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In May 2017, ahead of a meeting of the Boy Scouts of America’s top leaders, a Girl Scouts of the USA employee emailed a counterpart at the Boy Scouts to ask about speculation it was considering admitting girls into the historically boys-only programs, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. For worried Girl Scouts executives, the reply was heartening. The Boy Scouts were discussing how to make their programs more accessible to families, but the organization still valued single-gender programs and wanted to “avoid any confusion that there may be consideration of coed scouting,” a Boy Scouts executive said in reply to the inquiry. The chief executives of both youth groups also spoke by phone, and the Girl Scouts came away reassured, according to internal emails released through litigation last month. Even before these exchanges, the Boy Scouts were running focus groups on how to appeal to girls, reviewing market analytics and forming a team to consider possible retaliation from the Girl Scouts in the event the organizations turned against each other, according to internal emails filed in federal court. At the time, Boy Scouts executives were debating the merits of raiding the Girl Scouts’ youngest members for recruits, court filings show. The push within the Boy Scouts to recruit girls came as it faced an increasing threat of legal exposure over past failures to protect boys from sexual predators in the volunteer ranks. Lawsuits from abuse survivors were piling up, and states including New York, California and New Jersey were moving closer to suspending statutes of limitations on abuse claims, allowing victims to sue institutions like the Boy Scouts regardless of when the alleged misconduct occurred. The Boy Scouts have said the organization believes victims and is “deeply sorry for the abuse suffered because perpetrators used our program to harm innocent children.”

While most of the courtroom wrangling is over and PG&E has stepped out of chapter 11, numerous people affected by wildfires the company caused are trying to get paid, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report. The bankruptcy process earmarked an estimated $13.5 billion that will compensate those victims through an independent trust, but the system is far from simple — or fast. PG&E is funding the trust partly through cash and partly through shares the entity can cash out over time. That has led to some inherent uncertainty, as seen when the fund’s trustee told victims in a letter last week that the trust was “more than $1 billion short” of its intended value because of how the stock had fared. But victims could still get everything they’re owed. The trustee, retired appeals court Justice John Trotter, also noted that the trust had “developed a careful ‘sell-down plan’” — in other words, it could wait until the price rises before selling shares. Many fire victims are elderly and an unknown number of them are in ailing health. The longer the process drags on, the greater the odds are that more people may pass away before they can resolve their claim.

USA Gymnastics in the two years since it filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Southern District of Indiana has rang up at least $13.6 million in legal fees, the Orange County (Calif.) Register reported. USA Gymnastics has used the services of at least eight law firms, paying three of them at least $1.6 million, in the 25 months since the sport’s Indianapolis-based national governing body declared bankruptcy. The organization’s legal bills have continued to mount against the backdrop of stalled negotiations between USA Gymnastics and attorneys for the more than 500 survivors of former Olympic and national team physician Larry Nassar and other high profile coaches’ alleged sexual abuse, a roundly rejected and controversial proposed settlement agreement, relentless criticism from former Olympians, national team members, and the public, increased Congressional scrutiny and largely unsuccessful attempts by USA Gymnastics to distance itself from the Nassar controversy which continues to loom over the sport and Olympic movement.

Talks aimed at getting Purdue Pharma’s owners to increase their contribution to the opioid maker’s bankruptcy settlement have stalled, with members of the billionaire Sackler family resisting demands from states to boost their offer by more than $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The Sacklers are willing to add more than $1 billion to their cash contribution, bringing their total to more than $4 billion. But attorneys general for states involved in the court-ordered mediation are seeking more than $5 billion to beef up addiction treatment and police budgets. Another sticking point is the Sacklers’ demand that they face no state criminal charges over Purdue’s illegal marketing of the painkillers. Members of the Sackler family have consistently denied any personal wrongdoing. Negotiators are still trying to resolve objections to Purdue’s reorganization plan, which would help state and local governments pay for damage caused by OxyContin and other opioid-based drugs blamed for more than 400,000 deaths. All told, the plan may provide as much as $10 billion, but the value could plummet if there’s no agreement with the Sacklers. This would mean far less cash for government and possibly leave some family members open to personal liability.

