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	Lawyers Submit Hefty Bill to Portland Archdiocese Associated Press, carried in KGW August 21, 2007 http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8R59KMO0.html Lawyers who worked on the Portland Archdiocese bankruptcy case have submitted a legal bill for more than $18 million. The tab includes $10.8 million in fees and $1 million in expenses charged by four law firms representing the archdiocese. The rest are expenses and fees charged by attorneys and experts working for other parties, including a committee of plaintiffs. In Bankruptcy Court, the party seeking protection pays for everyone's lawyers. The archdiocese declared bankruptcy in 2004 to head off more lawsuits from people claiming they were sexually abused by priests or other employees. The archdiocese emerged from bankruptcy in April by settling with about 175 people. Attorneys for those who filed lawsuits earned an estimated one-third of the $50 million in sex abuse settlements. That puts the total payout to lawyers at about $35 million. The archdiocese also set up a $20 million fund for future lawsuits. The archdiocese paid for the bankruptcy with about $50 million in insurance money, other assets and a line of credit. Portland was the first archdiocese in the country to seek bankruptcy protection from priest sex abuse litigation. Dioceses in Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane; Davenport, Iowa; and San Diego have since filed for bankruptcy. In a separate legal case, Oregon paid more than $1 million to the Idaho-based law firm it hired the defend the state in lawsuits brought by 14 men who claimed that a priest sexually abused them at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn during the 1970s. The state also paid $372,348 in legal fees to the lawyer who represented the priest.
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