You’ve probably heard about the Boy Scouts getting sued; it’s been going on for a while. That’s no surprise, as it involves over 82,000 claims of child sexual abuse. But did anything ever come of the legal battle? Well, the dust hasn’t exactly settled yet. Let’s catch you up on how we got here and where we stand now.

It started over a decade ago. In 2011, a former scout filed one of the first and most notable actions against the BSA, alleging that he had been abused by a scoutmaster in the 1970s. Like with the #MeToo movement, there was a bit of a domino effect after the seal was broken. In the subsequent years, more allegations of sexual abuse within the BSA began to surface. As more victims came forward, the lawsuits began to mount.

In 2019, a coalition of law firms filed a lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of alleged victims of sexual abuse within the BSA. The lawsuit claimed that the BSA had failed to implement adequate safeguards to prevent abuse and that the organization had engaged in a cover-up to protect its reputation. For decades, they claimed, the BSA had been aware of instances of abuse but had often swept them under the rug or failed to take adequate action to prevent them from occurring in the first place. The result was a culture of silence and secrecy that allowed the alleged abuse to continue unchecked.

The lawsuit sought damages for the victims and called for the BSA to implement reforms to prevent future abuse. The BSA, not a particularly rich organization, increasingly struggled to cope with the financial burden of defending itself against the tidal wave of claims. The lawsuits numbered in the hundreds, and the BSA was facing potentially crippling liabilities as a result.

In February 2020, the BSA took the unprecedented step of filing for bankruptcy in response to the mounting number of lawsuits it was facing.

This was a desperate measure, but one that the BSA's leadership felt was necessary to ensure the organization's survival. The lawsuits posed a substantial financial burden on the organization, threatening its ability to continue its mission of providing educational programs and activities for young people.

The bankruptcy filing automatically stayed the lawsuits, preventing them from moving forward while the BSA reorganized its finances. By seeking Chapter 11 protection, the BSA was able to create a temporary reprieve from the constant barrage of legal claims.  On the other hand, the BSA's bankruptcy filing was seen by some as an admission that the organization had failed to adequately address the problem of sexual abuse within its ranks.