What goes on behind the scenes in an Institutional Child Sexual Abuse matter? Plenty!
It has recently been reported in The Age that a “Landmark” settlement of approximately $3 Million inclusive of costs had been achieved against the Catholic Church for abuses perpetrated against a child in the confessional by serial paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale. It appears that the costs to be deducted were about $1.5 million so that leaves $1.5 million for the claimant.
We say well done, it is a substantial payment to the abused, but is it Landmark? Not really.
Almost all claims of this nature settle prior to being heard. Rarely does the claimant, and certainly not the defendant, want to air the agony of what happened so many years ago in open court, nor do they have to do so. Claimants have the choice as to whether or not they wish to have their matter heard before the Court. As a result, the vast majority of claims are settled at a mediation between the parties, and the resulting settlements are therefore made under the cloak of confidentiality.
Koffels are known in the legal profession as the “gold standard” in litigating and achieving proper settlement numbers as a matter of course, but no one is allowed to publicise it unless it is a matter of a judgement on public record. One such judgement achieved by Koffel was a payment of $1.5 million to our client, This figure is not inclusive of the costs which were paid in addition to this amount (see details here). We are exceptionally proud of this achievement and standing amongst our peers.
So is this reported settlement of up to $3 Million inclusive of both parties costs truly exceptional?
At Koffels we drill down to the anticipated life’s earnings of our client, we support them with reports from the top experts in their field, and that is where the genuine picture of true compensation is seen. We take our time to fully prepare our claims, and never settle for “peppercorn” payouts to simply turnover matters. We fight for the best possible result in each given circumstance.
Compensation payments of the past have been little short of a disgrace, the methods of having victims sign off on meagre settlements is shameful, and the redress scheme in most cases is an embarrassment to those who have established it. It is an avenue to pay less, not fair redress.
We look at today’s headline and think, this is not special, this is what should be an expected norm for a life time of pain.
