Michigan Clergy Sexual Abuse After the Diocese of Saginaw Report: Your Civil Legal Rights
If you are reading this page, you may have just seen the Attorney General’s report — 38 clergy members named, decades of allegations, an institution that its own bishop admitted failed to handle these cases the right way. You may be a survivor yourself, carrying something that happened years or decades ago in a parish in Saginaw, Bay City, Midland, or one of the smaller towns across the 11 counties the Diocese of Saginaw covers. You may be the family member of someone who survived, or someone who did not survive. Whoever you are: what happened to you was not your fault, it was not something you should have prevented, and the fact that you are here means the silence that institution was counting on has started to break.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a trial firm that takes Michigan clergy sexual abuse cases, working with local counsel where required. This page is not a sales pitch. It is the education we would give you if you sat across the table from us and asked every question you have been carrying. The law, the deadline, the evidence, the medicine of what this kind of trauma does to a person, what a case is worth, what the institution’s lawyers will try to do, and what to do right now to protect yourself. Take what you need from it. When you are ready, the call is free: 1-888-ATTY-911.
What the Attorney General’s Report Actually Found
The Michigan Attorney General released the sixth of seven expected reports from the state’s ongoing clergy abuse investigation, this one covering the Diocese of Saginaw. Here is what the government found, in numbers and words that matter for your legal rights:
38 clergy members — 37 priests and one deacon — were identified as having been accused of sexual misconduct involving children or adults since January 1, 1950. Of those 38, 30 were ordained or incardinated by the Diocese of Saginaw itself, meaning the diocese selected them, trained them, ordained them, and placed them in positions of spiritual authority over the people in its parishes and schools. The remaining 8 came from outside the diocese but served within it — which raises its own questions about how thoroughly the diocese vetted clergy transferred in from other jurisdictions.
The report was compiled from a search warrant executed against the Diocese of Saginaw in October 2018, from approximately 137,500 paper documents (55 boxes seized out of 220 statewide), from 482,953 electronic records reviewed by investigators, and from 180 tips to the Attorney General’s clergy abuse tipline — 115 of which were provided directly by the Diocese of Saginaw itself. That last number is important. More than half the tips came from the institution’s own files. The diocese knew. It kept records. It chose what to share and when.
No criminal cases resulted from the Saginaw investigation. The Attorney General noted that many allegations could not be criminally prosecuted because of expired statutes of limitations, the death of the accused clergy, or because the conduct did not violate Michigan law as written at the time. Some alleged victims chose not to pursue criminal charges. The absence of criminal prosecution does not mean nothing happened. It does not mean the institution has no civil liability. And it does not mean your civil legal rights have expired. Criminal and civil law are two different systems, with different clocks, different burdens of proof, and different remedies. We will explain exactly how, below.
The statewide investigation — launched in October 2018 when 42 Michigan State Police troopers and 15 special agents from the Attorney General’s Office executed coordinated search warrants at all seven Michigan Catholic dioceses — has resulted in criminal charges against 11 priests statewide and convictions in 9 cases involving 38 victims. The Saginaw report is the sixth. The Archdiocese of Detroit report is expected later this year. Previous reports covered Marquette (October 2022), Gaylord (January 2024), Kalamazoo (May 2024), Lansing (December 2024), and Grand Rapids (December 2025).
The Institutional Admission: Bishop Untener’s Letter
Buried inside the Attorney General’s report is a letter from Ken Untener, the Bishop of Saginaw from 1980 until his death in 2004. The letter — likely written in or about 2002 — was addressed to the parishioners of all parishes within the Diocese of Saginaw. These are the bishop’s own words, now published in a government report as public record:
“The Diocese of Saginaw has been in existence for 64 years [since 1938]. Over this time, we have experienced within our diocesan family just about every imaginable human failure. Priests are by no means immune from this, and I’m sure this does not come as news to you. I think that people are disappointed and angry not because such sins occur, but because of the way some of these cases have been handled.”
He continued: “Along with you, I have been greatly embarrassed and deeply saddened by what has taken place.”
Read those words carefully. The bishop did not say the abuse itself was the primary problem. He said people were angry “because of the way some of these cases have been handled.” That is an admission — from the institution’s own leader — that the diocese’s handling of clergy abuse allegations was itself the source of legitimate public anger. In civil litigation, that sentence is evidence. It goes directly to negligent supervision, to fraudulent concealment, and to the argument that the institution knew its response was inadequate and did not fix it. The bishop wrote this letter roughly two decades ago. The abuse it references spans back to 1950. That is more than seven decades of institutional knowledge.
Can You Still Sue If the AG Said No Criminal Charges Were Filed?
Yes — possibly. This is the single most important question survivors ask, and the answer is the one the institution is counting on you not knowing.
