Hundreds of individual child sex abuse victims with claims totalling tens of millions of dollars may be free to sue the Catholic Church thanks to the abolition of statute of limitations provisions in the ACT, NSW and Victoria a Canberra lawyer has said.
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Jason Parkinson of Porters lawyers said even though most of the 1700 victims who had been paid about $43 million [2013 figures] under the Catholic Church's "Towards Healing" program had signed deeds of release waiving their right to sue in the future these were now open to challenge.
The Canberra-based lawyer, who has represented dozens of victims over the past two decades, said in some cases individuals with claims potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars had been "brushed off" with as little as $4000.
He said the church had overreached by offering such paltry sums and deeds of release signed as a part of such settlements would likely be dismissed by "a reasonable judge".
Francis Sullivan, the chief executive of the Catholic Truth, Justice and Healing Council, conceded some of the payments made under Towards Healing in the 1990s had been "meagre and low" but believes the best hope for justice for many victims and survivors would be through the yet to be established independent national redress scheme.
Mr Parkinson said the belated move to abolish the time limit on claims for compensation by victims of child sexual abuse in the ACT had been a game changer.
"The church pleaded it [the statute of limitations] in every [compensation] case as their default position," he said.
Victoria and NSW have already abolished the time limits. The ACT passed similar laws this week.
Mr Parkinson said victims who received compensation under Towards Healing had effectively been coerced into accepting low payouts and then signing documents saying they could not sue.
"The church tells them they can't sue as they are out of time. It steers them into Towards Healing as the only possible source of compensation. They then get offered meagre amounts and have to sign a deed of release to get that," he said.
Mr Sullivan said anybody who signed a deed of release would have been advised to seek independent legal advice.
"For a lot of individuals they still do not have the evidence to be able to prevail in court," he said. "People need to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt. Under redress schemes the hurdle to establish entitlement is much lower."
Mr Sullivan said governments were dragging the chain on establishing a national redress scheme because they were liable for abuse that occurred in state run institutions.
"You could only assume the tardiness of governments with this [abolishing the statute of limitations], and particularly the idea of a national redress system is because governments don't want to pay themselves," he said.
"The days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over. There needs to be an independent umpire; victims and survivors need to have the confidence that the system will work in their interests."
