The Boy Scouts of America may be considering bankruptcy after dealing with multiple lawsuits concerning how the organization handled allegations of sexual abuse.
Per the Wall Street Journal, "people familiar with the matter" say that leaders of the Boy Scouts have hired Sidley Austin LLP, a Chicago Law Firm, for legal help with filing bankruptcy.
Filing for bankruptcy could provide the Boy Scouts fiscal and legal relief since they've been inundated with million dollar lawsuits over alleged abuse incidents.
More specifically, filing for bankruptcy may allow the Boy Scout organization to ask judges to delay sexual abuse cases.
In 2018, several cases of alleged abused surfaced in the U.S., per the Associated Press:
In one of the most recent sexual abuse cases, on December 5, a 44-year-old man has filed a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts in New Mexico, saying that two Catholic Priests serving as troop leaders sexually abused him for years, starting in the early 1980's.
In another December incident, a 21-year-old Boy Scout volunteer, James Colter, of Muncie, Indianna, allegedly engaged in sexual acts with a 15-year-old boy scout.
In November, two men filed lawsuits against the Boy Scouts, alleging that they were abused by Boy Scout leaders who were allowed to lead troops despite past offenses. One is seeking $5 million and the other seeks $9 milllion.
In October, there was another lawsuit in Missouri, where a St. Louis man was charged with a sexually abusing a 8-year-old boy.
Also in October, a former Boy Scout filed a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts, claiming to be sexually abused 25 years ago by a Scout Leader.
In August, a Pennsylvennia Boy Scout leader admitted he sexually abused three scouts over a period of years.
In June, a former Ohio Boy Scout leader was sentenced to eight years in prison for multiple counts of sexual battery and gross sexual imposition on a boy scout.
In May, another ex-Boy Scout leader in Ohio was charged with sexual battery for abusing a boy scout teenager in his troop.
In January, another former Boy Scout leader was sentenced to over two decades in prison after having pled no contest to charges of sexual abuse.
So many lawsuits occured that four men were suing the Boy Scouts at the same time.
Last year also had sexual abuse cases, including one where two men were filing lawsuits for abuse against the Boy Scouts for $7 million each, totaling $14 million.
So far, in a response to these allegations, the BSA offered apologies to victims in a statement and said that they are making sure that the programming of the Boy Scouts of America continues "uninterrupted" at national and local levels.
The BSA also said that matters of this nature have their current, full attention, and that they are being cooperative with victims.
"We have a social and moral responsibility to fairly compensate victims who suffered abuse during their time in Scouting, and we also have an obligation to carry out our mission to serve youth, families and local communities through our programs," the press release said. "...As you all know, we have always taken care of our victims- we believe them, we believe in fairy compensating them and we have paid for their unlimited counseling, by a provider of their choice, regardless the amount of time that has passed since the abuse. I want to stress that at no time in our history have we knowingly allowed a sexual predator to work with youth, and we always seek to act swiftly when alerted to these allegations. "