Criminal prosecution and civil litigation are separate legal systems. A prosecutor’s decision not to file criminal charges — or a statute of limitations that bars criminal prosecution — does not automatically bar a civil lawsuit. The two systems have different deadlines, different standards of proof, and different purposes. Criminal court punishes the perpetrator on behalf of the state. Civil court compensates the survivor from the institution that failed to protect them.
The Attorney General explicitly noted that many allegations “could not be criminally prosecuted because of statutes of limitations, the death of the accused or because the conduct did not violate Michigan law.” That is a statement about the criminal system’s limits. It is not a statement about your civil rights. Michigan’s civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims was extended by legislative reforms in 2018, giving survivors more time than the criminal system allowed. And Michigan’s fraudulent concealment doctrine may toll — pause — the civil clock entirely where an institution actively concealed knowledge of abuse from victims or civil authorities.
Whether your specific civil claim is still viable depends on individual factors: your age at the time of the abuse, when you discovered or should have discovered the connection between the abuse and your injuries, whether the diocese concealed information from you, and what Michigan’s current SOL framework provides. That analysis is the first and most critical step. We cannot tell you on this page whether your claim survives — but we can tell you that the AG’s statement about criminal prosecution does not close the civil door.
Michigan’s Statute of Limitations for Clergy Sexual Abuse Claims
This is the gate. Every potential claim must pass through it before anything else matters. Here is what we know and what must be individually analyzed.
Michigan’s general personal injury statute of limitations provides a deadline measured in years from the date the injury occurred or was discovered. For childhood sexual abuse claims, Michigan’s 2018 legislative reforms extended the civil statute of limitations, providing survivors additional time to pursue civil remedies beyond what the general personal injury deadline allowed. The specific contours of that extension — the exact number of years, the age cutoffs, and whether any retroactive revival window remains available for claims that would otherwise be time-barred — must be confirmed against the current Michigan statutes at the time your claim is evaluated, because legislative amendments can change these provisions.
What we can state as durable doctrine: the 2018 reforms happened, they extended the civil SOL for childhood sexual abuse survivors, and they may provide a path forward for claims that would have been time-barred under the old law. Whether your specific claim falls within the extended period is a question that requires an attorney to examine your exact dates and circumstances.
Fraudulent Concealment — the doctrine that can pause the clock. Michigan recognizes the fraudulent concealment doctrine, which provides that when a person or institution actively conceals knowledge of a wrong from the injured party, the statute of limitations may be tolled — paused — until the injured party discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, the concealed facts. In the clergy abuse context, this doctrine is critical. If the Diocese of Saginaw knew a priest had been accused of abuse and reassigned him to a new parish without disclosing the prior allegations to the new congregation or to the victims themselves, that concealment may toll the limitations period. Bishop Untener’s acknowledgment that cases were “handled” in a way that made people “disappointed and angry” is evidence that the institution’s handling — not just the abuse itself — was the problem. Where that handling included concealment, the SOL clock may not have started running when the abuse occurred. It may have started running much later — when you learned, or should have learned, what was hidden from you.
The discovery rule. Related to fraudulent concealment is the discovery rule, which provides that the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the plaintiff knows or reasonably should know both that they were injured and that the injury was caused by the defendant’s conduct. For survivors of clergy sexual abuse, the connection between childhood abuse and adult psychological injury is often not made until years or decades later — sometimes through therapy, sometimes through reading a report like the one the AG just released, sometimes through hearing that other survivors have come forward. That moment of discovery may be the moment the clock starts, not the moment the abuse ended.
Adult victims. If you were an adult at the time of the abuse — and the AG’s report covers misconduct involving both minors and adults — your SOL analysis differs from childhood abuse claims. The 2018 reforms were primarily aimed at childhood sexual abuse. Adult claims may be governed by the general personal injury SOL, subject to the discovery rule and fraudulent concealment doctrines. This is not a disqualifier — it is a different analysis that must be run individually.
Wrongful death. If a survivor has died — including by suicide, which is a documented elevated risk factor in clergy abuse survivor populations — Michigan’s wrongful death framework may allow certain family members to pursue a claim. The SOL for a wrongful death claim is measured from the date of death, not the date of the abuse, which can provide a separate and potentially viable window. If you are a family member of someone who died and who you believe was a survivor of clergy abuse, this is a path that requires prompt analysis.
The essential point: do not assume your claim is time-barred because the abuse happened long ago. Do not assume the AG’s statement about criminal SOL means your civil rights have expired. The only way to know is to have an attorney run the individual analysis against the current Michigan statutes. That is the first thing we do.
Who Can Be Held Accountable: The Legal Theories
Michigan courts have allowed secular tort claims to proceed against religious institutions notwithstanding First Amendment-based defenses. This means you are not suing a church for its religious practices — you are suing an institution for its failure to protect people under its care from known dangers, the same way you would sue any organization that placed a known danger in proximity to vulnerable people and concealed the risk.
