County needs billions for abuse cases

It’s been a year since L.A. County’s top budget official warned her bosses about a day when they would have to scrounge around for an extra few billion dollars.

That money wasn’t meant for state-of-the-art hospitals or affordable housing. It would go to thousands of people who, thanks to a change in state law, could for the first time sue for sexual abuse they say they experienced as minors while in the county’s custody.

The deluge of claims, Chief Executive Fesia Davenport said, amounted to the “most serious fiscal challenge in recent history.” She warned that the county could have to pay between $1.6 billion and $3 billion.

“These cases could have a profound impact on the county budget for decades to come,” she told supervisors as part of her yearly budget briefing.

But the day for belt-tightening isn’t here yet. The county said in a statement that “anticipation of these potentially devastating costs continues to inform our conservative approach to budgeting.” However, “there are no immediate budget impacts.”

Davenport is due to make her annual budget presentation to the county supervisors April 23.

Since the 2019 passage of the Child Victims Act, a state law that gave victims of sexual abuse a new window to sue, the county has been flooded with claims involving its foster homes, children’s shelters and probation camps and halls, some dating to the 1950s.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have argued that officials need to start thinking about how the county, which is responsible for the social safety net for 10 million residents, is going to find the money to resolve these cases.

“Now would be that time. This is not going away,” said Doug Rochen, who has brought new staff to his law firm to deal with the roughly 1,200 people it is representing in cases against the county. “They should set aside a pool of money — call it the sexual abuse survivors fund — specifically for being able to resolve these cases.”

Last week, a judge set the first trial date for a handful of cases filed against the county under the new law: May 15, 2025.

Acknowledging that the county will someday have to spend serious money to resolve these cases is, as one official put it, “like saying the sky is blue.” Some have expressed fear over potential slashed budgets and skeleton programs down the road.

But officials say it’s likely too early, and there are too many unknowns, for the county to start budgeting for payments in the cases. Davenport previously said officials would consider cutting department budgets or dipping into the county’s rainyday fund.

One of the biggest questions is how many cases there will be. Last year, county officials said they expected there to be about 3,000 plaintiffs.

They underestimated. There are nearly 5,000 so far, according to a county source. About 2,300 allege sexual abuse in juvenile camps and halls. Nearly all the rest involve MacLaren Children’s Center, a sinceclosed shelter for foster kids in El Monte.

The numbers continue to grow. In just the first week of April, the county was slapped with at least three new suits by people who say they were abused as teens.

“The reality has got to set in, and they will have to figure out how to pay for it,” said Adam Slater, whose firm Slater Slater Schulman has filed 1,500 child sex abuse cases against the county.