MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Dec. 19, 2014
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has reached an agreement with its insurance companies for an additional $2.3 million, bringing to $10.3 million the amount its insurers will pay to help the archdiocese emerge from its nearly 4-year-old bankruptcy.
Under the terms of a motion filed in the bankruptcy this week, half of the $10.3 million would go to pay administrative costs — primarily legal fees that have now topped $16 million. Half would go into a trust for 128 of the bankruptcy’s creditors, men and women who were sexually abused by diocesan priests as children.
The settlement brings the amount available to those survivors to $5.15 million, from $4 million in the archdiocese’s original plan of reorganization.
Victims and their attorneys blasted the settlement as inadequate, and said they would object to the plan in court.
“All the insurance settlements here shut survivors out of the process and are taking money from survivors and putting it in the pockets of the bankruptcy attorneys,” said Michael Finnegan, whose St. Paul, Minn., firm represents most of the 575 men and women who have filed claims in the bankruptcy alleging they were molested by priests and others connected to the church.
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