Here are the legal theories that apply:
Negligent supervision. The Diocese of Saginaw owed a duty to supervise clergy placed in positions of trust and authority over parishioners. The AG report and Bishop Untener’s letter referencing mishandling of cases provide evidentiary support that the diocese failed to adequately monitor clergy despite knowledge of misconduct. To prove this, we show that the diocese knew or should have known a priest posed a danger, that it failed to supervise him adequately, and that the failure led to your abuse.
Negligent retention. Where the diocese knew or should have known of a clergy member’s propensity for sexual misconduct and retained him in positions providing access to victims — reassigning him to a new parish, keeping him in a school, moving him to a different assignment after allegations surfaced — liability attaches for failing to remove the threat. Reassignment patterns are a well-documented feature of clergy abuse institutional failure across dioceses nationwide. The seized records from the Diocese of Saginaw — personnel files, assignment histories, internal communications — are the documents that prove whether this pattern occurred here.
Fraudulent concealment / SOL tolling. If the diocese actively concealed knowledge of abuse from victims or civil authorities — by failing to report, by moving accused priests without disclosure, by keeping internal files that were never shared with law enforcement or the congregation — Michigan’s fraudulent concealment doctrine may toll the statute of limitations. This is not just a tolling theory; it is also a standalone tort claim in some formulations. The 115 tips the diocese provided to the AG from its own files are evidence that the institution maintained internal records of allegations. The question is what those records show about what was concealed, from whom, and for how long.
Breach of fiduciary duty. Clergy occupy positions of spiritual authority and trust over parishioners — a relationship the law recognizes as fiduciary. The diocese, as the institutional beneficiary of that relationship, owes corresponding fiduciary obligations to protect congregants from predatory clergy under its control. When a priest uses his spiritual authority to groom and exploit a parishioner, and the diocese failed to prevent it, the breach is not just negligence — it is a violation of the trust relationship that is the foundation of the institution’s authority.
Premises liability. Where abuse occurred on diocesan property — churches, schools, rectories, parish halls — the diocese as property owner owed invitees a duty to protect against known dangers, including clergy with documented histories of misconduct. This theory connects the physical space where the abuse happened to the institution that controlled it.
Intentional infliction of emotional distress. Institutional cover-up, reassignment of known abusers to new parishes without disclosure, and active concealment of misconduct from victims may meet the “extreme and outrageous conduct” standard required for IIED under Michigan law. This is a higher bar than negligence, but where the institutional conduct was truly outrageous — and decades of concealment often meets that bar — it is a theory worth pleading.
The Evidence: What Exists and How Fast It Disappears
Clergy abuse cases are unusual in the evidence landscape because the most powerful evidence — the institution’s own internal files — has already been seized by the government. But seized does not mean permanently accessible, and there are other categories of evidence that are perishable on their own clocks.
The AG’s seized diocesan records. The 55 boxes containing approximately 137,500 documents and 482,953 electronic records from the Diocese of Saginaw are in government custody. These records — personnel files, assignment and reassignment records, internal communications, complaint histories — are the institutional knowledge evidence that proves what the diocese knew, when it knew it, and what it did or did not do in response. Civil litigants can seek to obtain copies through discovery, Freedom of Information Act requests, or civil subpoenas. But access may become more restricted as the AG’s investigation concludes and records may be returned to the diocese. The window to obtain these records through the government’s custody may be wider now than it will be in six months or a year.
Bishop Untener’s letter. This is the gift that keeps giving. The letter is already published within the AG report as public record. It is permanently preserved. It is an institutional admission of mishandling, written by the bishop himself, and it directly supports negligent supervision, fraudulent concealment, and punitive damages theories. This document does not disappear. It is evidence that will outlive every other piece of paper in the case.
Your contemporaneous records. Counseling records, diary entries, complaints you made to church officials, medical and psychiatric history — these establish the temporal relationship between the abuse and your psychological injury. They document your reporting history and support both causation and fraudulent concealment tolling arguments. Records from decades ago may be partially destroyed per provider retention schedules. Surviving records may be scattered across multiple providers, schools, and institutions. They require prompt identification.
Witness statements. Fellow parishioners, school classmates, family members, or parish staff who may have observed concerning behavior, prior complaints, or suspicious reassignments — their testimony corroborates your account and establishes institutional knowledge at the parish level. Memories degrade over time. Elderly witnesses may become unavailable. Prompt memorialization through sworn statements or recorded interviews is critical given the decades-long time horizon of many of these claims.
AG tipline records. The 180 Saginaw-specific tips — 115 from the diocese itself — may identify additional victims, establish patterns of misconduct by individual clergy, and document the scope of institutional awareness. These are maintained by the AG’s office. Civil access may require litigation, coordination with the ongoing investigation, or FOIA requests. Access could narrow as the investigation winds down.
