Clergy Sexual Abuse & Institutional Liability in Albany, New York: Michael Harmon Survived Five Years of Abuse by a Diocesan Vice Chancellor Who Lived Across the Hall from the Bishop in the Chancery, and the Diocese Settled for $8 Million Days Before Trial After Prior Abuse Reports Had Already Been Made, Attorney911 Brings 27+ Years of Federal-Court Trial Practice to Cases Against the Dioceses and Archdioceses That Knew of Abuse and Still Gave Priests Overnight Access to Children, We Secure Personnel Files, Prior Complaint Records and Internal Communications Before They Disappear Into Bankruptcy Sealing, Lupe Peña the Former Insurance-Defense Insider Who Knows How the Claims Machine Values and Denies These Cases, New York’s Child Victims Act and Diocese Bankruptcy Claims, the Firm Has Recovered $50M+ for Injury Victims — Free 24/7 Consultation, No Fee Unless We Win, Hablamos Español, 1-888-ATTY-911
Albany $8 Million Clergy Sexual Abuse Settlement: What the Child Victims Act Case Means for Survivors in New York If you are reading this because you were abused by a priest, a clergy member, or anyone in a position of institutional authority — or because someone you love was — you are not alone, and you are not out of time. The $8 million settlement that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany paid to a survivor of childhood sexual abuse is not the end of a story. It is the first crack in a dam holding back more than 400 similar claims, all stalled in federal bankruptcy court, all waiting for someone to decide what they are worth and when the people who suffered will see anything at all. We are Attorney911. We are trial lawyers. Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court, and before he was a lawyer he was a journalist — which means he learned early that institutions protect themselves first and answer questions second. Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm, in the rooms where claims like yours are priced, delayed, and devalued, before he chose to sit on the…