Maryland Lawmakers Pass Bill To Limit Future Liabilities Amid Thousands Of Claims Of Sexual Abuse

Maryland lawmakers passed a measure Saturday to try to limit future liabilities from claims of sexual abuse at state and private institutions after thousands of people unexpectedly came forward with allegations of abuse, many of them in youth detention centers, putting potentially billions of dollars at stake for the state.

The wave of cases targeting the state's juvenile justice system resulted after Maryland eliminated the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims two years ago with the Catholic Church abuse scandal in mind.

The measure, which now goes to Gov. Wes Moore, reduces caps on settlements from 890,000 to 400,000 for cases filed after May 31 for state institutions and from 1.5 million to 700,000 for private institutions. It also changes the 2023 law to only allow each claimant to receive one payment, instead of being able to collect for each incident of abuse.

In California on Friday, Los Angeles County officials announced they had reached a 4 billion agreement to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959.

Other private and public entities have been rocked by allegations of wide-ranging abuse and subsequent settlements.