The preservation letter. The day you call us, the first thing that goes out is a litigation-hold letter to the Diocese of Saginaw and any other entity that may hold evidence — ordering them to preserve all personnel files, assignment records, internal communications, complaint histories, and insurance documents related to the accused clergy member and to your claim. This letter creates a legal duty to preserve. If documents disappear after that letter is on file, the institution faces spoliation sanctions — including an adverse-inference instruction that allows the jury to assume the lost records contained the worst possible evidence.
The Medicine of Clergy Abuse Trauma
We need to talk about what this kind of abuse does to a person, because the defense will try to minimize it — and because you may still be living inside it.
Clergy sexual abuse produces severe and clinically documented psychological injuries. These are not “feelings” or “adjustment issues.” They are medical conditions with diagnostic criteria, treatment protocols, and measurable lifetime costs.
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder. The standard DSM-5 PTSD diagnosis requires exposure to a traumatic event, intrusion symptoms (nightmares, flashbacks, unwanted memories), avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, negative alterations in cognition and mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity — persisting for more than one month and causing functional impairment. Clergy abuse survivors frequently meet every one of these criteria. But clergy abuse often produces something beyond standard PTSD — complex PTSD, which includes additional features: difficulty regulating emotions, chronic feelings of guilt or shame, profound disruptions in the ability to trust others, and a damaged sense of self. The spiritual authority dimension of clergy abuse makes it uniquely destructive to a person’s core identity, because the abuser was not just a trusted adult — he was a representative of God.
Rape and sexual assault are the single most PTSD-producing events in trauma medicine. In the largest epidemiological study ever conducted on PTSD, rape carried the highest conditional probability of producing the disorder of any traumatic event measured — higher than combat, higher than motor vehicle crashes, higher than natural disasters. When the rape or assault is committed by a clergy member, the betrayal dimension compounds the trauma beyond what a stranger assault produces, because the survivor’s entire spiritual and community framework is implicated.
Tonic immobility — the “frozen” response. One of the cruelest myths about sexual assault is that a “real” victim fights back. The science says the opposite. In clinical studies, the majority of rape survivors experienced tonic immobility — an involuntary, brainstem-mediated paralysis where the body locks up and the voice will not come. It is a survival reflex, not consent. Survivors who froze during clergy abuse are not unusual. They are the majority. And the ones who froze tend to suffer PTSD at far higher rates afterward.
Delayed disclosure is the norm, not the exception. If you did not report the abuse for years or decades, you are not unusual — you are typical. Delayed disclosure is the standard pattern for sexual assault, and especially for clergy abuse, where the abuser’s spiritual authority, the survivor’s shame, the community’s potential rejection, and the institution’s concealment all combine to suppress reporting. The DSM-5 expressly recognizes a “delayed expression” specifier for PTSD — full diagnostic criteria can first appear six months or more after the event. Delay is built into the medicine itself.
The spiritual betrayal dimension. Clergy abuse is unique among sexual assaults because the perpetrator occupied a position of spiritual authority — a priest, a representative of the divine, a person the survivor was taught to trust absolutely from childhood. When that trust is weaponized, the damage extends beyond the psychological into the spiritual. Survivors frequently lose their religious faith, their sense of belonging in a faith community, and their ability to participate in religious practice without triggering trauma responses. This is a distinct and significant damage category in clergy abuse cases — the destruction of religious faith and community belonging — and it is compensable.
Substance use, depression, and suicide risk. Clergy abuse survivors face elevated rates of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders. Suicide is a documented elevated risk factor in clergy abuse survivor populations. If you are struggling right now, call 855-VOICES4 — the support line the AG’s office identified — or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. You do not have to be in a legal process to get help. The medical care comes first.
The proof problem. PTSD is invisible. No X-ray shows it. No blood test confirms it. The defense in these cases will argue that the survivor’s psychological injuries are pre-existing, exaggerated, or unrelated to the abuse. The counter is clinical: validated diagnostic instruments (the CAPS-5 and PCL-5 are the standard structured measures for PTSD), treating-clinician testimony, and the documented timeline connecting the abuse to the onset and progression of symptoms. The earlier the medical record — the first therapy intake, the first ER psychiatric note, the first diagnosis — the stronger the causation proof. Records created before any litigation motive exists are the most powerful evidence in the case.
What Your Case May Be Worth
We will be honest with you about value, because honesty about value is the beginning of trust. Every case is different, and these figures are ranges, not promises.
For individual viable clergy abuse claims in Michigan — claims that survive statute of limitations scrutiny through extended limitations periods, fraudulent concealment tolling, or any available revival window — the case value range we work with runs from approximately $250,000 on the low end to $3,000,000 or more on the high end.
The primary value gate is statute of limitations viability. Claims that survive SOL scrutiny carry dramatically higher value than time-barred allegations. If your claim is viable, the value escalates with several factors:
Evidence of institutional knowledge and cover-up. Bishop Untener’s admission of mishandling is significant. Personnel files showing clergy reassignment after allegations, internal communications about known abusers, and documents evidencing active concealment from victims or civil authorities all push value higher. The 115 tips the diocese provided from its own files are evidence of the scope of institutional awareness.
