Los Angeles County said last week it has reached a tentative agreement to settle more than 6,800 child sexual abuse cases by providing $4 billion to resolve the claims dating back to 1959.
The county Board of Supervisors is expected to review the settlement – which county officials label the costliest in county history – by the end of this month. The agreement would resolve most of the cases brought against the county in the wake of the passage of Assembly Bill 218, a measure that took effect in 2020 and expanded the timeline for victims of child sexual abuse to file claims.
“On behalf of the county, I apologize wholeheartedly to everyone who was harmed by these reprehensible acts,” Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport said in a prepared statement released on April 4. “The historic scope of this settlement makes clear that we are committed to helping the survivors recover and rebuild their lives – and to making and enforcing the systemic changes needed to keep young people safe.”
The county reports that most of the claims in the settlement relate to incidents that occurred in the period from 1980 through 2010. The child sexual abuse allegedly occurred in Probation Department facilities and the MacLaren Children’s Center, which was shuttered in 2003.
The agreement will weigh on the county’s financial standing through fiscal year 2050-2051, the county said in a news release. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be paid annually to those who were abused through 2030, with more annual financing payments continuing an additional two decades.
“The county’s plan to pay for the settlement includes cash from reserve funds, issuance of judgment obligation bonds and proposed cuts in departmental budgets,” the county said in the news release.
Among the law firms involved in the settlement talks were McNicholas & McNicholas LLP and Becker Law Group, which filed a complaint against the county in 2022 on behalf of 1,200 plaintiffs who alleged they were mistreated or abused while living at probation facilities and juvenile camps.
“The purpose of this settlement is to provide restorative justice for the thousands of abuse survivors,” attorney Patrick McNicholas told the Southern California Record in an email. “Aside from the compensatory aspect, the societal recognition that there has been a horrible wrong creates an opportunity to move forward with the lifelong healing process.
The settlement is the largest award ever paid to resolve sexual abuse cases, according to McNicholas.
“The amount reflects the reality that sex abuse inflicts a lifelong injury and is born out by the value juries put on these cases across the country,” he said. “A robust protocol has been put in place to ensure that the allocations to individuals are fair and just in each and every case.”
County officials stressed that over the past 25 years, the county has put in place safeguards to protect children who are under the care of the county Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Probation Department. These include an emphasis on home-based foster care, the creation of an ombudsman office to advocate for children and investigate abuse charges, comprehensive background checks for new hires and a zero-tolerance policy for abuse, according to an April 3 statement.
Other efforts to protect children under the county’s care include a 2015 decision to create an Office of Child Protection to improve communication between agencies, the enactment of a Foster Youth Bill of Rights in 2020 and the creation of a Youth Commission a year later to provide input from those who received foster care on county policymaking.