MANCHESTER —Shaheen & Gordon, P.A., has settled the first claim under New Hampshire’s YDC Settlement Fund on behalf of a client who was sexually and physically assaulted at YDC in the 1970s, according to a news release issued Wednesday.
Attorneys at the firm, who didn’t say how much the case settled for, said they are withdrawing from the consolidated litigation in state court and will be filing the majority of their claims through the legislative fund within the next 30 days, something the attorneys representing most of the YDC litigants say is bad for victims.
Attorney Anthony Carr, Co-Chair of Shaheen & Gordon’s YDC Victim Compensation Group, said they look forward to helping obtain many more recoveries for these victims.
“We’ve worked closely with the state to ensure the fund meets our clients’ needs. A year ago that was not the case, but substantive changes were made through open communication with the Attorney General’s Office. They listened to us and the victims and showed that they’re really trying to do the right thing with this process,” Carr said.
David Vicinanzo, former first Assistant US Attorney, and Rus Rilee, lead counsel for 98 percent of child abuse victims at the Sununu Center and other child placements released the following statement:
“We represent approximately 1,000 victims of state-sponsored brutality and rape while in state custody, in the biggest child abuse scandal in state history. Less than 1 percent of our claimants are interested in the state-imposed process because it ignored the input of the victims and is an attempt to low-ball or no-ball them.
“Incredibly, in order to get in front of the administrator, they are required to waive their judicial rights, their only leverage. That means the victims who were terribly abused by the state as kids are now being mistreated and disrespected by the same state again. As one of our clients said: ‘I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night. I’m not fooled by the state’s self-serving attempt to rip us off.’
“This settlement, which amounts to .001 of the claims, is a cents on the dollar sell-out that doesn’t do justice to the brave survivors who deserve full compensation for the horror inflicted on them by the state which was supposed to help them. Our clients start trials early next year and will go in successive groups over the following months,” Vicinanzo and Rilee said in an email.
The YDC Settlement Fund and Claims Process compensates former residents of multiple state facilities who were victims of sexual and physical abuse perpetrated by staff in prior decades.
According to Shaheen & Gordon’s Attorney Carr, the most important factors for choosing to file through the fund are the timeframes, compensation, and a trauma-informed approach.
“It will take at least five years before the majority of victims will get a trial date in the state court litigation,” said Michael Noonan, Managing Partner and Co-Chair of the YDC Victim Compensation Group. “And even longer before they see justice in the form of compensation. In the meantime, they’ll have to be deposed and have their entire life put under a microscope in litigation.”
Conversely, Noonan said, under the guidelines for the fund, victims who file soon should get full and complete resolution by the end of this year. The fund caps damages at $1.5 million, while under state law the current cap for damages per RSA 541-B:14 is only $475,000 per claimant. Finally, in avoiding litigation, victims going through the fund do not have to get deposed or have their traumatic experiences subject to public scrutiny. At most, they may have to participate in an informational interview that will not be adversarial, the release said.
Attorney General John Formella said: “We are pleased to have an agreement in principle with Attorney Carr to resolve the first of his clients’ claims and will be moving this claim through the administrative process shortly.”
Formella said he and the administrator will provide public information about claims and resolutions in aggregate on a quarterly basis as required by the statute establishing the YDC claims process. “The first of these reports, which will include this settlement and hopefully a good number of others, will be released by mid-April of this year. On behalf of the state of New Hampshire, we acknowledge the abuse suffered by this claimant, and hope this settlement will bring them a measure of justice and some sense of closure. We thank Attorney Carr for his work on reaching this resolution,” Formella said.
Vicinanzo and Rilee said the state settlement as currently designed is a failure. “With a few strokes of a pen, it could be made fair, just and worthy of the state of New Hampshire. It is our hope that wise state officials will see the wisdom of fixing the process so it actually works for the survivors and enforces some accountability on the state for its depraved conduct. Healing and closure will not happen until then.”