Boston Archdiocese offers settlement in pending sex abuse cases News
Boston Archdiocese offers settlement in pending sex abuse cases

[JURIST] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston [official website] has made an offer to settle nearly 200 pending clergy sex abuse [JURIST news archive] lawsuits, lawyers representing plaintiffs in the litigation said Friday. The settlement offer would require that all pending lawsuits be divided into three tiers. Tier one and two plaintiffs would be paid from the settlement fund by an arbitrator, with an expected average payment to each plaintiff of $75,000. Claims falling into tier three would be excluded from the fund, requiring plaintiffs to go to trial. While there is no clear indication if the offer will be accepted, an attorney representing 55 plaintiffs called the offer "cold and callous". Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.