Over 92,000 sexual abuse claims were filed with the bankruptcy court before November 16, 2020. There were nearly 2,000 reported cases of abuse within the Boy Scouts of America prior to 1994, and at least one abuse incident as recent as 2006.The high risk of volunteer youth organizations has been recognized, and, in 1988, the BSA created a sex abuse education and prevention program called the Youth Protection program to help address the problem.
In 2010, a jury ordered that the Scouts pay $18.5 million to a Scout who was abused in the 1980s—it was the largest punitive damages award to a single plaintiff in a child abuse case in the US.
A Boy Scouts of America proof of claim form that needed to be signed before November 16, 2020. The proof is a written statement setting forth a survivors claim.
On February 18, 2020 the Boy Scouts of America filed for a Chapter 11 financial restructuring to offer “equitable compensation” to survivors and their families. The BSA cited approximately 200 lawsuits pending in state and federal district courts across the United States and 1700 potential claimants in total. In May of that same year, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware set November 16, 2020 at 5pm EST as the bar date for all survivors of sexual abuse. 82,000 sexual abuse claims were filed with the bankruptcy court before the November 16 deadline to receive claims. Normally in bankruptcy, the organization would at this point face liquidation, but the Boy Scouts of America National Council, along with the local councils, council camps and chartered organizations over the years carried various policies of general liability insurance with no annual aggregate amount: leading to believe that each survivor will have their individual claims liquidated through insurance settlements in full.
