Higher Number of Victims of Abuse by Priests Means Reduced Payout

The News
January 13, 2012

http://www.ngnews.ca/News/Local/2012-01-13/article-2864103/Higher-number-of-victims-of-abuse-by-priests-means-reduced-payout/1

Victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Diocese of Antigonish will be getting lesser cash awards than expected.

A letter sent to members of the lawsuit in early November from their lawyer indicates that the victims will receive just under 62 per cent of the amount they had originally anticipated from the settlement reached with the diocese.

Initially, the settlement was supposed to cover approximately 80 victims of sexual abuse. But about 140 people have since joined the lawsuit, and part of the agreement signed by the participants was a clause that resulted in the individual settlements being pro-rated to the number that joined the class action suit.

“As you know from the first instalment payment, the total value of all the claims that have been settled totals more than the amount of money the court ordered the Diocese to raise to pay the claims,” wrote John McKiggan, who represents the claimants.

“That means that all of the claims have to be reduced (pro-rated) so that all the survivors share the compensation fund equally and proportionally to the value of their claim.”

That has meant that every victim’s claim has been reduced by almost 40 per cent so that everyone shares the compensation fund equally and proportionately.

For example, if a victim was awarded $100,000, the pro-rated award would be slightly more than $60,000. The second instalment of their payment, which was paid out with the correspondence from McKiggan in November, would be 35 per cent of the award.

Of those funds, however, the claimants will also have to pay their legal fees of 25 per cent, as well as 15 per cent HST on those fees, further reducing the actual cash that the victims receive.

A local victim, who doesn’t want his identity revealed, said he was initially happy that it was decided to stagger the payments.

“A lot of lives were so warped by this that if they had gotten one big payment, it wouldn’t help them, they might blow it on alcohol or gambling,” said the man. “If they blew the first payment, they’d think better of doing it with the second.”

But now he’s had to accept that he’ll never see all of the money he was awarded.

“We’re all getting paid less,” said the man, who knows of 26 other boys who suffered abuse at the hands of the same priest who harmed him.

“Those on the expedited settlement agreed to take less in order to allow more people to participate in the suit, and that’s only right – shouldn’t we reach out to the victims? But I’ll never see the amount I was awarded.”

The Diocese of Antigonish has been working to raise the money to ensure they met the deadline for the second instalment payment and were able to do so as ordered by the court.

The third and final payment is due this November.