Severity and duration of the abuse. A single incident of misconduct and years of ongoing grooming and exploitation produce different damage profiles. The perpetrator’s position of authority — pastor, school chaplain, youth minister — and the vulnerability of the survivor at the time of the abuse are value drivers.
Whether the victim was a minor or an adult. Abuse of a child by a clergy member in a position of spiritual authority carries particular weight with juries and in settlement evaluations.
Michigan’s damages posture. Michigan generally does not impose statutory caps on compensatory or punitive damages in intentional tort or sexual abuse cases. This distinguishes these matters from the non-economic damage caps that apply in medical malpractice actions. The practical effect: there is no legal ceiling on what a jury can award for pain and suffering, emotional distress, and punitive damages in a clergy abuse case. The value is determined by the evidence, the injury, and the jury — not by a statute that caps it.
Damages categories. A complete damages model in a clergy abuse case includes:
Economic damages — past and future therapy costs, psychiatric medication, potential inpatient treatment, lost wages, and diminished earning capacity. Vocational experts can document career trajectories derailed by abuse-related psychological injury. A life-care planner can project the lifetime cost of mental health treatment.
Non-economic damages — pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and the destruction of religious faith and community belonging. This last category — the spiritual betrayal dimension — is unique to clergy abuse and is a significant, distinct damage category.
Punitive damages — available where institutional conduct demonstrates reckless disregard or intentional concealment. Bishop Untener’s letter acknowledging mishandling provides potential evidentiary support for institutional knowledge and conscious indifference. Punitive damages are meant to punish the institution and deter similar conduct — and in Michigan, they are not capped in these cases.
The diocese’s cooperation and settlement posture. The Diocese of Saginaw reportedly cooperated with investigators and agreed to provide reports of abuse. That cooperation may signal a willingness to engage in settlement discussions. But cooperation with a government investigation is not the same as genuine accountability to individual survivors. We evaluate whether the cooperation reflects a real institutional commitment to making survivors whole or a strategic calculation to manage the diocese’s exposure. Either way, the diocese’s apparent willingness to engage does not eliminate SOL barriers or reduce the institutional liability exposure where claims are viable.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The figures above are evaluation ranges, not predictions. Your case — your specific facts, your specific injuries, your specific evidence — is what determines where your claim falls. That is why individual analysis is the first step.
The Institutional Defense Playbook
The Diocese of Saginaw, like every institutional defendant in clergy abuse litigation, has lawyers. Those lawyers have a playbook. We know it because Lupe Peña, our associate attorney, spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where institutional claims are valued, reserves are set, and denial and delay strategies are designed. He sat at the other table. Now he sits at yours. Here is what the other side will do, and what we do about it.
Play 1: “The statute of limitations has expired.” This is the first arrow in the defense quiver. The institution will argue your claim is time-barred under the general personal injury SOL. The counter: the 2018 reforms extended the SOL for childhood sexual abuse claims, the discovery rule may mean the clock started later than the abuse occurred, and fraudulent concealment may toll the clock entirely if the diocese hid what it knew. Bishop Untener’s admission of mishandling is evidence that supports tolling. The SOL defense is not a wall — it is a gate, and we know which keys open it.
Play 2: “We cooperated with the investigation — we’ve already been accountable.” The diocese provided 115 tips to the AG from its own files. Its lawyers will point to that cooperation as evidence of good faith. The counter: cooperation with a government investigation is not compensation to individual survivors. It does not repair the harm. It does not restore lost faith or lost years. And it does not waive the institution’s legal liability for the underlying misconduct and its concealment. Cooperation is a litigation posture, not a remedy.
Play 3: “The individual priest is responsible, not the institution.” The defense will try to separate the diocese from the individual clergy member — arguing the abuse was the priest’s personal act, not the institution’s. The counter: the diocese selected, ordained, trained, supervised, assigned, and retained the priest. It placed him in a position of spiritual authority over you. When it knew or should have known he was dangerous and failed to remove him, the institution’s failure is a separate and independent cause of your harm. The priest is liable. The diocese is also liable. They are not the same defendant, and they are not mutually exclusive.
Play 4: “First Amendment / religious autonomy.” The defense may argue that civil courts cannot second-guess a religious institution’s internal decisions about clergy. The counter: Michigan courts have allowed secular tort claims — negligent supervision, negligent retention, breach of fiduciary duty — to proceed against religious institutions. You are not asking the court to evaluate religious doctrine. You are asking it to evaluate whether the institution met its secular duty of care to protect people under its authority from known dangers. That is a question of ordinary tort law, not theology.
