About 1,300 abuse survivors agree to an $800m NY Catholic Church settlement, pending signatures

The Catholic Archdiocese of New York has agreed to pay $800 million (£615 million) to around 1,300 survivors who reported sexual abuse by clergy and other church staff. The settlement brings years of legal disputes and negotiations closer to an end. Lawyers representing the survivors announced the agreement. It covers a large number of civil lawsuits filed under a New York state law that temporarily allowed people to bring claims over historical sexual abuse, even when the usual time limit for legal action had passed. Both sides have agreed to the main terms of the financial settlement. However, lawyers said the final documents still need to be processed and formally signed before payments can be made to individual survivors.Legal changes opened path to justiceThe legal action began to grow in 2019, when New York lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act. The law created a temporary period during which adults who had experienced sexual abuse as children could file civil lawsuits, even if the alleged abuse had happened decades earlier. Before the law changed, strict time limits had stopped many people from taking legal action against religious institutions, schools and youth organisati...