The Boy Scouts of America’s liability insurers threw doubt on the huge increase in sex-abuse claims filed against the youth organization after it filed for bankruptcy, claiming that plaintiffs’ attorneys and for-profit claims generators helped gin up tens of thousands of claims with little or no vetting, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In Friday court filings, insurers affiliated with Chubb Ltd. and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. point to messaging such as an email sent in November by the law firm Junell & Associates PLLC, telling clients that “time is quickly running out” to meet a court-designated deadline and that lawyers “can complete a claim form on your behalf,” based on information from an initial phone consultation. Some attorneys, including a managing partner from Junell, signed hundreds of claims in a single day, the insurers said, and others appear to have signed forms attesting to their truthfulness before they were even filled out. The Boy Scouts sought chapter 11 last year over their past failures to safeguard children from sexual predators, starting a court-supervised process in which the organization is trying to compensate survivors while protecting the bulk of its wealth. Negotiations are continuing between victims’ lawyers and the Boy Scouts, which has said it needs a settlement approved by early summer to survive.

Edison International’s Southern California Edison utility will pay $2.2 billion to settle insurance claims for the Woolsey fire that tore through Malibu in 2018, Bloomberg News reported. The company also reached settlements with plaintiffs involving the 2017 Thomas and Koenigstein fires and the 2018 Montecito mudslides, it said in a statement. Edison, which did not admit wrongdoing or liability, last year reached a $360 million settlement with local government agencies that were harmed by the same fires. Utility equipment has been tied to several devastating California wildfires in recent years, saddling the state’s power companies with billions of dollars in potential liabilities and forcing its largest, PG&E Corp., into bankruptcy in 2019.

Women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct will be compensated from a $17 million fund after a Delaware bankruptcy judge approved a plan to liquidate his former film studio, the Wall Street Journal reported. The women are expected on average to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars or more under the deal to liquidate Weinstein Co., which filed for bankruptcy in 2018 after numerous allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against Weinstein became public. Judge Mary Walrath of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., yesterday approved the settlement during a court hearing held via videoconference, saying that the deal provides Weinstein’s victims with a fair and private process for obtaining compensation without having to endure years of public and uncertain legal proceedings. Evidence presented during the chapter 11 case showed Weinstein abused women over several years, Judge Walrath said, adding that though the deal may provide closure for victims, compensation alone can’t provide complete recompense for harm they have suffered. The settlement, funded by insurance, is the culmination of years of negotiations and was revised last year after a New York federal judge rejected a related agreement. The deal approved by Judge Walrath gives women the option — but doesn’t require them — to release Weinstein of potential civil litigation, and they would receive greater compensation if they choose to do so.

Imerys Talc America Inc. is poised for a final push for bankruptcy-court approval to poll creditors on a chapter 11 restructuring proposal covering allegations that materials mined by the company caused cancer and serious lung problems, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Imerys SA unit has an appearance scheduled Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein, where the subsidiary hopes to get signoff on the materials to be sent out ahead of a creditor vote. The start of the voting process sets the stage for another round of clashes later this year with Johnson & Johnson, the health-care giant that was once Imerys Talc America’s biggest customer. Absent a settlement, Johnson & Johnson is expected to challenge Imerys Talc America’s chapter 11 plan, saying it amounts to an improper use of bankruptcy to shield its parent company, the French conglomerate Imerys. Imerys Talc America and Johnson & Johnson were both named in thousands of lawsuits alleging baby powder caused ovarian cancer. Both companies insist the product is safe, but a $4.7 billion jury verdict was rendered against Johnson & Johnson in 2018, touching off a feeding frenzy among attorneys that meant more lawsuits were on the way. The jury award was later cut in half.

The National Rifle Association on Thursday lost a preliminary round in a legal battle with New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who wants the gun-rights nonprofit dissolved because of alleged financial misdeeds, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Joel Cohen of the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan refused to dismiss New York’s lawsuit against the NRA or ship the dispute to state or federal court in Albany, N.Y., where the NRA has challenged several official actions against it by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state authorities. NRA lawyer William A. Brewer III said in a statement that the organization remains confident New York’s case lacks merit and is unconstitutional. Ms. James, in a statement, said the judge’s decision “reaffirms what we’ve known all along: The NRA does not get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions.” The ruling means a possible trial could commence by early next year in a major lawsuit the NRA has said threatens its existence and grew out of a politically hostile environment in New York.