Play 5: The quick, low settlement offer. The institution’s insurer or claims department may offer a settlement early — before the full value of your claim is known, before the seized records are obtained, before the life-care plan is built. The counter: early offers are designed to close the file cheaply. The full value of a clergy abuse claim — lifetime therapy, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, spiritual betrayal, punitive damages — cannot be calculated in the first weeks. We do not accept offers that are designed to make the case go away before its true cost is known.
Play 6: Attack the survivor’s credibility. The defense may argue delayed disclosure means the claim is fabricated, that the survivor’s memory is unreliable after decades, or that the psychological injuries are pre-existing or exaggerated. The counter: delayed disclosure is the documented norm in clergy abuse, not evidence of fabrication. Tonic immobility explains why survivors did not fight back or report immediately. Validated diagnostic instruments prove the PTSD is real. The medicine answers every credibility attack the defense can mount.
How a Clergy Abuse Case Is Built
Here is the chronological walk — from the day you call to the day the case resolves. This is how it actually works, not how it looks on television.
Week one: the preservation letter. The day you call, a litigation-hold letter goes out to the Diocese of Saginaw and any other entity that may hold evidence. That letter orders them to preserve all personnel files, assignment records, internal communications, complaint histories, insurance documents, and any materials related to the accused clergy member and to your claim. It creates a legal duty. If documents disappear after that letter, the institution faces sanctions.
Weeks one through four: individual SOL analysis. Every potential claim is evaluated against Michigan’s current SOL framework — the general PI deadline, the 2018 reforms’ extended period for childhood sexual abuse, the discovery rule, fraudulent concealment tolling, and any available revival window. This is the gate. If your claim survives this analysis, we proceed. If it does not, we tell you honestly.
Weeks one through eight: records gathering. We pull your medical and psychiatric records, any counseling history, any complaints you made to church officials, your employment and education records (for earning-capacity analysis), and any contemporaneous documentation of the abuse or its aftermath. We identify and contact potential witnesses — fellow parishioners, school classmates, family members, parish staff — and memorialize their knowledge through sworn statements or recorded interviews before memories degrade further.
Months one through three: AG records access. We pursue access to the AG’s seized diocesan records through FOIA requests, civil subpoenas, or coordination with the ongoing investigation. The 137,500 documents and 482,953 electronic records from the Saginaw diocese are the institutional knowledge spine of the case — personnel files, assignment histories, internal communications about accused clergy. We work to obtain the specific records related to the clergy member who abused you.
Months two through six: expert development. We retain a psychologist or psychiatrist specializing in clergy sexual abuse trauma to evaluate you, administer validated diagnostic instruments (CAPS-5, PCL-5), and build the medical proof of your injury. We may retain an institutional culture expert who can testify to hierarchical decision-making patterns within Catholic diocesan structures — how clergy were assigned, reassigned, and monitored, and how the institutional structure itself facilitated concealment. A forensic document examiner may be needed to authenticate and date institutional records.
Months three through twelve: discovery and depositions. If the case proceeds to litigation, we serve discovery demands on the diocese — seeking the specific personnel files, assignment records, internal communications, and complaint histories that the preservation letter froze. We take depositions of diocesan officials, supervisors, and anyone with knowledge of the accused clergy member’s history and the institution’s response. Under oath, in a room with a court reporter, the institution’s knowledge and decisions are examined line by line.
The number is built. The case value is not a guess. It is built from all of this — the medical proof of your injury, the institutional documents showing what the diocese knew and when, the expert testimony on causation and future care, the life-care plan projecting lifetime therapy costs, the forensic economist reducing future losses to present value, and the evidence of institutional conduct that supports punitive damages. That number is what we present — in mediation, in settlement negotiations, or to a jury.
Many cases resolve through settlement. The diocese’s apparent willingness to cooperate with the AG investigation may signal a settlement posture. Mediation may be appropriate. But mediation only happens after the SOL analysis is complete, the documentary discovery is substantially done, and the full value range of your individual claim is established. We do not mediate before we know what the case is worth.
What to Do Now: Protecting Your Rights
If you are a survivor of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Saginaw — or a family member of someone who was — here are the concrete steps to take, in order.
1. Get medical and psychological support first. If you are struggling — with depression, anxiety, substance use, suicidal thoughts, or the weight of what you carried for decades — your health comes before any legal process. The AG’s office identified a full-time victim advocate and the 855-VOICES4 support line. Use them. If you are in crisis, call 988. You do not need to be in a lawsuit to get help.
2. Do not sign anything from the diocese or its representatives. If anyone from the Diocese of Saginaw, its insurance company, its lawyers, or any affiliated entity contacts you and asks you to sign a document — a release, a settlement, a statement — do not sign it without speaking to your own attorney first. A release signed today may extinguish rights you do not yet know you have.
3. Do not give a recorded statement to the diocese or its insurers. If someone asks you to tell your story on a recording “for the record” or “to help the investigation,” understand that anything you say can and will be used against you in any legal proceeding. Your story matters — but it should be told to your own attorney first, in a privileged setting, not to the institution’s representatives.
