that may be filed over the next 22 years Additionally, the plan will not require any property of the archdiocese's 124 parishes to be sold to pay claims. If the plan is rejected, the archdiocese and claimants could face a decade-long legal fight over whether parish properties are owned by the archdiocese and may be sold to pay claims. Since filing for bankruptcy protection, the archdiocese has spent $15 million on legal fees to fight the lawsuits and to set up its bankruptcy plan, according to court records. The plan appears on track for approval. Court records show that five claimants who have not yet settled their cases will oppose approval, but all other interested parties approve of the plan. The five claimants charge, among other things, that the plan does not provide enough money to pay them if they win damages in jury trials At least 15 sexual abuse claims have settled out of court for an average of $623,000 since the reorganization plan was announced in December, according to court records. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris will hear arguments on the reorganization plan beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday in her seventh floor courtroom at 1001 S.W. Fifth Ave. in Portland.
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