Boy Scouts of America Bankruptcy

• The Chapter 11 bankruptcy process offers the opportunity for BSA to come up with a reorganization plan to meet its obligations to creditors, including Scouting abuse survivors, and to restructure itself so that it can come out of bankruptcy and continue operating.

• First, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process means that the bankruptcy court will set a deadline for filing claims, approximately 6 months or so. This deadline severely limits Scouting abuse survivors' time to file claims for their abuse, so coming forward now is of the essence.
• On Monday May 18, the bankruptcy court set the deadline for filing claims for November 16, 2020.
• Second, the bankruptcy filing means that to reach a settlement with the thousands of Scouting abuse survivors across the U.S., individual survivors will not get their day in court. However, the streamlined nature of settlement process may mean abuse survivors will get the compensation they deserve more quickly and efficiently than having future individual trial dates.

Our goal is to achieve a measure of justice and fair compensation to the survivors.

• Currently, AIS is advocating for the inclusion of local councils in the bankruptcy proceeding, as well as a way to hold the sponsoring organizations accountable if they had knowledge of the abuse.

• We are preparing and will be filing claims on behalf of all members of AIS as soon as the Court finalizes that bankruptcy procedure. We are actively preparing each file to meet the criteria the Court will require.

• The Boy Scouts say they plan to use the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process to establish a Trust that will provide just compensation for Scouting abuse victims. 
• We hope that BSA will take the opportunity, in addition to providing compensation to past victims of sex abuse, to take the significant steps that are necessary both to “come clean,” and provide all stakeholders and law enforcement all of the information in their files about past and current abusers, and to reform BSA programs to guarantee the safety of all current and future scouts.

• It is important for those abused in Scouting—no matter what their age or the state where they live—to come forward now. The bankruptcy court just set a window of time for the filing of claims, and this window could be the last chance for abuse victims to seek justice. 
• The deadline for filing claims against the BSA for sexual abuse is November 16, 2020.
• After this five-month window of time is over, Scouting abuse survivors may no longer get to hold the BSA accountable for their abuse.