July 23, 2024

YDC cases update: Settlement Fund pause, scheduled trials, and more

To our clients—

As we shared with you last month, the Settlement Fund Administrator recently extended the pause on certain processing activities through August 31, 2024. We understand this is frustrating for many of you who are awaiting payment or processing of your Settlement Fund claims.

Details on the pause

This pause delays certain stages of the Settlement Fund timeline, including notices and position letters from the Attorney General’s Office, pending negotiations with the Attorney General Designee, and payments on settled claims. The Administrator told us this pause will allow their office time to update the fund guidelines in line with Senate Bill 591, the new law that broadens the fund to cover more categories of abuse, allows for larger settlement awards, and streamlines the settlement and payment process.

The delay in issuing checks for accepted awards has been extremely frustrating, particularly for those who accepted awards several months ago. We demanded an explanation from the Administrator’s Office, which told us check processing resumed July 1. The State should issue checks within a month, so we are continuing to monitor the situation and will take steps to enforce the award as necessary. We will contact you as soon as we know more.

Timeline

We are optimistic that claims processing and payment will pick up by the end of summer, in part because the Administrator’s Office has now scheduled several of the paused claims for resolution proceedings, and because the legislature has authorized an additional $75 million to be paid toward claims for this fiscal year.

The Administrator’s Office has also hired an assistant administrator to double its capability to process claims. Other aspects of the new legislation should also help speed up the process. For example, under the law, all claims may proceed directly to a resolution proceeding before the Administrator without waiting for an offer from the Attorney General Designee. These changes should ultimately result in a much quicker Settlement Fund process going forward.

Upfront payments vs. payments over time

Under the new law, the Administrator can choose to pay an award upfront or in installments over a period of 10 years. If a claim is paid out over time, the state must pay 5% interest annually on any deferred payments.

Lawmakers made this change because they are beginning to understand the magnitude of the state’s liability to all of you, and they are trying to balance this with the state’s ability to pay.

We know this is a problem for many of you. We are working to understand which clients are most impacted by the new payment structure. We do know the Administrator must consider your personal circumstances when deciding whether to award money in a lump sum or over time and, if over time, how much to award upfront. These circumstances include, in part, your health, loans and other debts, and personal needs. We will be working with each of you to address these points in your claim packets and presentations at resolution proceedings to maximize the amount you are awarded upfront.

Please know your Nixon/Rilee team is aware of the frustration that comes with these delays, and we are voicing your concerns regularly to the Administrator. We are doing everything in our power to move your cases forward and maximize the compensation you receive. On balance, the Settlement Fund, with these changes, remains a viable option for most clients. For those who receive payments over time, we will work with you to obtain a sizeable portion of your award upfront.

In the meantime, we will continue to advocate for you each day and pursue justice on your behalf.

Litigation

The Attorney General’s Office has filed an appeal with the New Hampshire Supreme Court, seeking to reverse Judge Shulman’s order that joined six plaintiffs’ cases together for the second trial against the state. We argued for joint trials because it would allow us to bring more of your cases to trial more quickly and to present evidence in a more efficient way. The Attorney General’s Office opposes joint trials, and would rather slow the process by trying one case at a time.

Unfortunately, while the appeal is pending, we cannot take multiple victims to trial at once, and we are trying to schedule as many individual trials as the judge will allow. As a result, we aren’t able to move forward with the second trial that had been scheduled for September. We recently submitted a scheduling proposal to the judge for the remaining cases. Under our proposal, the next trial would take place in early 2025, with regularly scheduled trials every couple of months after that. The Attorney General’s Office filed its own proposal that would delay the next trial until February 2026—nearly two years from now.