4. Write down what you remember. As soon as you can, write down everything you remember about the abuse — the clergy member’s name, the parish or school, the dates or approximate time period, the location where the abuse occurred, anyone who might have known or suspected, and any complaints you or anyone else made at the time. This does not have to be a polished document. It has to be a truthful one. Memory degrades over time. Write it now.
5. Gather any existing records. If you have counseling records, medical records, diary entries, letters, emails, or any other documentation that relates to the abuse or its aftermath, gather them in one place. Do not destroy anything. Do not alter anything. These are evidence.
6. Contact an attorney. The statute of limitations analysis is the first gate, and only an attorney can run it for you. The consultation is free. The call is confidential. You are not committing to a lawsuit by calling — you are finding out whether you have the right to one.
7. If you reported to the AG’s tipline, tell your attorney. If you called 844-324-3374 or emailed aginvestigations@michigan.gov, your report is in the AG’s files. That report may be accessible to your attorney through FOIA or other means, and it may corroborate your account. Your report to the government does not waive your civil rights.
8. If you are a family member of a survivor who has died, act promptly. If the survivor has died — including by suicide — Michigan’s wrongful death framework may provide a separate claims window measured from the date of death. These deadlines are real and they are shorter than you think. Contact an attorney immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the Diocese of Saginaw if the abuse happened decades ago?
Possibly — it depends on whether your claim survives Michigan’s statute of limitations analysis. Michigan’s 2018 legislative reforms extended the civil SOL for childhood sexual abuse claims beyond what the general personal injury deadline allowed. The discovery rule may mean the clock started when you connected the abuse to your injuries, not when the abuse occurred. And if the diocese concealed what it knew about your abuser, the fraudulent concealment doctrine may toll — pause — the clock entirely. The only way to know is to have an attorney run the individual analysis against the current Michigan statutes.
The AG said no criminal charges could be filed — does that mean I cannot sue civilly?
No. Criminal prosecution and civil litigation are separate legal systems with different deadlines, different burdens of proof, and different remedies. A prosecutor’s decision not to file criminal charges — or a criminal SOL that has expired — does not automatically bar a civil lawsuit. The civil system may give you more time than the criminal system did, and the civil burden of proof (preponderance of the evidence) is lower than the criminal burden (beyond a reasonable doubt).
How long do I have to file a clergy abuse lawsuit in Michigan?
Michigan’s general personal injury statute of limitations provides a deadline measured in years from the date of injury or discovery. For childhood sexual abuse claims, the 2018 reforms extended that deadline. The exact number of years, the age cutoffs, and whether any retroactive revival window remains available must be confirmed against the current Michigan statutes at the time your claim is evaluated. Do not assume the deadline has passed based on what you have heard — confirm it with an attorney who can check the current law.
What if I was an adult when the abuse happened — are my rights different?
Your SOL analysis runs through a different framework than childhood abuse claims. The 2018 reforms were primarily aimed at childhood sexual abuse. Adult claims may be governed by the general personal injury SOL, subject to the discovery rule and fraudulent concealment doctrines. The AG’s report covers misconduct involving both minors and adults, so your experience is part of what the investigation documented. You are not excluded from civil remedies because you were an adult — your analysis is different, not impossible.
Can I sue if the priest who abused me has died?
Yes, potentially. The death of the accused clergy member does not extinguish the institutional liability of the Diocese of Saginaw. The diocese selected, supervised, assigned, and retained that priest. Its failure to protect you from him is the institution’s liability, and it survives the priest’s death. The AG’s report notes that the death of accused clergy was one reason criminal prosecution was not pursued — but the civil claim against the institution is a separate matter.
What is fraudulent concealment and how does it help my case?
Fraudulent concealment is a legal doctrine that pauses the statute of limitations clock when a defendant has actively hidden knowledge of a wrong from the injured party. In the clergy abuse context, if the Diocese of Saginaw knew a priest had been accused and reassigned him without disclosing the allegations to the new congregation or to victims, that concealment may toll the SOL until you discovered or should have discovered what was hidden. Bishop Untener’s letter acknowledging that cases were “handled” in a way that angered parishioners is evidence that the institution’s handling — potentially including concealment — was itself the problem.
Will I have to testify in open court?
Most clergy abuse cases resolve through settlement without a trial. If your case does proceed to trial, you may need to testify — but many courts allow sensitive testimony to be given in ways that protect the survivor’s privacy, and your attorney will prepare you extensively for what to expect. You will not be alone in that room. You will never be pushed to relive trauma publicly before you are ready, and many viable claims resolve through settlement without any public testimony at all.
How much is a clergy abuse case worth?
