November 4, 2024

Moving forward with Settlement Fund Claims

Settlement Fund CMS System

The new Case Management System (CMS) is now up and running. This is a big step forward, as we can now file new claims in the Settlement Fund. Right now, we are in the process of transferring data from the old Settlement Fund forms to the new forms so that we can file these claims through CMS. We may need a couple of items from you as we work through these forms, such as your signature on the new forms or other information necessary to file your claim. If you hear from us, please respond as quickly as possible to avoid delays.

Here are a few additional details on the status of claims that are already filed:

• If your claim was filed before the CMS opened, we do not need to re-file it. However, if your claim was filed after June 14, we are working to prepare an addendum to your claim that includes any abuse that may be covered under the new Fund guidelines. We will reach out to you to review and finalize this addendum. Along with the addendum, we will also need your signature on one of the new forms. Again, please respond as quickly as possible to avoid any delays in filing the addendum and completing your claim.
• Under the new Fund guidelines, it is now optional for the Attorney General’s Office to provide an offer on filed claims. This means that you may not receive an initial position letter after your claim is filed. If the AG Designee does issue an offer on your claim, we will reach out directly to let you know. However, if the AG Designee declines to issue an initial position letter on your claim, your claim will proceed directly to a resolution proceeding before Administrator Broderick or Administrator Nicolosi. More than likely, you will not receive a position letter. Please understand this is normal and will not hold up your claim in any way.

Resolution Proceedings

We know many of you are still waiting for the Administrator’s office to schedule your resolution proceeding. These delays are understandably frustrating. Please know we are doing everything in our power to get answers from the state. To the best of our knowledge, the Administrator is scheduling resolution proceedings in the order they were received, but they are taking longer to schedule incarcerated clients because of the logistics involved. Please know that you will not be alone during these proceedings, we will have one of our victim specialists with you throughout the process.

Right now, the Administrator’s office is still taking several months to schedule resolution proceedings even for non-incarcerated clients. We are hopeful that the addition of Administrator Nicolosi will help improve this timeline, and we’ll see more resolution proceedings scheduled soon. We will of course let you know as soon as possible once a resolution proceeding has been scheduled in your case.

Litigation

The Courts have divided the litigation track cases into three groups.

Rockingham Cases. If you were only in state-operated facilities (ADC, YDC, YDSU, Tobey School, Anna Philbrook Center), your case is being presided over by Judge Andrew Schulman in Rockingham County Superior Court. Those cases are now moving forward into the discovery phase, which is the part of litigation where the parties exchange documents and information about their claims and defenses. This means we will be reaching out to you for more information that will help us prove your case over the next six months. The judge overseeing the state-operated facility cases has determined the court can accommodate several trials a year. The schedule of cases will depend in part on the order in which the cases were filed in the court. We are still waiting for a definitive ruling from the Supreme Court as to whether multiple plaintiffs can try their cases together. If the Supreme Court approves that, we will be able to try cases on a much faster timeline.

If you were placed in both state-operated and privately operated facilities (group homes), your case is being presided over by Judge Mark Howard, also in Rockingham County Superior Court. Those cases remain temporarily paused by the court while the judge determines how to resolve the many motions to dismiss filed by the privately operated facilities. Our team is joining a status conference on November 15 at 9:00 am to discuss how those cases will move forward. We will update you with more information following the status conference.

Merrimack County. If you were placed in privately operated facilities (group homes) only, your case is being presided over by Judge John Kissinger in Merrimack County Superior Court. Those cases are also moving forward into early discovery. If you have not already completed your questionnaire and signed record releases, please contact our victim specialists ASAP to arrange a time to complete your paperwork.

Communication from our team

We are always looking for faster ways to communicate with you about your case. In the past, our Client Updates have been slow to reach clients who are incarcerated because these letters are subject to strict mailing rules put in place by each individual correctional facility. To speed up this process, we are excited to introduce a new, recorded client update that will allow incarcerated clients to hear client updates by phone. Here’s how it works:

• Call into the main Nixon Peabody phone number (603-628-4060) and ask to be connected to the YDC client update line.
• Listen to the most recent client update that has been recorded for your convenience.

You may call this line as often as you would like to hear any new client updates.

For now, we will continue sending hard copies of the Client Updates to our clients incarcerated at correctional facilities through mail. Our hope is to eventually replace updates mailed to clients who are incarcerated with the recorded phone message. This process will avoid mailing delays and allow us to deliver updates to incarcerated clients much more quickly.

Please always remember to update your contact information as it changes.

Answering your questions

We’ve updated our FAQs with answers to your top questions about the new Settlement Fund process. Read the new FAQs here: Client update - 2024-10-15

Case Status

We’ve received great feedback on the Case Status App. If you haven’t seen an invite to download the app, please call 603-628-4060 and we will provide the link. This app is the best way to communicate with your legal team. We have staff covering the message box and you will receive a response in 24 to 48 hours.

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