Individual viable claims in Michigan generally range from approximately $250,000 to $3,000,000 or more, depending on SOL viability, evidence of institutional knowledge and cover-up, severity and duration of abuse, the survivor’s age at the time, and the documented psychological injuries. Michigan generally does not cap compensatory or punitive damages in sexual abuse cases, so the value is determined by the evidence and the jury, not by a statutory ceiling. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Your specific case value can only be determined after individual analysis.
What if I reported to the AG’s tipline — does that affect my legal rights?
Your report to the AG’s tipline (844-324-3374 or aginvestigations@michigan.gov) does not waive your civil legal rights. It may actually strengthen your case — your report is in the government’s files, it was made before any litigation, and it corroborates your account. Tell your attorney that you reported, when you reported, and what you said. Your attorney can seek access to your report through FOIA or other means.
Can my family sue if the survivor has died?
Potentially, yes. If a survivor has died — including by suicide, which is a documented elevated risk in clergy abuse populations — Michigan’s wrongful death framework may allow certain family members to pursue a claim. The SOL for wrongful death is measured from the date of death, not the date of the abuse, which can provide a separate and potentially viable window. If you are a family member, contact an attorney promptly — these deadlines are real and they move faster than you expect.
Is there a deadline to file after the AG report was released?
The release of the AG’s report does not itself start a statutory deadline — but it may affect the discovery rule analysis. If reading the report was the event that caused you to connect your injuries to the abuse or to the institution’s concealment, that may be the date the SOL clock began for you under the discovery rule. Either way, the answer is the same: do not wait. Contact an attorney now so the individual SOL analysis can be run against the current Michigan statutes.
Why Attorney911
Ralph Manginello has spent 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — a man who learned to find the truth in documents and ask the questions that make powerful institutions answer. He built this firm on the principle that the people who have been failed by the institutions they trusted deserve a fighter who treats their case as a personal mission, not a file number. He leads the active $10M+ hazing lawsuit against a university and a fraternity — a case about institutional failure to protect young people from those who held power over them. That same fight — holding institutions accountable for the people they were supposed to protect — is the fight he brings to clergy abuse cases.
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm before he joined this side of the table. He sat in the rooms where institutional claims are valued, where reserves are set, where denial and delay strategies are designed. He knows how the other side prices a claim, how they decide when to offer and when to stonewall, and how they use the statute of limitations as a weapon against people who have already waited too long. He uses that knowledge for survivors now. And he conducts full consultations in Spanish — without an interpreter — because every survivor deserves to tell their story in the language they think and pray in. Hablamos Español.
We work on contingency. That means we do not get paid unless we win your case. The consultation is free. The call is confidential. You speak to a live person, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — not an answering service. Our fee is 33.33% before trial and 40% if the case goes to trial. That is the entire economic arrangement. No hourly bills. No retainer. No out-of-pocket cost to you.
We are based in Houston, Texas, and we take Michigan clergy sexual abuse cases — working with local counsel where required, appearing pro hac vice where the court requires it, and bringing the full weight of our trial experience to bear on the institutions that failed you. We do not need a Michigan office to fight for Michigan survivors. We need the law, the evidence, and the will — and we have all three.
The practice areas we handle include catastrophic injury, wrongful death, child injury, and institutional accountability litigation. Clergy sexual abuse sits at the intersection of all of them — a child injured by an institution, a life derailed by a betrayal of trust, a family grieving someone the institution failed to protect. If you want to understand more about how we evaluate injury cases and what they are worth, Ralph explains case valuation in a video that walks through the real arithmetic. If you want to understand how contingency fees work — how you can hire a trial lawyer with zero out-of-pocket cost — here is the explanation.
If you are the parent of a child who was abused by clergy, our guide to child injury lawsuits walks through what the legal process looks like when the victim is a minor — though many survivors come to us as adults, carrying something that happened when they were children.
If someone you love did not survive — if the abuse contributed to a death, including by suicide — our wrongful death practice is the path that may allow your family to pursue a claim, measured from the date of death rather than the date of the abuse.
The Call
Pick up the phone. Call 1-888-ATTY-911. That is 1-888-288-9911. You will reach a live person, not a machine, and the conversation is free and confidential. You can also contact us online.
You do not have to know the legal details. You do not have to have your records organized. You do not have to have decided whether you want to file a lawsuit. You only have to be ready to talk to someone who will listen, who will tell you the truth about your rights, and who will fight for you if you decide to go forward.
The Diocese of Saginaw had 38 clergy members accused of sexual misconduct over seven decades. It had a bishop who admitted the cases were handled badly. It had 115 internal tips it eventually turned over to the government. It had files — personnel records, assignment histories, internal communications — that are sitting in government custody right now, and that may be harder to reach as the investigation closes.
The evidence has a clock. Your rights have a clock. But the silence is the one clock that breaks the moment you pick up the phone.
Call us. The consultation is free. There is no fee unless we win your case.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Contacting the firm is free and confidential. Hablamos Español.
1-888-ATTY-911. 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. A live person answers.